272 LEAVES FROM THE 



At a much later period, a well-known ' special attorney/ 

 who had fought his way well on every other stage, found 

 himself no match for those who surrounded him on 

 Lord- mayor's Day. Whenever he endeavoured to transfer 

 a fat slice from the savoury haunch before him to his 

 own plate, it was instantly speared by the forks of the 

 foragers near him, and borne away to thehs, till at last 

 he was compelled to resign the unequal contest, and lay 

 down his dinner arms in despair, though he had got well 

 into ' The Alderman's Walk/ And yet civic hospitality 

 does its best to enable the catechists who are invited to 

 do their duty towards their neighbours, as far as plenty 

 is concerned. At a turtle-feast, the usual allowance was, 

 perhaps is — for there has been no falling off of late in 

 festal liberality — six pounds, live weight, per head. Thus, 

 in August, 1808, at the Spanish dinner, at the City of 

 London Tavern, 400 guests consumed 2500 lbs. of turtle, 

 if the newspapers of that day are worthy of credence. 

 When we remember that the turtle is but the prologue 

 to the play, we may form some notion of the perform- 

 ances of these valiant trenchermen, who must have gone 

 near to rival the feats of some of the ancient heroes of 

 the table. They, indeed, have left on record gastric 

 achievements to be envied by aldermen of the most 

 giant appetite. Did not Maximin consume forty pounds 

 of flesh in a day — nay, occasionally sixty pounds — 

 moistening his repast with a vessel of wine of the Capitol 

 measure, coutaining about eight of our gallons? Great as 

 he was in more senses than one, the brutal emperor, 

 however, mvtst yield the palm to Phagon, who at one 

 dinner consumed a whole boar, a hundred loaves, a 

 wether, and a little hog, washing all do'v\Ti with more 

 than an orca of wine. Claudius Albinus seems to have 

 had a sweet tooth, and a more refined taste; for one of 

 his meals consisted of five hundred dried figs, the calli- 

 struthiae of the Greeks, one hundred Campanian peaches. 



