THE PLUM. (5L 



Though large supplies of fresh-gathered plums are im- 

 ported into England from the other side of the Channel, 

 as many as 25 tons of this fruit being sometimes brought 

 thence to London in a single night by the South-Eastern 

 Railway route alone, yet in France the plum is looked 

 on far less as an article for immediate consumption than 

 as a provision for winter a fact, indeed, so thoroughly 

 acknowledged here that the very term " French Plum " 

 seems necessarily to imply a dried fruit. The most 

 recherche preparation which comes to us under that 

 title is that made from the large yellow Brignole Plums, 

 grown chiefly near the town of that name in Provence. 

 When these are fully ripe, the trees are slightly shaken, 

 and the rich produce gently descends, Jupiter-like, in a 

 shower of gold, upon cloths spread to receive it, and is 

 set aside in a dry place until the next day, when the vic- 

 tims are condemned to be deprived of their skins. As it 

 is recorded that one of the Champions of Christendom 

 meekly accepted his doom of death on condition that it 

 should be inflicted by the hands of a virgin, we may sup- 

 pose that if the fate of Marsyas can possibly be made 

 acceptable, it may be so to these martyrs of Brignole, 

 when it is ordained that they are to be flayed solely by 

 the nails of women, who keep constantly dipping their 

 hands in water in order that they may perform the opera- 

 tion quite coolly ; for as the rude touch of any iron wea- 

 pon would mar their delicate colour and transparency, 

 the use of any such is strictly forbidden. After being 

 left skinless in the sun for several days, they are then 

 impaled on pointed osier rods, and exposed for several 

 successive days to warmth and air, all damp being care- 

 fully guarded against; their stones are then extracted, 

 they are pressed into rounded shape, and put away covered 

 with woollen cloths until required for sale, when they are 

 duly coffined in little round flat boxes made of willow 

 and lined with a shroud of white paper cut at the edges, 

 having, through manifold inflictions, become refined into 

 a most super-excellent sweetmeat. The more common, 

 but still very superior ordinary " French Plum," is also 

 mostly prepared from Provence Plums, which, as being 



