200 Years Ago in Norwich : Sausages from Lobster Lane

Returning briefly to my series of posts from newspapers of 200 years ago this week…. This is from the Norwich Mercury and it’s an advert that was just a little intriguing, bearing in mind that ‘eructative’ means ‘belching’. It reads:

“W. GREENWOOD, Lobster Lane, Norwich.

Highly sensible and grateful for past favours, most earnestly solicits a continuance of the same, respectfully notifying to his friends and the public, that he has commenced making sausages for the season, assuring them that they are made of the best meats, and spiced in a process peculiar to himself, and possessing a flavour inherent in them the most delicious to the taste and depriving them of that eructative quality so unpleasant to the palate, which is generally the case after eating sausages. Are only to be had at his old establishment, in the Lobster Lane.

NB, home cured hams, blacked breasts, tongues, &c, having that delicacy of flavour and fine tenderness of texture for which they have been held up and so highly esteemed.”

As an aside, the &c is the old printing version of etc. The sausages of the early nineteenth century certainly seemed to have been of a dubious quality if this advert can be believed. Lobster Lane is the little stretch of road that connects Pottergate with Bedford Street, an area of the city where the Saxons were present as a kiln from that period was found on the street. The street, I assume, was named after the Lobster pub which was once located here. Unfortunately, I can’t find out much about Mr Greenwood, but I would have rather liked to try these decadent sausages of his.