THE MTTLBEBBY. 225 



with pepper and salt * is a dish few would not relish 

 and find vastly preferable to the insipid preparation known 

 as pumpkin pie. Perhaps the best mode of obtaining that 

 delicacy is the one followed by the villagers in some parts 

 of England, who cut a hole in the side of their pumpkins, 

 scoop out the seeds and stringy part, then stuffing the 

 cavity with apples and spice, bake the whole, and eat the 

 case and its contents together. Plainly boiled in water, 

 the Pumpkin may be eaten, like its relative the Vegetable 

 Marrow, as a vegetable, but the tender tops of the shoots 

 of the plant, boiled Jike greens, are superior to the fruit 

 for this purpose. In judging of the latter, mere size and 

 weight carry the day, for there being very little difference 

 of quality in a fruit having as its best so little preten- 

 sions to flavour, quantity becomes the chief consideration. 

 In this respect the Mammoth Gourd, or large American 

 Pumpkin, towers supreme over the mightiest of its 

 brethren, weighing sometimes over 200 Ibs., and which, 

 exceeding in its vast dimensions the requirements of 

 any single family consumption, is mostly sold in London 

 shops in slices at the price of about 2d. per Ib. 



In France a ceremony is yearly observed in which the 

 " King of the Pumpkins," i.e., the largest which has been 

 brought to market, is promenaded in state like the Bceuf 

 (jras on Shrove Tuesday. In 1861, His Majesty had 

 attained the gigantic dimensions of 10 ft. in circumfe- 

 rence and weighed 242 Ibs. a mass beyond anything 

 ever attained by English growers. 



Clumsily bulky in its huge growth, yet offering but few 

 charms to the taster, the Pumpkin early furnished a com- 

 parison for persons whose heads were larger than their 

 intellects ; and which, it would seem, " the world would 

 not willingly let die," since it has survived from the time 

 of Tertullian to the present day, the initial letter only 

 slightly hardening when we now apply to a thick-headed 

 clown the appellation of a bumpkin. 



* The most economical recipe for this excellent soup is as follows : 1 Ib. 

 pumpkin sliced and boiled in water till soft enough to pulp through a co- 

 lander into a half-pint of hot milk ; season, stir till smooth, give one boil 

 and then serve. 



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