Water-porridge

At seven they all came in to breakfast, which consisted of one large dish of water-porridge, made of oat-meal, water and a little salt, boiled thick, and poured into a dish.

Six-, seven- and eight-year-olds, working a sixteen-hour day on a breakfast of water-porridge.

He looked back upon his workhouse life with a sickening yearning, and when he remembered the regular and abundant meals of the House, his gorge rose at the ever-recurring surfeit of water-porridge to breakfast, water-porridge to dinner, water-porridge to supper, and water-porridge between meals.