s, which were always much esteemed; but, above all the
cheeses of Europe, he places the round or cylindrical ones of Auvergne,
which were only made by very clean and healthy children of fourteen years
of age. Olivier de Serres advises those who wish to have good cheeses to
boil the milk before churning it, a plan which is in use at Lodi and
Parma, "where cheeses are made which are acknowledged by all the world to
be excellent."

The parmesan, which this celebrated agriculturist cites as an example,
only became the fashion in France on the return of Charles VIII. from his
expedition to Naples. Much was thought at that time of a cheese brought
from Turkey in bladders, and of different varieties produced in Holland
and Zetland. A few of these foreign products were eaten in stews and in
pastry, others were toasted and sprinkled with sugar and powdered
cinnamon.

"Le Roman de Claris," a manuscript which belongs to the commencement of
the fourteenth century, says that in a town winch was taken by storm the
following stores were found:--:

"Maint bon tonnel de vin,
Maint bon bacon (cochon), maint fromage a rostir."

("Many a ton of wine,
Many a slice of good bacon, plenty of good roasted cheese.")

[Illustration: Table Service of a Lady of Quality

Fac-simile of a miniature from the Romance of Renaud de Montauban, a ms.
of fifteenth century Bibl. de l'Arsenal]

[Illustration: Ladies Hunting

Costumes of the fifteenth century. From a miniature in a ms. copy of
_Ovid's Epistles_. No 7231 _bis._ Bibl. nat'le de Paris.]

Besides cheese and butter, the Normans, who had a great many cows in their
rich pastures, made a sort of fermenting liquor from the butter-milk,
which they called _serat_, by boiling the milk with onions and garlic, and
letting it cool in closed vessels.

[Illustration: Fig. 99.--Manufacture of Cheeses in
Switzerland.--Fac-simile of a Woodcut in the "Cosmographie Universelle" of
Munster, folio, Basle, 1549.]

If the author of the "Menagier" is to be believed, the women who sold milk
by retail in the towns were well acquainted with the method of increasing
its quantity at the expense of its quality. He describes how his
_froumentee_, which consists of a sort of soup, is made, and states that
when he sends his cook to make her purchases at the milk market held in
the neighbourhood of the Rues de la Savonnerie, des Ecrivains, and de la
Vieille-Monnaie, he enjoins her particularly "to get very fr