HISTORY AND COOKERY 



IN the "Gentleman's Magazine" for January, 1793, * s 

 a review of a book entitled " The Benefit of Starving ; 

 or, the Advantages of Hunger, Cold, and Nakedness ; 

 intended as a Cordial for the Poor, and an Apology for 

 the Rich." When one realises how little use we make 

 of our opportunities, he can but fancy that every one 

 has taken this book to heart and decided to live up to 

 its title. Otherwise it is hard to conceive why it is that 

 so easily cultivated a vegetable as asparagus is still an 

 expensive luxury ; or why it is that such simply grown 

 delicacies as salsify and scorzonera are still so little 

 known in England. In the course of a very amusing 

 article, James Payn once pointed out how delightful it 

 would be, when called on by folks whom we did not 

 wish to know, to return them this by post : " Mr 

 So-and-So's compliments, but he knows a great deal too 

 many people already ; " and this is the sentiment which 

 most people seem to feel towards vegetables and fruits 

 which were not given to them in their childhood. 



Asparagus, however, is no novelty, being, indeed, 

 one of the oldest of cultivated vegetables. Cato the 

 elder discussed the culture of asparagus at length, and 

 Pliny referred to it as worthy of the gardener's tenderest 

 care. In his eleventh Satire, Juvenal speaks of it as 

 one of the dishes for his feast : " Montani Asparagi, 

 posito quos legit villica fuso." This, of course, refers 

 to wild asparagus, probably the same species as that 

 which we now cultivate, and which is still found wild 

 at certain spots on the coast of Wales, Cornwall, Dorset, 

 and the Channel Isles most notably on Asparagus 



