me
Digby, and Sir Frederick Cornwallis, "so well known to the Nation for their
admired Hospitalities," and generally to

"the race
Of those that for the Gusto stand,
Whose tables a whole Ark command
Of Nature's plentie."

"He is an Alien, a meer Stranger in England that hath not been acquainted
with your generous housekeeping; for my own part, my more particular Tyes
of Service to you, my Honoured Lords, have built me up to the height of
this experience." His preface is a heartrending cry of regret for the good
old times before usurping Parliaments banished splendidly extravagant
gentlemen across the seas, "those golden days of Peace and Hospitality,
when you enjoy'd your own, so as to entertain and relieve others ... those
golden days wherein were practised the Triumphs and Trophies of Cookery,
then was Hospitality esteemed and Neighbourhood preserved, the Poor
cherished and God honoured; then was Religion less talk't on and more
practis't, then was Atheism and Schisme less in Fashion, and then did men
strive to be good rather than to seem so." High-souled were the _chefs_ of
the seventeenth century!

The 1669 edition of _The Closet Opened_ is evidently the first. The
interleaved example mentioned in the Catalogue of the Digby Library is of
the same date. Whoever prepared it for the press and wrote the egregious
preface "To the Reader"--Hartman, or as I think, another--gave it the
title; but it was a borrowed one. Some years earlier, in 1655, had appeared
_The Queen's Closet Opened, Incomparable Secrets which were presented unto
the Queen by the most Experienced Persons of the Times, many wherof were
had in Esteem when she pleased to descend to Private Recreation_. The
Queen, of course, is Henrietta Maria, and chief among the "Experienced
Persons" referred to was certainly her Chancellor, Digby. Possibly he may
even have suggested the printing of the collection. Like titles are met
with again and again. _Nature's Cabinet Opened_, a medical work, was
attributed to Browne, though he repudiated it. Ruthven's book I have
already alluded to. _The Queen-like Closet_, a Rich Cabinet, by Hannah
Wolly, came out in 1670.

Of the two books, the Queen's and her Chancellor's, Digby's has afforded me
by far the most delight. Though many of the receipts are evidently given as
sent in, the stamp of his personality is on the whole; and he is the poet
of all these culinary artists. But on the s