SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 179 



roots of roses set among broom, will bring forth yellow Roses." 

 He suggests that sow thistles should be planted, as " they 

 will maintain " calves, lambs, pigs . . . and millions of 

 rabbits, and Jerusalem Artichokes, because they would feed 

 poultry and swine. Some of his remarks, however, are more 

 sensible ; for instance, he observes, of potatoes, " they will 

 make very good bread, cakes, paste, and pyes . . . increase 

 of themselves in a very plentiful manner, with very little 

 labour ; they will likewise grow and thrive very well, being 

 cut in slices, and so put into the earth." 



Vegetable pies and tarts seem not to have been unusual ; 

 Markham, in The English Housewife, 1637, gives several recipes, 

 one for "spinage tart " flavoured with cinnamon, rose water and 

 sugar ; another of spinach, sorell, parsley, and eggs. He gives 

 also long lists of varieties of salads, " Cookery sallats," such as 

 " boyled carrets," radishes skirrets ;— " simple sallats, onions, 

 lettuce, samphire, Beanecods, sparagus or cucumbers," served 

 with oil, vinegar, and sugar; and "compound sallats," which 

 "are usuall at great feasts and upon Princes' tables;" 

 these consist of, " first the young Buds and knots of herbs," 

 such as " Red sage, mints, lettice, violets, marigolds, spinage " 

 . , . also " cabbage done with cucumber, currants, orange, 

 lemons, olives, figs, and almonds." Carrots were used for 

 adorning dishes, cut into " scutchions, arms, birds or beasts." 

 Lamb and mutton should be garnished, he says, with prunes 

 or currants, and fish with barberries."^ 



Among the quantities of varieties of fruits of which we have 

 given some examples in a former chapter, Austen gives a selection 

 of the best. He commends among apples, the summer and 

 winter Pearmain, the small pippin, the Harvey, the Queene and 

 the Gilloflour. Out of the four to five hundred sorts of pears, 

 he selects the " Winsor " and " Sommer Bergamot." " But for 

 a constant bearing kind I know none better than the Catherine 

 peare " ; — " Greenefield excellent . . . will last indifferent well, 

 a great bearer ; " — " Choke peare, accounted a speciall kind, for 



» The price paid for one pound of Barberries in 1618, was 3s. — Le Strange, 

 Houseliold Accounts. 



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