Dining at the Lowood School

Charlotte Bronte

I find it so interesting that orphan school girls were given coffee to drink in the novel Jane Eyre.  Little Jane Eyre loved it!  Coffee and bread sure beats burnt porridge, that was her lunch.

Soon after five p.m. we had another meal, consisting of a small mug of coffee, and half-a-slice of brown bread. I devoured my bread and drank my coffee with relish; but I should have been glad of as much more--I was still hungry. Half-an-hour's recreation succeeded, then study; then the glass of water and the piece of oat-cake, prayers, and bed. Such was my first day at Lowood.