224 EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSCA. 



contain about ten quarts. Pliny in his letter to Sextus 

 Erucius Clarus, says (complainiug of his not fulfilling 

 his engagement to sup with him) : — "I had prepared, 

 you must know, a lettuce apiece, three snails, two 

 *ggs, and a barley-cake, with some sweet wine and 

 <;uow."* 



In Sir Gardner Wilkinson's ' Dalmatia and Monte- 

 iegro/ he tells us that the Illyrian snails mentioned by 

 • 3 liuy are very numerous in Veglia or Veggia, the 

 Jyractica of Stra.bo. 



Both Helix pomatia and Helix as'p&rsa are eaten 



abroad to this day, and formerly in England, according 



to Dr. Gray, the glassmen at Newcastle indulged 



themselves in a snail- feast once a year, and collected 



[hem from the fields and hedgerows on the previous 



Sunday. Addison, in his ' Travels,' mentions having 



j<een a snail garden, or " escargotiere," at the Capucins, 



in Friburg. It was a square place boarded in, filled 



with a vast quantity of large snails. The floor was 



strewn about half a foot deep with several kinds of 



plants, for the snails to nestle amongst during the 



winter. When Lent arrived, their magazines were 



opened, and a ragout made of snails. In Barrois, an 



(i escargotiere " consists of a cask with the bead 



staved in, covered with a net ; or a square hole with 



the sides lined with wood, and fastened over at the top 



with an iron trellis, or with a simple hurdle made of 



light osier-sticks. The snails are placed in as they 



find them, until there are sufficient for a repast, or for 



ale. They are also kept in these places till they are 



ttened, or till they close their shells with their 



■ liphragm, which enables them to be more easily 



* Pliin's ' Letters,' vol. i. p. 30. 



