The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-04-25 00:00:00

HE SAW THE ISLES.

weighing as much as the rest of the animal without it was
a morceau, in Rome, to make a philosopher's mouth water.
This was not proof of a more depraved taste than that
exhibited by a Christian Queen of France, who spent 1,600
francs in fattening three geese, the delicate livers of which
alone her Majesty intended to dine upon. The pigeon and
guinea-hen never attained to such popularity as the goose
and duck ; while the turkey, and especially the truffied
turkey-hen, has its value sufficiently pointed out by the
saying of the gastronome, that there must be two at the
eating of a truffied turkey—the eater and the turkey !
The turkey, originally from the East, was slowly propa-
gated in Europe, and the breed appears to have gradually
passed away, like the bustard in England. It was brought
hither again from America, and its first re-appearance is
said to have been at the wedding dinner of Charles IX. of
France.

HE saw the isles from sea to sea,
And then the stranger said,
0 Where lies that merry England
Of which my youth has read,
Of which our old men talked at times,
When evening's light was ou the limes,
And grew so blithe with saws and rhymes

When forest feasts were spread?

"I have seen wealthy England

In mart and mansion fair;
I have seen merry England

In many faces there ;
I have seen of trade the strife and trust,
The toil that turns men's days to dust,
And gold's dull worship that like rust
Into the heart can wear.

_
The turkey was not protected, as the peacock was by
Alexander, by a decree denouncing death against whom-
soever should kill this divine bird, with its devilish note.
The decree did not affect Quintus Hortensius, who had one
served up at the dinner which celebrated his accession to
the office of Augur. Tiberius, however, preserved the
peacock with great jealousy, and it was only rich breeders
that could exhibit this bird at their banquets.
A man who passes through Essex may see whole "herds"
of geese and ducks in the fields there, fattening, without
thought of the future, and supremely happy in their want
of reflection. These birds are " foreigners ;" at least,
nearly all of them are so. They are Irish by birth, but
they are brought over by steam, in order to be perfected
by an English education ; and when the due state of per-
fection has been attained, they are, like many other young
people, partaking of the " duck" or the " goose," trans-
ferred London and " done for."

-" My father's churches o'er the land
Rise stately, still, and grey,
With the solemn lights and storied tombs

Of the old believing day ;
But there is wane of sport and cheer,
The morris-dancers are not here,
For steam and change from all the year
Have swept brave youth away."

Some stranger is that England
Which in thy dreams bath been,
Gone with the yule log from the hearth,
The Maypole from the green,
With subtle priest and simple throng.
With woodcraft and with shepherd's song,—
For working England stern and strong
It is that thou bast seen
. * * *

* *

The fight grows hard and heavy,
By marts, and mines, and waves,
And many have the laden hours
And more the souls of slaves ;
But when the world at last breathes free,
A merry England men shall see,
Though long the summer's grass will be
And green upon our graves.

FRANCES BROWN.

REVIEWS OF BOOKS.

By Dr.

Table Traits, with Something on Them.
Doran. London : R. Bentley. A
" He," says a French savan, " who careth not
10 his dinner careth not for anything." The
pr\Andial meal, constituting as it does so important
an element in the enjoyment of social and of
domestic lifer it is scarcely a matter to excite
surprise that so much study and so much profound
attention should have been bestowed on it. It
has long been a subject of charge against the
English that, notwithstanding their advance in
science and in the practical arts of civilisation,
they are lamentably defective in the art of pre-
paring their own food. It is but as yesterday that
IF! de, the prospero of gastromes, bewailed the preva-
lent ignorance and inattention to his science which
characterised the English, and made the great
chef declare, half in indignation, half in anguish,
that, while England possessed five hundred reli-
gions, she had only one sauce—melted butter.
Smce that period much has been done to extend
our culinary lore, and the literature of the kitchen
has at length become extensive, and the prosecu-
tion of it is no longer deemed a matter beneath
the notice of a cultivated intellect. The work
under consideration is an admirable illustration of
the last remark. To the composition of a book on
such a subject, Dr. Doran brings stores of erudi-
tion, a lively fancy, and a piquant wit,—combining
with these elements a judicious rationale of the
effects produced on the digestion of different indi-
viduals by different kinds of food, and its varying
modes of preparation. The doctor wisely starts the
consideration of the daily food by glancing at the
matin meal, and offers the following judicious

REMARKS ON BREAKFAST.
It was an old popular error that a pound of butter
might consist of any number of ounces. It is an equally
popular error that a breakfast cannot be unless bread and
butter be of it. Marcus Antoninus breakfasted on dry
biscuits, and many a person of less rank and higher worth
is equally incapable of digesting anything stronger. Solid
breakfasts are only fit for those who have much solid exer-
cise to take after it ; otherwise, heartburn may be looked
for. Avoid new bread and spongy rolls ; look on muffins
and crumpets as inventions of men of worse than san-
guinary principles, and hot buttered toast as of equally
for wicked o.• ' Dry toast is the safest morning food,
perhaps, for ns of indifferent powers of digestion ;or
they may su tute for it the imperial fashion set by
Marcus Antoninus.

