VEGETABLE AND FRUIT MARKETS. 367 



rhubarb, cauliflowers, and cabbages. The asparagus and 

 rhubarb are gigantic, the rhubarb more especially, which is 

 often brought to market three and four feet in length, and of the 

 size of a woman s arm some women of course excepted. The 

 early asparagus is forced under glass ; the later is forced in the 

 open ground by all the appliances of manure. The quantity of 

 rhubarb consumed is enormous, for it comes not in baskets, but 

 piled up in four-horse wagons in bulk. The asparagus shows 

 the want of sun, and appears as if grown in a cellar, the mere 

 head of the early kinds being the only part eatable. I think 

 Cobbett somewhere says, that &quot; the English do not know how 

 to eat asparagus, for they always begin at the white end.&quot; I 

 have not myself observed among them any remarkable deficiency 

 of gastronomical science ; but certainly, in this case, they have 

 not far to go to find a white end. Sea-kale or Scotch kale is 

 very much eaten early in the season. It is blanched under cover, 

 and is a delicious vegetable, that is, for those whose taste agrees 

 with mine. The Jerusalem artichoke seems a favorite vege 

 table with most persons.* 



One of the principal vegetables found in the market, and this 

 at all seasons, is cauliflower ; and it is certainly grown here in 

 perfection. They are sown, for the next year s use. some time in 

 August, in hotbeds, and are transplanted into the open ground in 

 February. They, of course, before being transplanted, are cul 

 tivated under glass, and for some time after they require protec 

 tion. They are a frequent, and almost an invariable dish at 

 well-furnished tables. Cabbages likewise are brought into the 

 market with a profusion absolutely astounding, which itself 



* In this case I am in the minority. I have not studied under Mrs. Briggs, or 

 Dr. Kitchener, or I would inform my readers how they are cooked. Under mod 

 ern refinements, meats, and vegetables, and fruits, come to table as much dis 

 guised, as were men and women at the late bal-costume of the queen, when nothing 

 nearer than engages or attaches knew each other, and that, either by magnetic 

 clairvoyance or previous arrangement ; and it is said, (I do not vouch for its truth,) 

 some nobleman addressed his valet as &quot; my lord ; &quot; and some gentlemen, like the 

 Smithfield drovers in penning their cattle at night, as I have described, had to 

 look carefully for some private mark, to be sure that they had got their own wives 

 to carry home with them. I would not insinuate that the English wives, exem 

 plary as they are for their fidelity, Avere not as anxious to be found, as their hus 

 bands were to find them. Sometimes I agree in a remark, often quoted by per 

 sons who are not very abstemious in the use of strong language, that &quot; Heaven 

 sends us meats, but&quot; 1 had rather not say who &quot; sends us cooks.&quot; 



