Mary Wollstonecraft at the table

In Enlightenment England, the day revolved around four moments: breakfast (porridge or bread and tea upon rising), dinner (the main meal, taken in the mid-afternoon), tea (a late-afternoon snack around the teapot), and supper (a light evening meal). Among the hardworking middle classes like Mary's, the table was frugal, oats and bread were its foundation, and tea reigned supreme.

A humble and nourishing grain, oats were the backbone of British popular diet. Boiled in salted water, they fed for pennies — exactly the regimen of a woman who, like Mary, lived by her pen and refused the superfluous.