CHAP, vii r.] BRITISH OYSTER-EATERS. 345 



oystor-lover ; so was Eousseau ; and Marshall Turgot used to 

 eat a hundred or two, just to whet his appetite for breakfast. 

 Invitations to a dish of oysters were common in the literary 

 and artistic circles of Paris at the latter end of last century. 

 The Encyclopedists were particularly fond of oysters. Hel- 

 vetius, Diderot, the Abbe Eaynal, Voltaire, and others, were 

 confirmed oyster-men. Before the Eevolution, the violent 

 politicians were in the habit of constantly frequenting the 

 Parisian oyster-shops ; and Danton, Eobespierre, and others, 

 were fond of the oyster in their days of innocence. The great 

 Napoleon, on the eve of his battles, used to partake of the 

 bivalve ; and Cambaceres was famous for his shell-fish 

 banquets. Even at this day the consumption of oysters in 

 Paris is enormous. According to recent statistics the quantity 

 eaten there is one million per day ! 



Among our British celebrities, Alexander Pope was an 

 oyster-eater of taste, and so was Dean Swift, who was fond 

 of lobsters as well. Thomson, of The Seasons, who knew 

 all good things, knew how good a thing an oyster was. The 

 learned Dr. Eichard Bentley could never pass an oyster-shop 

 without having a few ; and there have been hundreds of 

 subsequent Englishmen who, without coming up to Bentley 

 in other respects, have resembled him in this. The Scottish 

 philosophers, too, of the last century Hume, Dugald Stewart, 

 Cullen, etc. used frequently to indulge in the "whiskered 

 pandores" of their day and generation. " Oyster-ploys," as 

 they were called, were frequently held in the quaint and 

 dingy taverns of the Old Town of Edinburgh. These Edin- 

 burgh oyster-taverns of the olden time were usually situated 

 under-ground, in the cellar-floor ; and, even in the course of 

 the long winter evenings, the carriages of the quality folks 

 would be found rattling up, and setting down fashionable 

 ladies, to partake of oysters and porter, plenteously but rudely 

 served. What oysters have been to the intellect of Edin- 



