Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-12-02
81 ILDH ALL FEASTS
THE ROMANTIC ASPECT OF EAT.
ING AND DRINKING.
Famous Banquets Of the Lord Mayor of
Observation-Disclosures and Greedy
Accounts of Pepys.
From the London Chronicle.

From the London Chronicle
III one thing more than another marks tbs
approach of middle-age fl is the prosaie
theory that greediness is thing 10 he
ashamed of. The middle-aged are no l.ss
greedy than everybody else of course. hut
faylhg reached the very darkest moment
OF me grown-up period, they Ike to pre-
'end that they are not greedy. The child
is frank enough TO own that nothing IL so
dull as book, specially a fairy book. that
mas not plenty of eating and drinking in H.
Where would be the charm of the Arabian
Nights but for their magnificent and per-
petual feasting? And what would ANYBODY
VINO was not grown up think of a. prince
who married princess without arranging
Tor an the fountains to run with wine? We
should nave to be more than grown IN
mlddie-aged in fact--to deny the Importance
OF FOOD in romance. And il is Just because
SO many OF US have failed 10 grow up COM
PleIeiy' though We may have half-forgotten.
perhaps, that fountains naturally run with
VINE when the right sort of people marry
ihat the lord mayors banquet appeals
straight TO the streak OF romance that we
have all got hidden away somewhere In
disputably, the lord mayors banauet ia
medieval. barbarous. greedy and absurd:
but 1t takes us back 10 the edge OF the
ialryland that we once knew. and Novem-
Der makes children of US ALL
bySone Junket1ngS.
In the old days the romantic value of
greedfness was never overlooked '"rbe
great lord ate not IN private. except in time
OF sickness; when once he became a thing
cooped up. all his greatness was spilled"
wrote Selden. And the same writer touched
the true significance of eating and drinking
when he added. quantity. Nay. the king
himself used 10 eat in the hall, and his
lords sat with him-and then he under
STOOD men The disappointing thing Is
that although the lord mayor has always
taken such grand opera view of food in
general, and has given yearly banquets ever
since his office became an annual one Wa
know next to nothing Of What was eaten at
them.
To read. for Instance that there were 500
dishes. without mentioning the Societies
or dessert dainties. at the feast to which
Charles i was invited, and not to Know the
name of a single one of them, entirely spoils
the fun-from the point OF view that is not
middie-aged. Pepys is a little more explicit.
but not much. for he says little about what
ne ate. though adding rather delightfully."-.
i only drinking hippocras, which do not
break my yowe, If being TO the best OF my
present Judgment only a mixed compound
drink and not any wine. IL am mistaken,
God forgive me! but hope do and am not
Pepys Was child. If ever there was one.
and he throws many pleasant sidelights
upon the Guildhall banquet of 1868. II sat
at the merchant strangers table" he tells
II was very -unpleasing that we had no nap
kins nor change of trenchers and drank
out of earthen pitchers and wooden dishes.
expected musique, but there was none
but only trumpets and drums, which dis
pleased me-" Even the ladies' who rarely
disappointed him, did not equal his eXpec-
tations that day. There were many and
fine he admits; yet / could not discera
one handsome face there. which was very
strange" There must have been something
very wrong with that temperance drink or
his.
An Epicurean Feast.
Pepys. or anybody else who had never
grown up, would have heard enough music
TO content him at the banquet of i727. at
which George Ill was present, for Harrison
tells IN his Survey Of London that "the
band of musique at this sumptuous BAN
quet consisted of two trumpets. one kettle
drum. four French horns. eighteen violins.
seven bassoons. six hautboys. etc" The
wine list on the same occasion Is perhaps
worth quoting il stands:
'rrhe several sorts and quantities of wines