or no person can
give his vote before he has dined) they may deliberate concerning the
public affairs. The name of their common-hall is Pythanoscome. Every one
knows his own seat, and his conveniences and a couch to repose upon when
the heat of their wine and seasoned dainties incline them to it. Their
greatest delicacies are served up at the first course; for they think it
foolish not to eat the best things with the greatest appetite: nor do
they cut their boars, sheep, goats, and lambs into joints or quarters,
as commonly we do, but convey them whole to table, by the help of
machines, as I remember to have read in Petronius Arbiter. They are
fineable who rise before they have set six hours; for then the edge of
their stomach is blunted. They eat and drink so leisurely, for the same
reason as the famous Epicure of old wished that his neck were as long as
a crane's. They measure the seasonable time for their departure after
this method: they have a door to their town-house, which is wide enough
for the largest man to enter when he is fasting: through this the guests
pass; and when any one would depart, if he stops in this passage, he is
trusted to go out at another door; but if it be as easy as if he were
fasting, the master of the ceremonies makes him tarry till he comes to
be of a statutable magnitute: after which example, Willfrid's needle in
Belvior Castle was a pleasant trial of Roman Catholic sanctity. They
have gardens of many acres extent, but not like those of Adonis or
Alcinoues; for nothing delightful is to be expected in them, neither
order, nor regularity of walk, nor grass-plots, nor variety of flowers
in the borders: but you will find all planted with cabbages, turnips,
garlick, and musk-melons, which were carried hence to Italy, and are in
quantity sufficient to feast an hundred Pythagoreans.

There is a public college, or hospital, whither they are sent who have
got the dropsy, gout, or asthma, by their eating and drinking; and there
they are nourished at the public expense. As for such as have lost their
teeth by their luxury, or broken them by eating too greedily or
incautiously, they are provided for in the island of Sorbonia. All the
richer sort have several servants, in the nature of vassals, to
cultivate their gardens, and be employed in inferior offices, who have
their liberty when they can arrive at such a bulkiness. If any of the
grandees of the country die of a surfeit, he is given, as being al