Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

THE MUSTARD HARVEST. Photo : Ball & Co., Peterborough. THE MANUFACTURE OF MUSTARD AND STARCH. The use of mustard as a condiment, and probably as a salad too, was known to the ancient world, and it was a favourite spice at the dinner tables of the Middle Ages. By the fourteenth century it had become so important an article of manu- facture in Burgundy that Philip the Bold granted to the city of Dijon armorial bearings, in whose motto a punning reference to mustard may be traced. The Englishman of the Elizabethan age could no more eat his roast beef without mustard than the Englishman of to-day. Thus it was that, in The Taming of the Shrew, when Gru in io asked the question : “What say you to a piece of beef, and mustard ? ” The immortal wayward Katharina replied : “A dish that I do love to feed upon.” In those clays, it would seem, mustard was prepared by the simple process of crushing the seed, as peppercorns are still. But in 1720 a Mrs. Clements, of Durham, devised a method of pounding the seed and then separating the flour from the husk, and the result was so agreeable to the palate of George the First that the new condiment, promptly called the Royal Flower of Mustard Seed, was largely advertised in the newspapers of the day, and from that hour to this mustard has been one of the serious industries of Britain. The mustard plant is a member of the genus Brassica, to which we owe our cabbages and broccoli, our turnips and Brussels sprouts. Its two forms, black and white, grow best upon the rich loams of Yorkshire and Lincoln- shire, Cambridge and Essex ; and although it MUSTARD OIL PRESS.