54 PARTRIDGES 



bear comparison with any other game 

 bird. Gastronomically considered, a 

 plump young English partridge must be 

 conceded high place among the good things 

 of this world. But he must be young 

 and he must be English, for no amount 

 of hanging will make a real old bird 

 tender, while the Frenchman is a very 

 inferior article in this respect, lacking 

 the natural juices and delicate flavour of 

 our native bird. 



Given young birds, well-conditioned 

 and properly hung, there is but one way 

 to use them to the best advantage, and 

 that the simplest. They should be roasted 

 on the spit in front of a fire made up 

 in such a manner as to produce more 

 flame than glowing embers, cooking them 

 not enough to make them dry, yet 

 sufficiently to avoid all appearance of 

 being underdone. The birds while being 

 roasted may be partly covered with a 

 thin slice of larding bacon; this shields 

 the fillets of the bird from drying, while 

 the legs, which the heat takes much 



