, which are all so many evident
and undeniable marks of the great respect which our warlike predecessors
have paid to this excellent food. The tables of the ancient gentry of
this nation were covered thrice a day with hot roast beef; and I am
credibly informed, by an antiquary who has searched the registers in
which the bills of fare of the Court are recorded, that instead of tea
and bread and butter, which have prevailed of late years, the maids of
honour in Queen Elizabeth's time were allowed three rumps of beef for
their breakfast. Mutton has likewise been in great repute among our
valiant countrymen, but was formerly observed to be the food rather of
men of nice and delicate appetites, than those of strong and robust
constitutions. For which reason, even to this day, we use the word
"sheep-biter" as a term of reproach, as we do "beef-eater" in a
respectful and honourable sense. As for the flesh of lamb, veal,
chicken, and other animals under age, they were the invention of sickly
and degenerate palates, according to that wholesome remark of Daniel the
historian,[164] who takes notice, that in all taxes upon provisions,
during the reigns of several of our kings, there is nothing mentioned
besides the flesh of such fowl and cattle as were arrived at their full
growth, and were mature for slaughter. The common people of this kingdom
do still keep up the taste of their ancestors; and it is to this that we
in a great measure owe the unparalleled victories that have been gained
in this reign: for, I would desire my reader to consider, what work our
countrymen would have made at Blenheim and Ramillies, if they had been
fed with fricassees and ragouts.

For this reason, we at present see the florid complexion, the strong
limb, and the hale constitution, are to be found chiefly among the
meaner sort of people, or in the wild gentry, who have been educated
among the woods or mountains. Whereas many great families are insensibly
fallen off from the athletic constitution of their progenitors, and are
dwindled away into a pale, sickly, spindle-legged, generation of
valetudinarians.

I may perhaps be thought extravagant in my notion; but I must confess, I
am apt to impute the dishonours that sometimes happen in great families
to the inflaming kind of diet which is so much in fashion. Many dishes
can excite desire without giving strength, and heat the body without
nourishing it; as physicians observe, that the poorest and most
d