Rations (prior to 1813)

It’s hardly surprising that Count Cosimo was so taken with the yeomen and their rations. Here is an extract from Some Account of the Royal Body Guard Entitled The Ancient Corps of the Yeomen of the Guard Instituted 1485 by Thomas Smith (1852):

Thirty men mounted guard or signed the muster roll at St James’s every day. Daily allowance for the table for those thirty men, a messenger and servant:

Beef     24 lbs

Mutton 18 lbs

Veal     16 lbs

Butter    2 lbs

Bread  36 loaves

Beer    27 gallons in Winter and 28 gallons on Summer

Vegetables in sufficient proportions and the best in season. The dinner was cooked in the Royal Kitchen and served in two dinners, one for each guard. There were extra allowances on Michaelmas Day, birthdays of the King and Queen and their family and whenever the guns fired on other occasions, called Pitcher Days. For instance, on the King and Queen’s birthday the allowance was increased to:

Beef    216 lbs

Butter      6 lbs

Bread  144 loaves

Beer    104 gallons

Wine     20 dozen full-quart bottles

Notes in the Duty Journal acquaints us with the lamentable fact that on 4th June 1802, “…no claret was allowed us there being no ball at night’ and on 18th January 1811, “…the Queen’s Birthday was not kept on account of the King’s Illness…” the writer adding somewhat pettishly “….No wine allowed to any one whatsoever”.

The table was abolished in 1813 by Order of The Lords of the Treasury and board-wages allowed as an equivalent when on duty.

Waterboarding (Water-boarde)
The Americans were well behind the curve when it comes to water boarding because the Royal Palaces were practising it hundreds of years beforehand, albeit, in a somewhat different way! 

From: Some Account of the Royal Body Guard Entitled The Ancient Corps of the Yeomen of the Guard Instituted 1485 by Thomas Smith (1852)

Among punishments for slight offences in ancient Royal establishments, the following in the House of Ordinance of Edward IV. A table was placed in the hall supplied only with bread and water and called the water-boarde. It was ordered ‘that if any man come too late to mattyns upon the Holyday, that is to say, after the third lesson, he shalle sytt at the Water-boarde and have nothinge unto his Dynner but bread and water; and if he absente himself wilfullye, he shall thus be punished whenever he comes to Dynner or Supper’. However, there’s no documentary evidence to suggest that any such punishment was inflicted on a Yeoman of the Guard, on the contrary, the following order was issued as late as January 1812, ‘The Yeomen do not presume to begin dinner ‘till the presiding Usher shall be in his seat, and if he is not there within five minutes after the appointed hour, he shall be forfeit five shillings to the waits at table, and any Yeoman not being in his proper seat at the table in ten minutes after the appointed time, if he is not engaged on duty’.