[Captain Bodley and his host 'Master Moryson' (Sir Richard Moryson, brother of author Fynes Moryson) were officers in the English army.]
Supper
It was ten or twelve miles from that island to Downpatrick where Master Morrison dwelt ... Master Morrison himself leads us by wide stairs into a large hall where a fire is burning the height of our chins ... ordered a cup of Spanish wine to be brought with burnt sugar, nutmeg and ginger ... In an hour we heard some one down in the kitchen calling with a loud voice, 'To the dresser.' Forthwith we see a long row of servants decently dressed, each with dishes of the most select meats, which they place on the table in the very best style. One presents us a silver basin with the most limpid water, another hands us a very white towel; others arrange chairs and seats in their proper places ...
Breakfast
Before we get out of bed they bring to us a certain aromatic of strong ale compounded with sugar and eggs (in English, caudle), to comfort and strengthen the stomach; they also bring beer (if any prefer it) with toasted bread and nutmeg ...
Dinner
How about the dinners? I shall therefore demonstrate from a single dinner what may be imagined of the rest. There was a large and beautiful collar of brawn with its accompaniments, to wit, mustard and Muscadel wine; there were well-stuffed geese ... there were pies of venison and of various kinds of game; pasties also, some of marrow with innumerable plums, others of it with coagulated milk, such as the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London almost always have at their feasts; others, which they call tarts of divers shapes, materials and colours made of beef, mutton and veal. I do not mention, because they are reckoned vulgar, other kinds of dishes, wherein France much abounds, and which they designate quelq' choses. Neither do I relate anything of the delicacies which accompanied the cheese, because they would exceed all belief. I may say in one word that all things were there supplied to us most luxuriously and most copiously.
Extracts from 'Account of a journey of Captain Josias Bodley into Lecale in Ulster in the year 1602-3' in C. Litton Falkiner, Illustrations of Irish history and topography, London, 1904, p.332.