The drover's breakfast

Can you imagine the sound and smell of hundreds of cows being driven along this old drove road?   Headed south for Norfolk, a long and weary way,  where they would be fattened up again to be taken into London and Spittalfields Market.    After the Union of the Crowns, this trade blossomed with Scottish beef highly prized.

Drovers were remarkable men.  (One of my ancestors followed the trade.)  

"The drover’s day was a long one, beginning early in the morning and lasting until late in the evening. Breakfast consisted of oats, sometimes boiled to make porridge, but frequently eaten uncooked and mixed with a little water. More often than not this rudimentary breakfast would be washed down with whisky. Occasionally they would draw blood from the cattle and mix it with the oats to make a black pudding.

Supplemented with a few onions, this combination of oats and whisky was their basic diet."


(© Heritagepaths.co.uk)