256 COOKERY OF THE PARTRIDGE 
therefore have been very early eaten by Britons. It 
is classed by Gervase Markham—a great writer on 
all subjects of domestic economy, and no mean man 
of letters in the early part of the seventeenth century 
—with pheasant and quail as ‘the most daintiest of 
all birds’ ; and from further remarks of Markham’s it 
is clear that he had a sound idea as to its preparation. 
In the first place, he recommends for it and for all 
birds the process of ‘ carbonadoing’ (grilling) on what 
he carefully distinguishes as a ‘broiling-iron,’ an im- 
plement which, I think, has gone out of our kitchens 
with some loss. The broiling-iron (which, as Gervase 
pointedly remarks, is xof a gridiron) was a solid iron 
plate, studded with hooks and points much after the 
agreeable fashion of that Moorish form of torture 
which in his own time was known as the ‘guanches,’ 
and intended to be hung up before the fire, so that 
smoke, &c., could not get to the bird, while the iron 
background reflected heat against it. It thus to a 
certain extent resembled a Dutch oven ; but, being 
open on all sides, must have been more convenient 
for basting, and must also have possessed that inde- 
scribable advantage which an unlimited and un- 
checked supply of air communicates to things grilled 
or roasted, and which is gradually, by the disuse of 
open fires, and the substitution of ovens under the 
