100 



They are, even yet, much relished on some parts of the continent, and are 

 not always used from economical motives; for at Vienna, a short time since, 

 seven of them were charged, at an inn, the same as a plate of veal or beef. 

 The usual modes of preparing them for the table, are by broiling, frying them 

 in butter, or sometimes stuffing them with force-meat; but in what manner 

 soever they are dressed, their sliminess always, in a great measure, remains. 

 The greatest quantities, and the finest snails, are brought from Suabia. Dr. 

 Brown, who travelled in Vienna a century ago, remarks, that since the mar- 

 kets were so well supplied with other provisions, he was surprised to meet 

 with some odd dishes at their tables, such as guinea pigs, and divers sorts of 

 snails and tortoises. Dr. Townson was shown, at Eylau, a snailery, which 

 the proprietor informed him was constructed on an improved plan. In our 

 island, he says, this might have had the denomination of a patent snailery, or 

 philosophical snailery. It consisted only of a large hole, two or three feet 

 deep, dug in the ground, having a wooden house as a cover. The animals 

 in this place were fed on the refuse of the garden, which was thrown in to 

 them. There seems some doubt as to the original introduction of these 

 animals into England. Pennant says it was by Sir Kenelm Digby; and Da 

 Costa, that a Charles Howard, Esq., of the Arundel family, brought some of 

 them, in the last century, from Italy, in the hope of rendering them an article 

 of food; and, for this purpose, dispersed them about the woods and downs of 

 Albury, an ancient seat of that family, near Box hill, in Surry. They are 

 now to be found, in considerable plenty, not only there, but also in several 

 parts of the confines of Sussex, where 



" The snail, 

 Beneath his home, with slimy trail, 

 Crawls o'er the grass. " 



The Garden Snail (H. Hortensis) inhabits the gardens and orchards of 

 most parts of Europe, and abounds with a viscid, slimy juice, which it readily 

 gives out by boiling in milk and water, so as to render them thick and glutin- 

 ous; and the compound, especially with milk, is reckoned efficacious in con- 

 sumptions. Snails are very destructive to wall fruit; but lime and ashes, 

 sprinkled on the ground, will keep them away, and destroy the young brood. 

 Fruit, already bitten, should not be taken off the tree, for they will not touch 

 the other till they have wholly eaten the one begun, if it be left for them. 



