HISTORY AND COOKERY 53 



colour of its root, which is dark brown. It is, compared 

 with salsify, a new vegetable to cultivation, for, whilst 

 the latter seems to have grown in ancient Greece, and 

 was referred to by Olivier de Serres in the sixteenth 

 century, scorzonera does not appear to have been grown 

 in gardens for much longer than a century. Celery is 

 another vegetable with a history, for it is mentioned by 

 Homer, and even as a cultivated vegetable by so ancient 

 a writer as Pliny. It is one of those vegetables which is 

 but half used, for, although popular, it is served in 

 England usually in but one or two ways, whereas it 

 lends itself to the utmost variety according to the art 

 and ingenuity of the cook. 



" Gross are they who see in eating and drinking 

 nought but grossness. Gluttony is a vice only when it 

 leads to stupid inartistic excess." So writes Mrs 

 Pennell in her delightful " Feasts of Autolycus," a 

 book known and treasured by everyone who appreciates 

 "fine" eating and tasteful menus. The importance of 

 the subjects of food, cookery and digestion, has always 

 been recognised, as is illustrated by such proverbs as : 

 " A good cook keeps out the physician," " Better 

 dinners, better tempers," " Wisdom proceedeth neither 

 from him who is hungry nor from him who is full," 

 " Diplomacy lieth under the dish cover," and the like. 

 Indeed, there is much wisdom in the saying of Brillat- 

 Savarin that "of all the bodily functions, digestion is that 

 which has most influence on the morale of the individual 

 his feelings and mental condition." 



Once, no doubt, man had such difficulty in obtaining 

 from nature the flesh and fruits needed to ward off 

 starvation, that when a stroke of luck brought him deer 

 or other beast he settled down to feast to utter repletion, 

 knowing not when such a meal might again come his 

 way. Many people seem to cling to this old tradition 

 even now, and our big dinners and banquets though 



