Hints for the table: or, the economy of good living / [Anon].

  • John Timbs
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hints for the table: or, the economy of good living / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of the value of one penny in England, costs there three- pence, and a quart of goat’s milk nearly two shillings. In the West Indies, the iguana, a species of lizard, which lives upon flowers and the blossoms of trees, is eaten in fricassees and pies. It is said to he very delicate, and to re- semble turtle in flavour. English tavern keepers simply give notice by public ad- vertisement of their intention to “ dress a line lively turtle” on such a day; but the Yankee, more atrociously, writes in chalk upon the devoted animal’s back, “ Soup to-morrow,” and places him on parade before his hotel; thus basely making him a party to his own murder, and deluding him, in defiance of all the laws of nations, to advertise his own execution. Though the American gentlemen drink more than any other gentlemen, the lower orders in America are more tem- perate than in England. In American towns, the loftiest roofs are invaribly those of its taverns, which are so many pyramids in honour of brandy and mint-juleps. The King and Queen of the Sandwich Islands and their suite, who visited this country in the year 1825, were wan- tonly charged with gluttony and drunkenness by persons who ought to have known better. “ It is true,” observes Lord Byron, in his Voyage to the Sandwich Islands, “ that, imaccustomed to our habits, they little regarded regular hours for meals, and that they liked to eat frequently, though not to excess. Their greatest luxury was oysters, of which they were particularly fond; and one day, some of the chiefs having been out to walk, and seeing a grey mullet, instantly seized it and carried it home, to the great delight of the whole party; who, on recognizing the native fish of their own seas, could scarcely believe that it had not swam hither on purpose for them, or be persuaded to wait till it was cooked before they ate it.” The best proof of their moderation is, however, that the charge at Osborne’s Hotel, in the Adelphi, during their residence there, amounted to no greater an average than seventeen shillings
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