HISTORY AND COOKERY 101 



upon ; and the fear of the scent of bean flowers has 

 lasted in rural England down to quite recent times. 

 On the other hand the Greeks and Romans held beans 

 in high honour, many believing that they contained the 

 souls of the departed. However, there were others 

 whose admiration took a more practical form, and Pliny 

 reports that beans were eaten boiled, mixed with flour 

 and baked, served with vinegar as a hors-d'oeuvre, and 

 boiled in the green pod. Pliny also tells us that Roman 

 farmers were accustomed to plough the green bean 

 plants into the soil with a view of rendering it richer 

 and more fertile, thus forecasting our recent discovery 

 of the power of leguminous plants to obtain nitrogen 

 from the air. 



The broad bean was early introduced into England, 

 though its great value as food does not appear to have 

 been at first recognised, for we find Chaucer saying : — 



" None other lif, sayd he, is worth a Bene.'' 



The economic value of the bean, however, gradually 

 won recognition, and Fuller quotes a common saying of 

 his time : " Shake a Leicestershire yeoman by the collar, 

 and you shall hear the beans rattle in his belly " ; and 

 adds that the " yeomen smile at what is said to rattle in 

 their bellies, whilst they know good silver ringeth in 

 their pockets." 



The use of the bean in Twelfth Night elections is 

 well known, but it is interesting to find that the Greeks 

 and Romans used it extensively as an instrument of the 

 ballot. Its use at the mayoral elections in one of the 

 smaller towns of Leicestershire reduced the expenses of 

 contesting candidates to a minimum. The would-be 

 mayors having duly seated themselves so as to form a 

 semi-circular arc, each holding between his knees his 

 inverted hat full of beans, a pig was carefully driven into 

 their midst who by his first choice decided the election. 



