The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-02-15 00:00:00

ANOTHER 11ORBE.FLESII BANQUET.

Between thirty and forty of the principal tradesmen of
Ramsgate were on Saturday evening last invPed by Mr.
Bicknell, a respected resident of that popular watering-place,
to a banquet at the Falstaff Hotel, for the purpose of tenting
the qualities of horse-flesh as an article of human food. The
bill of fare included the following:—

Soup, plying horse ;" site-dishes: racehorse patties;
Shetland pony, with salad, dressed with liorswoll; Joints,
roast fillet of horse; " Royal Charger" stew, &c.
The horse flesh was sent from Paris for the purpose, and
was prepared by a French cook. The flesh was dressed in
various ways, and the company were unanimous in expressing
their approval of the flavour of all that was set before them.
One of the party who was present states that the fare could
scarcely have iteen distinguished from ox beef, but for the
knowledge of the fact that the different dishes were horse-
flesh.

On the subject of " Hippophagy " the following
letters have appeared in a London contemporary
If Ilippophagy is to be more than a passing " entertOn-
ment for man and beast," it is desirable that it should be
taken up In a practical spirit. One of your contributors has
Justly aniniadverted on that phase of the subject. Permit
me to give one note of warning on its indiscriminate use,
whether in fun or earnest. I could not but be struck by the
ominous conjuncture of two such words as "cheval lard,"
&. Not to refer to the pun, do all your readers, or rather
all the experimentalists in horse-flesh, understand the
Insidious beginnings of glanders? that the farcy.bud is
frequently one of its earliest symptoms, and that by the
uninitiated these swellings are liable to be passed over as
unimportant ?
Let me give you a case in point. Many years ago I had a
valuable four-year-old mare, passed somid at --'s, certainly
then the first veterinary surgeon in London. There was a
small knob near the hock, which we both attributed to the
same cause, a little over-exertion in plunging, which she was
apt to do in London. She was a marvel to ride, and so round
and handsome that the daintiest epicure would scarcely have
objected to swell-cooked steak. That little boss, or swelling,
was the first of a success',n of farcy-buds, and I shot her in
three weeks with the worst attack of glanders I ever have
seen.

the Imbibition of glanders Is inevitably fatal to the
human subject, will you find room tor this appropriate warn-
ing, and oblige your very obedient servant,
THE AUTIIoR og "CHARLIE THoRNIIILL."

A gentleman, writing from Brentwood, Essex,
soya
'the prominence given of late to the subject of hone.
sting in your columns induces me to send you the follow-
ing particulars relative to hippophagy, which, perhaps,
may not be uninteresting to some of your readers. I was
credibly informed a short time since by a gentleman owning
a pack of hounds in this county that it is no uncommon
occurrence when a young and good.conditiuned horse is sent
to his kennels for the labouring men to select a steak or two
from • choice quarter of the csresse, and appropriate it for
home consumption. As the flesh so appropriated is not
likely to be served up in the form of " Bucephalus soup'
or "Pegasus patties," it seems not improbable that there
may be s greater regard for horse flesh, unadorned or other-
wise, than is generally believed.