258 COOKERY OF THE PARTRIDGE 



them hot, with whatever accompaniments of bread- 

 sauce, bread-crumbs, fried potatoes, or the like he 

 pleases ; and those which are left to get cold he will eat 

 exactly as they are for breakfast, with no condiment but 

 salt and a little cayenne pepper. He will thus have 

 one of the best things for dinner, and the very best 

 thing for breakfast, that exists. The birds in roasting 

 may be waistcoated, like quails, with bacon and vine- 

 leaves if anybody likes, but with good basting and good 

 birds it is not necessary. The more utterly ' simple of 

 themselves,' as Sir John Falstaffsaid in another matter, 

 they are kept the better. This is the counsel of per- 

 fection if they are good birds of the old kind, young, 

 wild, properly hung, and properly cooked. 



But counsels of perfection are apt to pall upon 

 mankind : and moreover, unfortunately they are not 

 invariably listened to by partridges. There are par- 

 tridges which are not of the pure old kind there 

 are (fortunately perhaps in some ways, unfortunately 

 in others) a great many of them. There are partridges 

 which are not young, and which no amount of 

 hanging will make so. There are partridges which 

 have not eaten ants' eggs, or have in their own self- 

 willed fashion not eaten them sufficiently to give 

 them the partridge flavour. And there are human 

 beings who are either incapable of appreciating roast 



