Evening: Supper Before Bed

After having the large midday meal, the Dauntesey family would often want something light before heading to bed. This meal would often be referred to as super. Because the kitchen staff would start to clean up and put down the fires later in the day, they often provided a small meal of leftovers to the family. Rather than gathering in the Dining Parlor, the family would often have the servants bring their late meal to their bed chambers.

As far as the servants go, we don’t necessarily know what they would have done for the end of the day meal. The servants who lived at the manor would have had a simple meal provided for them. For those servants who lived at home away from the manor, they may have waited until they got home to eat with their family. Also, it was understood that after the Daunteseys had their fill of the food that had been prepared for the day, the servants were welcome to help themselves to the leftovers. This would give the servants a chance to savor a taste of how the upper class ate!