32 



in 1780, by the well known antiquary, Dr. Samuel Pegge, a scholar 

 to whom no branch of archaeology was unfamiliar. The Arc/iceoloi^ia 

 contains pape s by him on every possible subject — coins, gla^s 

 windows, cockfighting, bull-running, horse shoeing, charter horns, 

 prehistoric implements, etc. Whatever subject was broached at 

 the meetings of the Society of Antiquaries, Dr. Samuel Pegge was 

 ready with appropriate and learned observations. 



The preamble of the roll states that this "forme of cury was 

 com|)iled of the chef Maister Cokes of Kyng Richard the Secunde, 

 Kyng of England after the Conquest, ye which was accounted ye 

 best and ryallest viander of all christian kings, and it was 

 compiled by assent and asysement of Maisters of Phisik and of 

 Philosophie thatdwellid in his court. First it techith a man for to 

 make comune pottages and comune meetis for household as they 

 should be made craftly and holsomly. Afterward it techitt for to 

 make curious pottages and meetis and sotillees for alle mane of 

 of States bothe hye ami lowe. And the techyng of the forme of 

 making of pottages and of meetis bothe of flesh and of fissh, both 

 sette here by noumbre and by order. Sso this little table here 

 servyng wole teche a man withoute taryyng to fynde what meet 

 that hym lust for to have." 



With the " Forme of Cury" is also published another contem- 

 poraneous manuscript. The technical terms of the Apician 

 cookery are puzzling enough to understand ; but the terms used 

 in the "Forme of Cury," though it is written in English, are worse: 

 even the learned and ingenious Dr. Pegge confesses that they 

 have occasioned him great perplexity. He says, " The names of 

 the dishes and sauces . . are not only many in number, but 

 are often so horrid and barbarous, to our ears at least, as to be 

 inveloped in several instances in almost impenetrable obscurity. 

 Brewet, and mortrew, payne fondewe, /arced grewel, sound almost 

 meaningless to us ; even the simplest ingredients, such as eggs, 

 are disguised under the term "eyren" and "ayren;" the en, being 

 the old English plural, and the ey or ay, the same word that we 

 have in the cits, so well known to oarsmen on the Thames, where 

 the swans lay their eggs or " eyren." 



