86 EARLY ANNALS OF ORNITHOLOGY 
its own prismatic feathers, but with a collar of gold, to enhance 
its gaudy appearance. Greatly did the good things shine 
torth at British festivals, when 
‘‘O’er capon, heron-shaw and crane, 
And princely peacock’s gilded train, 
And o’er the boar’s head garnished brave, 
And cygnets from St. Mary’s wave ; 
O’er ptarmigan and venison, 
The priest had spoke his benison.” 
—Sir WALTER SCOTT. 
The price of a Peacock was about one shilling, and we 
may judge how plentiful they were from George Neville’s 
banquet, to be mentioned immediately. But the Peacock 
was not the only bird in favour; there was the Swan, and 
at Henry V.’s Coronation dinner (1413) a chief ornament 
of the royal table, at which he and Katherine his consort 
were to be seated, was a Pelican. This ornithological centre 
piece was seated upon her nest, with her young birds round 
her, probably modelled in sugar and paste. A dish of this 
kind was termed a “ sutiltie,”’ a device our forefathers were 
very fond of at banquets. If this Pelican was a real bird 
it must have come from the south, as such a rarity would 
hardly have been procurable in England. Samuel Pegge’s 
“ Forme of Cury”’ (cookery) compiled by the master cooks 
of Richard JI. explains the composition of many unusual 
dishes. 
Bishops Neville and Warham.—Of all the public feasts of 
which we have any record, the most extravagant as regards 
consumption of provisions were in September, 1465, when 
Neville, the Chancellor of England, was made Archbishop of 
York,* and a few years later, when Warham was enthroned at 
Canterbury. The quantity of porpoises, seals, and fish of all 
descriptions, fresh or salted, on the second occasion, is even 
in excess of the goodly provision of birds on the first, but 
the numbers given probably represent what were ordered, not 
what were actually brought to table. 
* For the precise date, Sept. 22nd and 23rd, 1465, I am indebted to 
Mr. W. H. Mullens, 
