256 COOKERY OF THE PARTRIDGE 



therefore have been very early eaten by Britons. It 

 is classed by Gervase Markham a great writer on 

 all subjects of domestic economy, and no mean man 

 of letters in the early part of the seventeenth century 

 with pheasant and quail as ' the most daintiest of 

 all birds ' ; and from further remarks of Markham's it 

 is clear that he had a sound idea as to its preparation. 

 In the first place, he recommends for it and for all 

 birds the process of ' carbonadoing ' (grilling) on what 

 he carefully distinguishes as a ' broiling-iron,' an im- 

 plement which, I think, has gone out of our kitchens 

 with some loss. The broiling-iron (which, as Gervase 

 pointedly remarks, is not a gridiron) was a solid iron 

 plate, studded with hooks and points much after the 

 agreeable fashion of that Moorish form of torture 

 which in his own time was known as the ' guanches,' 

 and intended to be hung up before the fire, so that 

 smoke, &c., could not get to the bird, while the iron 

 background reflected heat against it. It thus to a 

 certain extent resembled a Dutch oven ; but, being 

 open on all sides, must have been more convenient 

 for basting, and must also have possessed that inde- 

 scribable advantage which an unlimited and un- 

 checked supply of air communicates to things grilled 

 or roasted, and which is gradually, by the disuse of 

 open fires, and the substitution of ovens under the 



