ruised, to make
sauce for a single peacock."

This bird is one of those luxuries which were often sought, because
they were seldom found: its scarcity and external appearance are
its only recommendation; the meat of it is tough and tasteless.

Another favourite dish at the tables of our forefathers, was a PIE
of stupendous magnitude, out of which, on its being opened, a flock
of living birds flew forth, to the no small surprise and amusement
of the guests.

"Four-and-twenty blackbirds baked in a pie;
When the pie was open'd, the birds began to sing--
Oh! what a dainty dish--'t is fit for any king."

This was a common joke at an old English feast. These _animated_
pies were often introduced "to set on," as Hamlet says, "a quantity
of barren spectators to laugh;" there is an instance of a dwarf
undergoing such an _incrustation_. About the year 1630, king
Charles and his queen were entertained by the duke and dutchess of
Buckingham, at Burleigh on the Hill, on which occasion JEFFERY
HUDSON, _the dwarf_, was served up in a cold pie.--See WALPOLE'S
_Anecdotes of Painting_, vol. ii. p. 14.

The BARON OF BEEF was another favourite and substantial support of
old English hospitality.

Among the most polished nations of the 15th and 16th centuries, the
_powdered_ (salted) _horse_, seems to have been a dish in some
esteem: _Grimalkin_ herself could not escape the undistinguishing
fury of the cook. Don Anthony of Guevera, the chronicler to Charles
V., gives the following account of a feast at which he was present.
"I will tell you no lye, I sawe such kindes of meates eaten, as are
wont to be sene, but not eaten--_as a_ HORSE _roasted_--a CAT _in
gely_--LYZARDS in hot brothe, FROGGES fried," &c.

While we are thus considering the curious dishes of olden times, we
will cursorily mention the _singular diet_ of two or three nations
of antiquity, noticed by _Herodotus_, lib. iv. "The _Androphagi_
(the cannibals of the ancient world) greedily devoured the
carcasses of their fellow-creatures; while the inoffensive _Cabri_
(a Scythian tribe) found both food and drink in the agreeable nut
of the Pontic tree. The _Lotophagi_ lived entirely on the fruit of
the _Lotus tree_. The savage _Troglodyte_ esteemed a _living
serpent_ the most delic