88 SNA1L-EAT1NO. 



from the time of the Romans to the present day. Only a few 

 years ago the habitue of the inns of Vienna could as easily 

 obtain his dish of Snails as a joint cf mutton or beef ; and in 

 Switzerland they are still regularly fattened for sale, and during 

 the season of Lent become an important article of trade. In 

 former times, indeed, the Snail always of course understanding 

 that H. pomatia is the individual meant was admitted to our 

 own tables : and Kobert May, the Soyer of his time, has left us 

 several receipts for cooking them, amongst the curiosities of his 

 fifty years' experience. Ben Jonson, again, in his " Every Man 

 in his Humour," mentions the dish as a delicacy : 



" Neither have I 



Dress'd snails or mushrooms curiously before him ;" 



while Lister, in his " Historia Animalium Anglia;," refers to 

 the Snail as, in his day, an ordinary article of food. But, for 

 some reason or other, the much-prized delicacy of former days 

 has now lost its repute amongst us, and excepting in the case 

 of the Newcastle glass-blowers, who are said to hold an annual 

 feast, in which the common Garden Snail furnished the central 

 dish is entirely banished, it seems, from our tables, without the 

 remotest prospect of its ever again appearing thereon. 



Once, indeed, two great philosophers, lamenting over the per- 

 verse and unreasonable antipathy of the age in rejecting an 

 article of food at once so abundant and nutritious, determined to 

 set the example of a return to the wiser custom of former days ; 

 and with the story of that patriotic resolve, we must bring to a 

 close this already too extended dissertation. The benevolent 

 individuals in question were the two great chemical philoso- 

 phers of Scotland, Dr. Black and Dr. Hutton particular friends, 

 though extremely opposite in their appearance and manner, and 

 in nothing more than in their style of language. Dr. Black 

 spoke with the English pronunciation, with punctilious accuracy 

 of expression both in point of manner and matter while, on the 

 contrary, Dr. Button's conversation was conducted in broad 

 phrases and expressed with a broad Scotch accent, which often 

 heightened the humour of what he said. The two doctors were 

 agreed that it was the height of folly to abstain from Snails, and 

 would show their superiority to such a vulgar prejudice. Some 

 Snails were accordingly procured, dieted for a time, and then 