From dry biscuits and unbuttered toast for
breakfast, the transition is an easy and a natural
one, which leads us to a consideration of bread ;
concerning, which the doctor is learned as well as
eloquent, as will be seen by his observations on

From the extracts given it will be readily ap-
parent that the doctor,while fully able to command
a whole battalion of cooks, and to direct their
operations, is even more efficient as an adornment
to the banquet-hall. In treating of his somewhat
unpoetic subject, he brings to bear upon its illus-
tration the torch of history and the lights of
science. Combined with these, he adds nicely
graduated modicums of smart remark and telling
banter ; he manifests himself in high good
humour, and he contrives to put and keep his
readers in the same happy vein. ,

Reminiscences of a Huntsman. By the Hon.
Grantley Berkeley. With Illustrations by
Leech. London : Longman and Co.

No sport is more pre-eminently English than
hunting, and the narration of incidents illustrative
of its pursuit at all times attracts attentive listeners
in an English educated circle. No matter how
little of the Nimrod may be in his composition, a
well-informed native of our isle is sure to find or
create an interest in the adventures of the chase,
redolent as these at all times are of pleasant joyous
temper and high spirits. While, as the song tells us,
the squires of old
Would rouse the day to the sound of the cheerful horn,
their descendants have of recent years betaken
themselves to the hunting of elephants and rhino-
ceroses, to the fellowship of alligators and hippo-
potami, and sought excitement in precarious
combat with the lion and in the slaughter of the
tiger, the health-sustaining exhilaration of our
own field sports has lost none of its attractions ;
and how much soever we may wonder at the tales
of danger and success, of peril and triumph, to be
met with in the adventures of a Cumming Bruce
or a Parkyns, we are not the less inclined to enjoy
the more quiet, and quite as rational amusements
of those who confine themselves to the sport
afforded in our native land. Some of these, it
would seem from the annexed extract, are attended
with excitement intermingled with anxiety and
danger, the adventure greatly heightened in its
relis by a dash of the ludicrous.

AN INCIDENT IN STAG-HUNTING.

Another instance worth remarking occurred at Lady
Mary Hussey's, who lived near Hillingdon. A stag, quite
fresh, and of whom the hounds had suddenly obtained a
view, came tearing along under the garden wall, among
the shrubs, till he found himself in contact with one side
of a bay window : through this he went, with two or three
hounds each side of him ; and instead'of going out at the
other side of the window, he turned, and ran to the fur-
ther end of the drawing-room in which I believe Lady
Mary Hussey and other ladies were seated. It was
enough to have scared a man, and this sudden crash and
furious apparition of course had a startling effect on the
ladies. Seeing the mischief to the window, I was off my
horse immediately, cap in hand, to make a thousand apo-
logies • but my first act was to get the stag out, and pre-
vent further damage. On entering the drawing-room,
alas ! I found the line lay through a conservatory ; but
when I gained the locality of the stag, the following scene
presented itself. The stag, wet and bloody, from a few
(not serious) scratches by the glass, had his muddy
haunches against, and plastering, the wainscot, while oc-
casionally he rubbed his antlers, to keep them in a condi-
tion of war, on a mahogany table, making considerable
ditches in it, while at the same time whenever two or
three hounds, who were baying him from beneath the
sofas and chairs, approached too near, he made furious
dashes at them, upsetting everything in his way. On one
side of the room, and staring over the top of it, was a ser-
vant, or one of my field, I forget which, behind some
ancestral portrait, with the face of the picture to the stag,
which he had taken down to serve as a shield, while the
window-frame had beet driven in with such force, that as
it stood, there was no getting the deer out that way. In
the midst of it all, and expecting more hounds in at the
window, unless my brother and Henry Wombwell were
quick in getting them away, I was almost at my wit's
end ; however, calling on the spectator who was parading
the picture, for heaven's sake, at least, to turn it the other
way, or the first thing the ancestral countenance would
have would be the horns of the stag through it, in motion
as the bearer kept it, I caught the hounds and led them
out. The stag being quiet, and having sent all sorts of
apologies up to Lady Mary, I reported that the state of
the window would not admit of the stag's egress, unless I
was permitted to enlarge the aperture, while, at the same
time, fresh and powerful as the stag was, it would be dan-
gerous to attempt to lead him through the conservatory.
The reply to my apologies and to this report was the
best-natured and kind that could be. She said, " she did
not in the least care for the accident, that I could not
help it, and, if necessary, I was to enlarge the fracture
in the window as much as I pleased," the only stipulation
being that, " when the stag regained his liberty, the
hounds were to be laid on the lawn that she might see
them running." Having returned to the scene of action,
and disengaged my sporting friend from the ancestral
picture, and placed it in safety, we knocked away the
stanchions -of the window sufficiently to let the deer
through, and having borrowed a door from the offices by
way of more fitting shield, I got the stag out, and laid the
hounds on at the window.
No feature of this work is more charming than
the perfect good nature and self-satisfied air of
pleasantry which pervades its every page. The
author tells his tale with that felicitous buoyancy
of spirit which can only be derived from a full con-
viction of its interest. He is thoroughly in earnest,
and inspires the same feeling in the reader. Merry
he is generally, but not always so ; many of his
reflections indicate a mind full of fine feeling and
open to gentle emotions. The illustrations by
Leech are also happily in character, and the book,
like the subject it treats of, is a bracing one—
sufficiently stimulative to promote a healthful flow
of humour—not partaking of excess nor provoca-
tive of langour.

