CHAPTER XL 



THE OYSTER. 



" The man had sure a palate covered o'er 

 With brass or steel, that on the rocky shore 

 First broke the ooey oyster's pearly coat, 

 And risked the living morsel down his throat." 



flHERE can be no doubt that the OYSTER was 

 the favourite shell-fish of the epicures of 

 ancient Greece and Rome. The Greeks pro- 

 cured it from Pelorus, Abydos, and Polarea ; 

 the Romans, from Brindisi, the Lucrine Lake, Brittany, 

 and the shores of Britain. We are inclined to agree with 

 Dr. Doran, that the latter were hardly worthy of the deli- 

 cacy, seeing that they abused it by mincing it up with 

 mussels and sea-hedgehogs, stewing the whole with pine- 

 almonds and pungent seasonings, and devouring the hetero- 

 geneous compound scalding. dura Romanorum ilia I 

 Their digestive powers must have almost approached 

 those of an ostrich in efficiency. Other Romans, how- 

 ever, were wise enough to eat them raw, a slave open- 

 ing them at the table as fast as his master could devour 

 them ; and the larger the fish, the more the " senatus 

 populusque Romanus" appreciated them. Not only were 



