HEDGEHOG. ° 359 
to bed early, as she must be tired; and,” said he, “I recom- 
mend to you a little Gruel before you go; you and I will have 
a nice basin of Gruel together. My dear Emma” (the elder 
daughter), “suppose we all have a little Gruel together!” 
“Thin Gruel,” writes Austin Dobson in a certain Preface, 
“once moved a noble Earl to poetry for a contemporary 
keepsake.” Derisively in some of the casual wards of the 
London workhouses the Gruel given to able-bodied paupers 
passes under the name of “ Skilly,”’ a word perhaps first derived 
from the skillet (Latin, Scutella, a small dish, or plate), which 
vessel was formerly used in heating a drink over the fire. 
From the same word Sceutella our scullery, or dishery, is 
obtained ; hence also a scullion, a dish-washer. In Lear’s Book 
of Nonsense, so beloved by children, they gain acquaintance with 
an odd dish of the food under notice :— 
* There was an old person of Ewell 
Who chiefly subsisted on gruel. 
But to make it more nice he inserted some mice, 
Which refreshed that old person of Ewell.” 
Oatmeal Gruel may be made by boiling from one to two ounces 
of the meal with three pints of water, down to two pints, then 
straining the decoction, and pouring off the thinner liquid when 
cool. Its flavour can be improved by adding split raisins 
towards the end of boiling, or sugar, and nutmeg (grated). To 
_ “get one’s gruel” is a slang term for being severely punished, 
or disabled, or slain, perhaps deservedly. ‘“ He shall have his 
gruel, said one.” (Guy Mannering, Cap. xxvii). 
HARE (See Game.) 
A provers of our sagacious sires has taught that “He who 
would have a Hare for breakfast must hunt overnight.” 
HEDGEHOG. 
Famiuiar in country districts throughout England is the 
Hedgehog, Hedgepig, or Urchin, a small animal armed with 
prickly spines, being of nocturnal habits, feeding by night on 
insects, and such prey, and sleeping by day under dead leaves, 
or similar herbage. When captured, and domesticated, the 
Hedgehog will clear the kitchen of beetles, cockroaches, mice, 
