CHAPTER XII. 



THE OYSTER IN SEASON. 



THE R. CANON CORRECT PROFITABLE INVESTMENT BILLINGSGATE 

 AND LONDON CONSUMPTION ENGLISH OYSTER-BEDS JERSEY 

 OYSTERS FRENCH OYSTER-BEDS ON THE COAST OF BRITTANY 

 OYSTERS NOT EATABLE IN JULY STORY OF THE " GROTTO " 

 GEORGE IV.'S "ACT." 



I HAVE oftentimes been told that it is a mere question of 

 fastidiousness, or fashion, that oysters should be served for 



human food only at a certain fixed period of the year 

 " Those four sad months wherein is mute 

 That one mysterious letter that has power 

 To call the oyster from the vasty deep," 



those months possessing the letter r being proverbially 

 the only months when the oyster is fit for human food. 



Why not, such reasoners have said, eat oysters all the 

 year round ? Life is short. Why not obtain the first of 

 gastronomical enjoyments every month of the year and 

 every day of the month ? I can in no manner go with 

 these opinions, either from my practical knowledge of the 

 oyster or from any just reasoning, (a] 



Everyone is familiar with the saying that oysters ought 

 only to be eaten in the months which have an r in them 



(a) " The Oyster," &c. 



