124 MEALS MEDICINAL. 
recipe orders thus: ‘ Pound your cockroaches in a mortar, 
put them in a sieve, and pour over them boiling water, or hot 
beef-stock ; this constitutes a delicious, and nutritive plat, 
preferable to bisque.” 
Plain Broths, and Soups may be poured over crusts (croutons) 
which have been prepared as follows for weakly persons needing 
fat, and bodily warmth, whilst the digestion is fair : ‘‘ Remove 
the crusts from slices of stale loaves, cut into small dice, and then 
drop them into boiling butter ; shake very gently, but thoroughly, 
till of a light golden brown; when done, which will be in about 
a minute, take them up with a skimmer, and lay them in the 
mouth of the oven on brown paper to dry. The butter must 
nearly cover'the bread, and must be boiling.” 
Herrick mentions a quaint belief which persons formerly 
entertained—that it is lucky to carry a small piece of dry conse- 
crated bread in the pocket against terrors by day or night :— 
“If ye fear to be affrighted, 
If ye are by chance benighted, 
In your pocket for a trust 
Carry nothing but a crust: 
For, that holy piece of bread 
Charms the danger, and the dread.” 
BUN. 
Tue ordinary sweet Bun was originally ‘“‘ Bugne,” a sort of 
fritter, a kind of bread made with sugar in it, and baked in cakes, 
generally round. The first mention of Buns occurs in a comedy 
of 1676; and eighteenth-century literature makes many allusions 
to this new form of pastry. The name “ bugne ”’ signified 
“a lump,” and (absit omen!) “a bunion.” Nowadays this 
popular comestible as a makeshift form of food is spongy, and 
filling at the price. A plain penny Bun is to be considered more 
wholesome than the spiced varieties of Bath, and Chelsea. 
Specially taxing to digestion is the British Museum Bun. In 
Devon, large, satisfying Buns, made yellow with saffron, are 
known as “* stodgers,”’ or “‘ busters.” Mr. Tom: Ward, a baker 
at Tiverton, used some years ago to manufacture a batch of these 
Buns, very big, which he sold at one penny each; children, on 
going into his shop, would invariably say, “ Plaize I wants a 
penny stodger”; or others would ask for “a penny buster.” 
_ Bath Buns date back to Roman times as to both composition, 
and shape, the latter being that of the classic “ placenta.” 
