CHAP. VII.] FARMING FOR LADIES. 171 



is considered their delicacy at that season, 

 that it is not uncommon in London to pay as 

 much for them as fifteen shillings the couple : 

 in Ireland, too, they are in great request at 

 the tables of the gentry, and are there, not 

 imaptly, called " sucking chickens." 



As to fowls " of a certain age," — as ladies 

 say — no teeth can face them. Indeed Cobbett, 

 whose palate appears to have been rather 

 more nice than we should have expected, 

 insists " that they are never good for any- 

 thing when they have attained their full 

 growth, unless they he capons or poulardes. 

 If the pullets be old enough to have little 

 eggs in them, they are not worth a farthing ; 

 and as to cocks of the same age, they are fit 

 for nothing but to make soup for soldiers on 

 a march." Although there may be some 

 truth in the remark, when they are roasted or 

 boiled, we yet do not wholly agree with it, as 

 we know that even an old hen, after having 

 for years sedulously done her duty in the 

 abundant production of eggs, and rearing 

 broods of chickens, may then close her useful 

 life with some eclat in the shape of a well 

 dressed jnllaw a la Rundell; or even in a much 



