,MH. W. 11. lllUWliLI- UN SOMK OU.SOLETE UlSllES. 
593 
fiafherx, and li'un which hatha raw //«.</ of the sea. 
lUit poulterers take them then and feed tliemwith v/-awVand cimh 
(that is i>Jii/8irk and /ooif) the one to xroitr, the other to /’«/ them 
in a fortnight, and their llesli thus rerruifeil is most delicious.” 
Partridges and many other birds were formerly mewed and 
fatted for the table, and when wild birds were killed preference 
was given to those which had been snared or netted — a badly shot 
bird being much objected to. The snipe, or suite as it was then 
called, was much esteemed. An old poet selects tliis bird on account 
of its daintiness when ridiculing the want of perception of one who 
considered a duck otpially good eating : 
“All non to the a ITaurioii and a kyghte. 
As j'oode an howlo as a jiopinsfaye, 
A (lowiiKhillo dokc as deynte as a snygto.” 
And all the small bird.s which could bo shot with bow and bolt were 
in retiuest, as well as the lark, the throstle, and the osnlle. The 
mention of the lust reminds us of the dish celebrated in nursery 
rhyme, when “ four and twenty blackbirds were baked in a pie.” 
We must not think from these bills of fare that the wealthy were 
always feasting. Xot only did the rules of the Church require 
frei[uent fasts, but great men often lived very quietly for a time, keep- 
ing secret house, as it was called, in an .ago when they could not go 
to Fr.ance or Switzerland to recruit their health and their finances. 
For Lent and other fasts fish was in great dem.and, and perhaps on 
that account wo find it less often than we should expect in the 
menu on other occasions. Those fish were prized which could be 
easily kept in stews or fishponds, used, as the first name shows, for 
stown'ng away for future use. Every monastery and hall had its 
fishpond, and the moats of old castles were used for the same pur- 
pose. Thus wo read of the Franklin in the Canterbury Tales : 
“ rail many a fat partridge had he in mew. 
And many a bream and many a luce in stew.” 
The tenues of a kerver for fish avere — chyne that salmon, splatte 
that pyke, sauce that tench, spl.aye that breine, tusk that barbell, 
culpon that troute, fin that chub, barbe that lobster, etc. 
As to the choice parts, we are told “ the head of a carp, the tail 
of a pike, and the belly of a bream, are most esteemed for their 
