CHAPTER XXIX 



THE ART OF COOKING GAME, 



'• God sends meat" — who sends cooks ? 



"Nequaquam satis in re una consumere curam: 

 Ut si quis solum hoc, mala ne sint vina, laborct, 

 Quali perfundat pisces securus olivo." 



Do not imagine, brother Sportsman, that we are going to 

 dive into all the mysteries and complicated paraphernalia of a 

 cookery book, or, as a scientific Gormand, that we are about to 

 extol alone the pleasures, the delights, the joys of a well-spread 

 table. In extenuation, or rather in support, of our trifling 

 efforts to promote the happiness of our sporting friends, when 

 assembled around the convivial board with appetites made 

 vigorous by the manly labors of the field, we beg to call their 

 attention, for a moment, to the sage remarks of the philosophic 

 Rumford, when speaking on this subject : " The enjoyments 

 which fall to the lot of the bulk of mankind are not so nume- 

 rous as to render an attempt to increase them superfluous. And 

 even in regard to those who have it in their power to gratify 

 their appetites to the utmost extent of their wishes, it is surely 

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