238 COOKERY OF THE HAKE 



subject of our discussion among them— into the 

 London market, and if the question be one of pur- 

 chase, the exercise of a wise discretion is absolutely 

 necessary. Happy are they who either kill their own 

 hares, or receive them from friends in the country, 

 for concerning such there need be no uncertainty. 

 The only alternative is to make a personal friend of 

 your game-dealer, and place your case entirely in his 

 hands. As I hope presently to show, he is in a 

 position to know where his hares come from, how they 

 were killed, and the day on which they ought to be 

 eaten. 



Why is this discrimination indispensable ? Well, 

 has it not been explained already in the Cookery 

 sections of previous volumes of ' Fur and Feather ' 

 that, critically speaking, a very great difference exists 

 in the edible quality of pheasants and partridges 

 according to the conditions in which they are reared 

 and fed, and the manner of their being brought to 

 bag ? Connoisseurs have laid down the rule that part- 

 ridges killed in one county are better than those of 

 another, and that pheasants artificially bred and 

 specially fed are not to be compared with birds reared 

 in a naturally wild state, and self-fed according to the 

 resources of wood, field, and hedgerow. It is, more- 

 over, a fact well known by those who have studied the 



