porrage

Updated: May 22, 2025

I remember seeing a print, in which was represented a shrivelled hand stretched through an iron grate, in the stone floor of a prison-yard, to reach at a mess of porrage, which affected me with more horrid ideas of the distress of the prisoner in the dungeon below, than could have been perhaps produced by an exhibition of the whole person.

Erasmus Darwin - The Botanic Garden. Part II.: Containing the Loves of the Plants. a Poem.: With Philosophical Notes.

Betrayed his trust, indeed, when he and his garrison are reduced to "one biscuit a day and a little porrage for supper," together with limpets and herbs in the best mess they can make; nay, more, when they have pulled up their floors for firewood, and are dying of hunger and want in the stone shell of Castle Cornet for the love of their King.

Dorothy Osborne - The Love Letters of Dorothy Osborne to Sir William Temple, 1652-54