BREAD AND ITS APPLIANCES BY THE ANCIENTS.
Endless were the varieties of bread sold in the markets
at Rome. There was Cappadocian bread for the wealthy,
pugilistic loaves for the athlete, batter bread for the
strong, and Greek rolls for the weak of stomach; and
there were the prepared bread poultices, which people
who, like Pompey's young soldiers, were afraid of injuring
their complexion, were wont to keep applied to their
cheeks during the hours of sleep. Anadyomene so slum-
bering, with Adonis at her side similarly poulticed, can
hardly be said to be a subject for a painter ; and yet many
a blooming Caia slept on the bosom of her Caius, and more
panic madidna than blushes on the checks of either.
Pliny ventures on a strange statement with regard to
oats. He says that oats and barley are so nearly allied,
that when a man sows the one he is not sure that he may
not reap the other'. He also illustrates the prolificness of
millet by asserting that a single grain produced " innu-
merable ears of corn, and that a bushel (20 pounds'
weight) of millet would make more than 60 pounds of
wholesome bread !" The Romans and the Greeks also
appear to have been acquainted with Indian corn.
Our author discourses with much gusto, and no
small amount of good humour, on the cookery of
different nations, enriching his remarks by anec-,
dotes as piquant as the condiments he recom-
mends. In a few brief sentences, and without the
parade of set form, he demonstrates the celestials
to be far advanced in the arts of civilised life. This
may be gathered from his picture of
CHINESE COOKS AND COOKERY.
The Chinese are exceedingly skilful cooks, and exhibit
taste and judgment in the selection of their food. With
a few beans, and the meal of rice and corn, they will make
a palatable and nutritious dish. They eat horse flesh,
rats, mice, and young dogs. Why not ? All these are far
cleaner feeders than pigs and lobsters. A thorough-bred
horse is so nice in his appetite, that he will refuse the corn
which has been breathed upon by another horse. The
Tonquin birds' nests, eaten in China, may be described as
young Mr. Fudge describes the Paris grisettes " Rather
eatable things those grisettes, by-the-bye." So are the
birds' nests, composed as they are of small shell-fish and a
glutinous matter, supplied by the plumed inhabitant of
the edible houses. Bears' paws, rolled in pepper and nut-
meg, dried in the sun, and subsequently soaked in rice
water, and boiled in the gravy of a kid, form a dish that
would make ecstatic the grave Confucius himself.
As yet, it will be observed, we have hardly
reached the citadel of our author's stronghold,
" the dinner table and its arranged accompani-
ments." The elegant ease and smiling comfort
which surround a well-disposed dinner table are
detailed by him in excellent and captivating taste ;
instead, however, of entering upon that topic, we
shall confine ourselves to an extract, which may
be called
POULTRY AS MATERIALS FOR DINNER.

