vated not only the fruits already known-such as pears, apples, figs, grapes-but also foreign ones, especially the apricot from Armenia, the peach from Persia, the quince from Sidon, the strawberry from the valleys of Mount Ida, and the cherry-the conquest of Lucullus in Pontus. Amongst comestibles, fish was an especial object of luxury. Those of distant countries were brought in pots of honey. Nor did the Romans bestow less care and attention in the choice of their wines, those of Greece, Sicily, and Italy being especial favourites. To give the wine more piquancy and flavour, they sometimes infused flowers, scents, and various drugs into it, and that to such an extent, that some of their recipes must have burned the mouth and violently irritated the stomach. It was in the accessories, however, that this gigantic luxury was shown most wildly. The number of courses gradually increased to twenty, or even more. For each detail of the service, slaves were specially appointed, with their various duties minutely distinguished. The most precious perfumes embalmed the banqueting-hall. Dishes worthy of special attention had their name and quality ceremoniously proclaimed. In short, nothing was omitted which could whet the appetite, keep alive the guests' attention, or prolong the enjoyment. Sometimes this luxury assumed an absurd or grotesque form. Such were those banquets where the fish and birds served were counted by thousands; or those dishes whose sole merit was their cost, as the dish composed of the brains of five hundred ostriches; or that other in which were seen the tongues of five thousand singing-birds. From the preceding, it is easy to explain the enormous sums which Lucullus spent in dinners, and his expensive entertainments in the hall of Apollo, where it was a point of honour to exhaust every known means of gratifying his guests' appetites. Lucullus. There might be before our own eyes a renaissance of those glorious days, and a renewal of Resurrectheir marvels, if only we had the Lucullus. tion of Let us suppose that some man who is powerfully wealthy wished to celebrate an event of importance in the political or financial world, and gave a banquet in honour of the occasion, quite regardless of expense. Let us suppose that he summons all the arts to adorn the place of the festival in all its details and surroundings, and that the caterers be ordered to exhaust all the resources of gastronomic science in providing good fare, and for the guests' drink to ransack the best cellars for the finest wine; that during the banquet music be heard, performed by the most skilful singers and players; that, as an interlude between dinner and coffee, there be a ballet by all the prettiest and most graceful dancers of the Opera; that the evening close with a ball in which are brought together two hundred of the finest women and four hundred of the most elegant dancers; that the buffet be well supplied with the best drinks, hot or cold, or iced; that about midnight there should appear an artistic collation, to impart new activity; that the attendants be handsome and well-dressed; the lighting of the rooms perfect; and, finally, that the Amphitryon should have arranged for everybody to be sent for before the entertainment, and comfortably taken home again at the close. All who know Paris will agree with me that were such a banquet properly organized, conducted, and completed, the sum total of next day's bills for expenses might very well startle even the treasurer of Lucullus. The couches or sofas on which the Romans lay when dining were at first only benches covered with skins and stuffed with straw; Eating from a sofa. but at the time just referred to they shared couch or in the luxury which had overwhelmed everything connected with feasting. They were made of the most precious woods, inlaid with gold, ivory, and sometimes jewels; with cushions of the softest down, covered with magnificently embroidered rugs. The reclining posture must, in my opinion, have been awkward and uncomfortable. Thus, in drinking, it must have required special care to avoid spilling the wine from the wide-mouthed goblets that shone on the tables of the great. It was the lectisternium period, doubtless, that gave rise to the proverb "There's many a slip "Tween the cup and the lip." Nor could eating have been a cleanly operation in such a posture, especially when we consider that many of the guests wore long beards, and that the food was conveyed to the mouth by a knife, if not by the fingers-for the use of forks is modern, none having been found in the ruins of Hercula neum. During the period we have been describing, convivial poetry underwent a new modifiPoetry cation, assuming, in the verses of Horace, and the Tibullus, and other writers of the day, a table. languor and effeminacy unknown to the Grecian Muse. Pande, puella, pande capillulos Productum bene candidis humeris. GALLUS. XXVII. PHILOSOPHICAL HISTORY OF COOKERY (MEDIEVAL AND MODERN). THE five or six centuries which we have just Gothic invasion. reviewed in the preceding pages form the golden age of cookery, but, by the arrival, or rather, irruption, of the northern races, all was changed, everything was turned upside down: to those days of glory succeeded prolonged and frightful darkness. At the appearance of those barbarians, the alimentary art disappeared with the other sciences, of which it is the companion and the comfort. Most of the cooks were massacred in the palaces where they were servants; others fled rather than regale their country's tyrants; and a small number who came to offer their services were affronted by |