We have yet to consider two important works in the French language which were very popular about the middle of last century. The one, ‘ Le Cuisinier Moderne,’ is by Vincent La Chapelle, chef de cuisine to the Prince of Orange and Nassau (second edition, Hague, 1742). It is a beautifully written, exhaustive treatise, in five octavo volumes, full of information and instruction. In his pre- face the author exposes a plagiarism on the part of the editor of a new issue of a work which we have quoted above, note p. 32, as the ‘ Cuisinier Eoyal et Bourgeois,' to which now, however, the name and title of ‘ La Chapelle ’ were fraudulently prefixed. The other work, published re- peatedly at Paris (we have the edition of 1758 before us, but it is not stated what place it takes in the series of editions) in three largo duodecimo volumes, of together more than 1,200 pages, is entitled ‘ Les Dons de Comus, ou I’Art de la Cuisine r^duit en Pratique.’ This also is a highly accomplished work, as already indicated by its preface, and fully borne out by its text, and refreshing by its correct historically true nomenclature. In some of its menus the work exhibits a tendency to mannerism, e.g., to dinners and suppers limited to one kind of meat only, tout en boeuf, or veal, or mutton, or even tout 36 THE SPIRIT OF COOKERY en cochon. The author finds such arrangements to be results of caprice, and soon leaves them for what he calls simple and natural ones. We shall have to refer lower down to some special features of these works, to which we must limit any further observations. In 1802 was begun at Paris the publication of a duodecimo annual volume, entitled ‘ Almanach des Gourmands.’* It was conceived and carried out with the aid of contributors by one Grimod de la Eeyniere, known as a culinary author only, and the subject of an interesting bit of biography. He was the grandson of Gaspard Grimod de la Eeyniere, the son of a charcutier, a vendor of cooked meat, who had, by dint of genius and enterprise, become fermier-gdndral of taxes and Postmaster-General of France ; he purchased his nobility, and becoming one of the most noted (foncd) gourmands of the eighteenth century, died characteristically in 1754, in consequence of an indigestion contracted by a surfeit of pdtd da foie gras. His widow, nde Mazade, married a M. de la Ferrik'e, and kept up to her death the best house and table in Paris. Her maitre d'hdtel was the then noted Damours, who was said to have elevated the science of politeness and social culture, and the practice of the amphitryonic service, to such perfection that nobody before or after him attained equal excellence. It was here in the establishment of his grandmother, and after her death, in 1773, in that of his father, that the editor of the ‘ Almanach ’ collected the principal and earliest experience, of which he subsequently made use in his writings (c/.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

We have yet to consider two important works in the French language which were very popular about the middle of last century. The one, ‘ Le Cuisinier Moderne,’ is by Vincent La Chapelle, chef de cuisine to the Prince of Orange and Nassau (second edition, Hague, 1742). It is a beautifully written, exhaustive treatise, in five octavo volumes, full of information and instruction. In his preface the author exposes a plagiarism on the part of the editor of a new issue of a work which we have quoted above, note p. 32, as the ‘ Cuisinier Eoyal et Bourgeois,' to which now, however, the name and title of ‘ La Chapelle ’ were fraudulently prefixed. The other work, published repeatedly at Paris (we have the edition of 1758 before us, but it is not stated what place it takes in the series of editions) in three largo duodecimo volumes, of together more than 1,200 pages, is entitled ‘ Les Dons de Comus, ou I’Art de la Cuisine r^duit en Pratique.’ This also is a highly accomplished work, as already indicated by its preface, and fully borne out by its text, and refreshing by its correct historically true nomenclature. In some of its menus the work exhibits a tendency to mannerism, e.g., to dinners and suppers limited to one kind of meat only, tout en boeuf, or veal, or mutton, or even tout en cochon. The author finds such arrangements to be results of caprice, and soon leaves them for what he calls simple and natural ones. We shall have to refer lower down to some special features of these works, to which we must limit any further observations. In 1802 was begun at Paris the publication of a duodecimo annual volume, entitled ‘ Almanach des Gourmands.’* It was conceived and carried out with the aid of contributors by one Grimod de la Reynière, known as a culinary author only, and the subject of an interesting bit of biography. He was the grandson of Gaspard Grimod de la Reynière, the son of a charcutier, a vendor of cooked meat, who had, by dint of genius and enterprise, become fermier-gdndral of taxes and Postmaster-General of France ; he purchased his nobility, and becoming one of the most noted (foncd) gourmands of the eighteenth century, died characteristically in 1754, in consequence of an indigestion contracted by a surfeit of pdtd da foie gras. His widow, nde Mazade, married a M. de la Ferrière, and kept up to her death the best house and table in Paris. Her maître d'hôtel was the then noted Damours, who was said to have elevated the science of politeness and social culture, and the practice of the amphitryonic service, to such perfection that nobody before or after him attained equal excellence. It was here in the establishment of his grandmother, and after her death, in 1773, in that of his father, that the editor of the ‘ Almanach ’ collected the principal and earliest experience, of which he subsequently made use in his writings (c/.

The spirit of cookery