ST. Helen's swan pit. 99 



Mem. A swan of fifteen pounds weight requires 

 about two hours' roasting, witli a fire not too fierce. f 



To this portion of the subject may appropriately be 

 added the few references to swans in the " Northumber- 

 land Household Book," and in that of the L'Estranges 

 of Hunstanton, from which it appears that as far back 

 as Henry the Eighth's reign, cygnets were reckoned in 

 season only towards the close of the year, or at feasts 

 just before or after Christmas. In the Northumberland 

 "Accounts" (p. 107) we find copies of the "Warraunts" 

 to be "sewed out yerely" under the Earl's " Signet and 

 Signe Manuell" to the keeper and under-keepers of the 



f The following recipe for making Swan-Giblet Soup is also 

 supplied to each purchaser : — • 



" Cut 6 lbs. of the knuckle of veal, and 1 lb. of lean ham in a 

 large dish, add three onions, two turnips, one carr6t, two heads 

 of celery, a small piece of sweet basil, marjoi'am, thyme, parsley, 

 and bay leaf, and a tablespoonful of salt. Butter a stew pan lightly, 

 put in the whole of the ingredients, add five cloves, two blades of 

 mace, and half a pint of water, stew it over a brisk fire about 

 twenty minutes, when it becomes a nice light brown colour add 

 eight quarts of water, directly it boils, place it at the corner 

 of the stove, scald the giblets in boiling water, take them out and 

 cut them into joints, the gizzard in four pieces, put them into the 

 stock, and let them simmer gently until they are quite tender, 

 take them out, strain the gravy through a cloth, skim off every 

 particle of grease, put it into a clean stew pan with the giblets, 

 and thicken it with arrowroot dissolved first in cold water, but do 

 not make it too thick, finish by adding half a pint of sherry, the 

 juice of half a lemon and two grains of cayenne." 



With this modern recipe for cooking a swan may also be con- 

 trasted one amongst the recipes of the master cooks of Richard II., 

 as published in Bi'oderip's " Zoological Recreations," and termed 

 " Swann with Chaudron." " Take the liver and the offal (that is 

 the giblets) of the swans, put it to seethe in good broth, take it 

 up, take out the bones, and ' hewe' the flesh small. Make a mixture 

 of crust of bread and of the blood of the swan sodden, and put 

 thereto powder of cloves and pepper, wine and salt, and seethe it, 

 cast the flesh thereto ' hewed,' and ' mess it forth ' with the swan." 

 o 2 



