true knightly eater, who, besides roast goose, liked to indulge in

"Bread and wine,
Piment and clarry good and fine;
Cranes and swans, and venison;
Partridges, plovers, and heron,--

was neither dainty nor over-nice. At a pinch he could eat any thing, which
on sundry emergencies stood him in great stead. _Wax_ and _nuts_, and
tallow and grease mixed, carried him through one campaign, when the enemy
thought to have starved out the English army and its cormorant commander.
The courage and strength of Richard were always redoubled after dinner. It
was then his greatest feats were performed.--_Romance of Coeur de Lion_.

The livers of geese and poultry are esteemed a great delicacy by some
_gourmands_; and on the continent great pains are taken to procure fat
overgrown livers. The methods employed to produce this diseased state of
the animals are as disgusting to rational taste as revolting to humanity.
The geese are crammed with fat food, deprived of drink, kept in an
intolerably hot atmosphere, and fastened by the feet (we have heard of
nailing) to the shelves of the fattening cribs. The celebrated _Strasburg
pies_, which are esteemed so great a delicacy that they are often sent as
presents to distant places, are enriched with these diseased livers. It is
a mistake that these pies are wholly made of this artificial animal
substance.

* * * * *

TURKEY

Colonel Rottiers, a recent traveller in Turkey, holds out the following
temptation to European enterprise:--

The terrestrial paradise, which is supposed to be situated in Armenia,
appeared to M. Rottiers to stretch along the shores of the Black Sea. The
green banks, sloping into the water, are sometimes decked with box-trees
of uncommon size, sometimes clothed with natural orchards, in which
the cherries, pears, pomegranates, and other fruits, growing in their
indigenous soil, possess a flavour indescribably exquisite. The bold
eminences are crowned with superb forests or majestic ruins, which
alternately rule the scenes of this devoted country, from the water's
edge to the summit of the mountains. The moral and political condition
of the country contrasts forcibly with the flourishing aspect of nature.
At Sinope there is no commerce, and the Greeks having, in consequence,
deserted the place, the population is at present below 5,000. This city,
once the capital of the great Mithridates, enjoys natural advanta