NDC
Somehow, we are hurtling towards Christmas, with the shooting season almost halfway through and festive frolics to plan. Like many sporting sorts, much of our seasonal fare has its roots in the mists of historic tradition, dating back to the time when country folk could only eat meat if they raised or caught it themselves. With the exception of our regular slabs of ultra-aged beef from a local farmer, we subsist mostly on game during the winter months.
The cultural significance of this. First published in 1780 and set to its present tune in 1909, it is probably a much older song and there are several theories surrounding its origins. One of these theories is that it began life as an underground Catholic ditty to teach children coded scriptural references, with the partridge in a pear tree representing Christ on the cross. However, I prefer to think of it in the way that some claim it to be – a Christmas shopping list of birds for the table. A lavish seasonal feast in medieval times would most certainly have included several verses of the song, with partridges baked in suet (with pears perhaps), swans swimming in a rich gravy and geese a-laying on a bed of sweetmeats. French hens made their way on to aristocratic tables at this time in the form of imported capons, which must have gone beautifully next to a dish of colly birds (blackbirds) baked in a pie and all washed down with gallons of the best mead.
