"At Offa's Christmas feast venison or pork would be roasted on a spit over the open fire in the palace, with someone appointed to baste the beast.
The smell of the roast would galvanise the appetites of all and sundry and great chunks of meat would be sliced or ripped off the animal with gusto.
Hygiene was very low on the agenda and, in the preparation of the various meats, the intestines and other unusable waste from the animals would be thrown on the floor for the dogs to consume.
What they left behind would attract the mice, rats and other vermin.
A few lucky peasants who happened to be servants at the Christmas banquet may have been able to help themselves to the carcass leftovers, probably wrapping it in hessian and taking it home, their equivalent of the 'doggy bag'."
The full description of this feast at the Mercian king's palace may be read at the Tamworth Herald.
