Post by spence on Jan 15, 2020 7:49:45 GMT -7
I did a little outing yesterday, mostly a short rabbit hunt with lunch. It wasn’t much of a hunt, saw no rabbits, and I wouldn’t dignify it by calling it a trek, so I don’t know where to post this. Whatever, it’s what I do these days, and it was good. First time out since last November, so I really needed it. I like to try things I’ve seen in the primary documentation on each outing, did that today and it was interesting and fun.
Monmouth caps show up very early in the historical record, and also quite often in 18th-century ads for runaways.
“The Pennsylvania Gazette
September 15, 1768
EIGHT POUNDS Reward. RUN away, last night, from Kingsbury Furnace, Mins Bank, near Baltimore town, viz. Negroe CYRUS, a stout well made fellow, and speaks very gruff; has on a cotton and fearnought jacket, ozenbrigs shirt, short ozenbrigs trowsers, Monmouth cap, and a pair of English flatts, nailed all round.”
There are many references to heavy wool leggings worn loosely around the legs as protection against rattlesnakes which were apparently extremely common in the day.. They were worn loosely so the snake would strike cloth with no leg behind it, just as a bull is made to gore a cape with no man behind it.
John Cuppy recalled to Lyman Draper…"Spy dress- a handkerchief around the spies head of any color... and thick loose woolen leggings reaching above the knee, so thick that a rattlesnake could not penetrate through with their fangs." (Draper 9 S 36 )
J.F.D. Smyth, Tour In The United States of America, 1784, describing Carolina backwoodsmen:
"On their legs they have Indian boots, or leggings, made of coarse woolen cloth, that either are wrapped around loosely and tied with garters, or are laced upon the outside, and always come better than half way up the thigh: these are a great defence and preservative, not only against the bite of serpents and poisonous insects, but likewise against the scratches of thorns, briars, scrubby bushes and underwood, with which this whole country is infested and overspread.”
I’ve had both a faux-Monmouth cap and a pair of woolen leggings for many years, have never worn either, so I decided to try them today.
The Monmouth cap was comfortable and warm, gave less trouble busting brush, shooting and etc. than my regular round hat or tricorn.
I wore the leggings the same as my leather ones, tied with a thong to a thong around my waist, but didn’t use my below-the-knee garters, since the whole idea of the wool leggings described was that they were loose. That created no problem.
Early recipes for hoe cakes/johnny cakes/journey cakes/nocakes recommend cooking them without oil if you are going to carry them with you, OK to use oil if they will be eaten now. I brought along one made of coarse stone ground cornmeal and a little salt, no oil. When ready to eat it I put it on the coals for a minute to warm it, and it was not bad.
In very early 19th century, say 1810, John James Audubon described a raccoon hunt in western Kentucky, and something he said caught my attention:
Audubon and his Journals, A Raccoon Hunt:
“The industrious woman leaves her wheel, for she has listened to her husband's talk; now she approaches the fire, takes up the board shovel, stirs the embers, produces a basket filled with sweet potatoes, arranges its contents side by side in front of the hearth, and covers them with hot ashes and glowing coals. All this she does because she "guesses" that hungry stomachs will be calling for food when the sport is over. Ah! reader, what "homely joys" there are in such scenes, and how you would enjoy them!“
and at the end of the hunt:
“Let us go home, stranger,” says the woodsman, and contented with our sport, towards his cabin we trudge. On arriving there, we find a cheerful fire. Toby stays without, prepares the game, stretches the skins on a frame of cane, and washes the bodies. The table is already set ; the cake and the potatoes are all well done ; four bowls of buttermilk are ranged in order, and now the hunters fall to.”
So I had to try cooking sweet potatoes in my campfire. My wood would not make appropriate ashes, so I just baked the potato on the coals with a lot of turning, and it worked well.
Chicken on a stick is a requirement, of course.
A hot hoecake, a sweet sweet potato and a nicely roasted chicken breast made a tasty lunch and satisfied my curiosity about some references I had been wanting to check out. All in all, a good outing, even without sight of a rabbit hair.
