BARNACLE GEESE GOOSE BARNACLES. 317 



tasted one well cooked may be pardoned if the suspicion 

 cross his mind, that the " monks of old," and " the bare- 

 footed friars," as well as the laity, may not have been 

 unwilling to sustain the fiction in order that they might 

 conserve the privilege of having on their tables during the 

 long fast of Lent so agreeable and succulent a " vegetable " 

 or " fish " as a Barnacle Goose. 



