eal was reckoned the best. In fact, calves intended for
the tables of the upper classes were fed in a special manner: they were
allowed for six months, or even for a year, nothing but milk, which made
their flesh most tender and delicate. Contrary to the present taste, kid
was more appreciated than lamb, which caused the _rotisseurs_ frequently
to attach the tail of a kid to a lamb, so as to deceive the customer and
sell him a less expensive meat at the higher price. This was the origin of
the proverb which described a cheat as "a dealer in goat by halves."

In other places butchers were far from acquiring the same importance which
they did in France and Belgium (Figs. 90 and 91), where much more meat was
consumed than in Spain, Italy, or even in Germany. Nevertheless, in
almost all countries there were certain regulations, sometimes eccentric,
but almost always rigidly enforced, to ensure a supply of meat of the best
quality and in a healthy state. In England, for instance, butchers were
only allowed to kill bulls after they had been baited with dogs, no doubt
with the view of making the flesh more tender. At Mans, it was laid down
in the trade regulations, that "no butcher shall be so bold as to sell
meat unless it shall have been previously seen alive by two or three
persons, who will testify to it on oath; and, anyhow, they shall not sell
it until the persons shall have declared it wholesome," &c.

To the many regulations affecting the interests of the public must be
added that forbidding butchers to sell meat on days when abstinence from
animal food was ordered by the Church. These regulations applied less to
the vendors than to the consumers, who, by disobeying them, were liable to
fine or imprisonment, or to severe corporal punishment by the whip or in
the pillory. We find that Clement Marot was imprisoned and nearly burned
alive for having eaten pork in Lent. In 1534, Guillaume des Moulins, Count
of Brie, asked permission for his mother, who was then eighty years of
age, to cease fasting; the Bishop of Paris only granted dispensation on
condition that the old lady should take her meals in secret and out of
sight of every one, and should still fast on Fridays. "In a certain town,"
says Brantome, "there had been a procession in Lent. A woman, who had
assisted at it barefooted, went home to dine off a quarter of lamb and a
ham. The smell got into the street; the house was entered. The fact being
established, the wom