The woods were saturated from all our recent rains, some in the early morning yesterday, so starting a fire wasn't the easiest. I used the lock of my flintlock, cedar bark, some fatwood and a candle, got it done first try, which pleased me. Learning the old skills is a huge part of what I like about the hobby.
I'm feeling muuuuch better now.
Spence
Monmouth caps show up very early in the historical record, and also quite often in 18th-century ads for runaways.
“The Pennsylvania Gazette
September 15, 1768
EIGHT POUNDS Reward. RUN away, last night, from Kingsbury Furnace, Mins Bank, near Baltimore town, viz. Negroe CYRUS, a stout well made fellow, and speaks very gruff; has on a cotton and fearnought jacket, ozenbrigs shirt, short ozenbrigs trowsers, Monmouth cap, and a pair of English flatts, nailed all round.”
There are many references to heavy wool leggings worn loosely around the legs as protection against rattlesnakes which were apparently extremely common in the day.. They were worn loosely so the snake would strike cloth with no leg behind it, just as a bull is made to gore a cape with no man behind it.
John Cuppy recalled to Lyman Draper…"Spy dress- a handkerchief around the spies head of any color... and thick loose woolen leggings reaching above the knee, so thick that a rattlesnake could not penetrate through with their fangs." (Draper 9 S 36 )
J.F.D. Smyth, Tour In The United States of America, 1784, describing Carolina backwoodsmen:
"On their legs they have Indian boots, or leggings, made of coarse woolen cloth, that either are wrapped around loosely and tied with garters, or are laced upon the outside, and always come better than half way up the thigh: these are a great defence and preservative, not only against the bite of serpents and poisonous insects, but likewise against the scratches of thorns, briars, scrubby bushes and underwood, with which this whole country is infested and overspread.”
I’ve had both a faux-Monmouth cap and a pair of woolen leggings for many years, have never worn either, so I decided to try them today.
The Monmouth cap was comfortable and warm, gave less trouble busting brush, shooting and etc. than my regular round hat or tricorn.
I wore the leggings the same as my leather ones, tied with a thong to a thong around my waist, but didn’t use my below-the-knee garters, since the whole idea of the wool leggings described was that they were loose. That created no problem.
Early recipes for hoe cakes/johnny cakes/journey cakes/nocakes recommend cooking them without oil if you are going to carry them with you, OK to use oil if they will be eaten now. I brought along one made of coarse stone ground cornmeal and a little salt, no oil. When ready to eat it I put it on the coals for a minute to warm it, and it was not bad.
In very early 19th century, say 1810, John James Audubon described a raccoon hunt in western Kentucky, and something he said caught my attention:
Audubon and his Journals, A Raccoon Hunt:
“The industrious woman leaves her wheel, for she has listened to her husband's talk; now she approaches the fire, takes up the board shovel, stirs the embers, produces a basket filled with sweet potatoes, arranges its contents side by side in front of the hearth, and covers them with hot ashes and glowing coals. All this she does because she "guesses" that hungry stomachs will be calling for food when the sport is over. Ah! reader, what "homely joys" there are in such scenes, and how you would enjoy them!“
and at the end of the hunt:
“Let us go home, stranger,” says the woodsman, and contented with our sport, towards his cabin we trudge. On arriving there, we find a cheerful fire. Toby stays without, prepares the game, stretches the skins on a frame of cane, and washes the bodies. The table is already set ; the cake and the potatoes are all well done ; four bowls of buttermilk are ranged in order, and now the hunters fall to.”
So I had to try cooking sweet potatoes in my campfire. My wood would not make appropriate ashes, so I just baked the potato on the coals with a lot of turning, and it worked well.
Chicken on a stick is a requirement, of course.
A hot hoecake, a sweet sweet potato and a nicely roasted chicken breast made a tasty lunch and satisfied my curiosity about some references I had been wanting to check out. All in all, a good outing, even without sight of a rabbit hair.
The woods were saturated from all our recent rains, some in the early morning yesterday, so starting a fire wasn't the easiest. I used the lock of my flintlock, cedar bark, some fatwood and a candle, got it done first try, which pleased me. Learning the old skills is a huge part of what I like about the hobby.
I'm feeling muuuuch better now.
Spence