The Works of Joseph Addison. With Notes by
Richard Hurd,.D.D., Lord Bishop of Worcester.
London : Henry G. Bohn.
The volume now before us is the second of this
very handsome edition of the works of our most
elegant essayist. It contains the whole of Addi-
son's contributions to the Taller, and a consider-
able number of thoise whose quiet humour, sweet-
ness of diction, and moral grace, conferred undying
popularity on the Spectator. The highly-wrought
moral beauties which adorn the " Vision of Mirza"
are scarcely superior of their kind to the play-
ful, yet erudite, criticisms which he scatters about
over our popular poetry, nor do these surpass the
easy badinage and hearty good humour with which
he ridicules the frivolities and mock miseries of
artificial life. To quote from Addison now may to
many appear commonplace ; yet, even at the risk
of being charged with triteness, we shall present
to our readers the following catalogue of
ARTIFICIAL WO3B.
It is, indeed, wonderful to consider, how men are able
to raise affliction to themselves out of everything. Lands
and houses, sheep and oxen, convey happiness and misery
into the hearts of reasonable creatures. Nay, I have
known a muff, a scarf, or a tippet, become a solid blessing
or misfortune. A lap-dog has broken the hearts of thou-
sands. Flavia, who had buried five children and two
husbands, was never able to get over the loss of her parrot.
How often has a divine creature been thrown into a fit by
neglect at a ball or an assembly ? Mopsa has kept her
chamber eve'r since the last masquerade, and is in greater
danger of her life upon being left out of it, than Clorinda
from the violent cold she caught at it. Nor are these dear
creatures the only sufferers by such imaginary calamities.
Many an author has been dejected at the censure of one
whom he has ever looked on as an idiot; and many a hero
cast into a fit of melancholy, because the rabble have not
hooted at him as he passed through the streets. Theron
places all his happiness in a running horse, Suffenus in a
gilded chariot, Fulvius in a blue string, and Florio in a
tulip-root. It would be endless to enumerate the many
fantastical afflictions that disturb mankind.
The editorial labours of the learned and reverend
prelate who has undertaken the superintendence of
this edition, evince attention, consideration, and
sound judgment. He contents himself with per-
forming the duties of an editor' and appears satis-
fied with a careful performance of his task ; would
it were possible to say, with truth, as much for
every editor of our English classics.

The Jews, it is said, never ate poultry under their old
dispensation • and French gastronomists assert that this
species of food was expressly reserved to enrich the ban-
quets of a more deserving people. About the merits of the j
people, the poultry and winged animals generally would ,
perhaps have an opinion of their own, were they capable of
entertaining one; for nowhere, as in France, have those
unfortunate races been so tortured, and merely in order to
extract out of their anguish a little more exquisite enjoy-
ment for the palled appetites of epicures. The turkey has,
perhaps, the least suffered at the hands of the Gallic expe-
rimentalists, though he has not altogether escaped. The
goose has been the most cruelly treated, especially in the
case of his being kept caged before a huge fire, and fed to
repletion until he dies, the Daniel Lambert of his species,
of a diseased liver, which is the most delicious thing possi-
ble in a pie. But it is ignoble treatment-for the only bird
which is said to be prescient of approaching earthquakes.
The goose saved Rome, and was eaten in spite of his
patriotism. He is skilled in natural philosophy, and his
science does not save him from death and sage-and-onions.
Nay, even a female sovereign of England could not hear of
the defeat of the Spanish Armada without declaring " death
to the geese," until the time comes when Mr. Macaulay's
Huron friend shall be standing on a fragment of Black-
friars-bridge, sketching the rains of St. Paul's.
It must be allowed, however, that the scientific ladies
of farm-Y have improved upon the knowledge of their
ards
ancestresses. Formerly, of turkeys alone, full one-half
that pierced the shell perished ; but now we rear more than
15 out of 20. I do not know, however, that that fact is at
to the turkey des tined to be dined upon.
all co
Themistocles nsolatory
rated
ordered his victory over Xerxes to be
yearly commemorated by a cock-fight ; and the bird itself
was eaten out of honour, as
in Rome were for reasons
dogs
hen was the favourite bird
of vengeance. At home the
but hens were consumed such.
.qu. antities, that Fanning,
the consul, issued a decree prohibiting their being slain for
(.1 : and, in the meantime, the
food during a certain Peri The duck was devoured
Romans " invented the capon•
medicinally—that is, on medical assurance that it was good
re great sages, who
diet for weak stomachs ; and there we
nld maintain men
not only taught that ducks, as a
in health, but that, if theywefr°e°4lll,wtohe ample feeding
Mithridates, it is
thereon would soon restore them again.
alleged, ate it as a counter-poison ; other
times and places, simply because they liked it•
peppleTh, ofe other
was in as much favour as the duck with the digest
gifted stomachs of the older races. It was the royal diet
in Egypt, where the monarch did not, like Queen Eliza-
beth, recommend it to the people, but selfishly decreed that
it was only to be served at his own table. Gigantic geese,
with ultra-gigantic livers, were as much the delight of
epicures in Rome, as the livers, if not the geese, are now
the woluptas suprema of the epicure of France, and of
countries —"""4" 4^ the French code of diet. A liver

Caleb Stukeley. London : Nathaniel Cooke.
Caleb Stukeley is a tale of thrilling interest,
which first appeared in the pages of Mackwoocre
Magazine in 1841, and which, during the course
of its serial publication in that celebrated periodical,
excited much attention. It contains numerous
vividly painted pictures of college life and artisti-

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