'pease-porridge tawny'

'Color connects. . . . Color also resonates socially, historically. Jane Schneider has shown how the dominant blacks and whites of Elizabeth's court . . . signaled, not only support for the queen (black as opposed to the vivid colors of European courts, white for the queen's virgin purity), but also 'England's determination to hold its own in the lively textile rivalries of the time.' Scarlets and crimsons were the ceremonial color, and according to a royal statute of 1552, 'true,' rather than false and deceiving. Other royally validated colors included '. . . brown-blue, orange-tawny, russet, marble, sheep's color, lion's color, motley or iron gray, something called 'new sad color' and something called 'puke.'' Other specifically English-made colors included 'rat's color,' 'horseflesh,' 'pease-porridge tawny,' and 'gooseturd.''

'Cynthia Sundberg Wall, fromThe Prose of Things: Transformations of Description in the Eighteenth Century, 2006. Quoting Jane Schneider, Fantastical Colors in Foggy London: The New Fashion Potential of the Late Sixteenth Century, from Material London, ca. 1600, edited by Lena Cowen Orlin, 2000.