The closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Knight opened

Boil Rice in Milk till it be very tender and Pulpy, as when you make Milk Potage. It must be thick, almost so thick, that a spoon may stand on end in it. Sweeten this very well with ordinary Sugar. Put this into their troughs where they feed, that they may be always eating of it. It must be made fresh every day. Their drink must be onely Milk, in another little trough by their meat-trough. Let a candle (fitly disposed) stand by them all night ; for seeing their meat, they will eat all night long. You put the Chicken up, as soon as they can feed of themselves ; which will be within a day or two after they are hatched, and in twelve days, or a fortnight, they will be prodigiously fat ; but after they have come to their height, they will presently fall back. Therefore they must be eaten as soon as they are come to their height. Their Pen or Coop must be contrived so, that the Hen (who must be with them, to sit over them) may not go at liberty to eat away their meat, but be kept to her own diet, in a part of the Coop that she cannot get out of. But the Chicken must have liberty to go from her to other parts of the Coop, where they may eat their own meat, and come in again to the Hen, to be warmed by her, at their pleasure. You must be careful to keep their Coop very clean. TO FEED CHICKEN Fatten your Chicken the first week with Oatmeal scalded in Milk ; the second with Rice and Sugar in Milk. In a fortnight they will be prodigiously fat. It is good to give them sometimes a little Gravel, or powder of Glass, to cleanse their maws, and give them appetite. If you put a little bran with their meat, it will keep their maws clean, and give them appetite. ANOTHER EXCELLENT WAY TO FAT- TEN CHICKEN Boil white bread in Milk,as though you were to eat it ; but make it thick of the bread, which is sliced into itinthinslices,notsothickasif it were to make a pudding ; but so, that when the bread is eaten out, there may some liquid milk remain for the Chicken to drink ; or that at first you may take up some liquid Milk in a spoon, if you industriously avoid the bread : sweeten very well this potage with good Kitchin Sugar of six pence a pound ; so put it into the trough before them. Put there but a little at a time, (two or three spoonfuls) that you may not clog them, and feed them five times a day, between their wakening in the morning, and their roosting at night. Give them no other drink ; the Milk that remaineth after they have eaten the bread, is sufficient ; neither give them Gravel, or ought else. Keep their Coops very clean, as also their troughs, cleansing them very well every morning. To half a dozen very little Chickens, little bigger then blackbirds,an ordinary porenger full every day may serve. And in eight days they will be prodigiously fat, one peny loaf, and less then two quarts of Milk and about halfapoundof Sugar will serve little ones the whole time. Bigger Chickens will require more, and two or three days longer time. When any of them are at their height of fat, you must eat them ; for if they live longer, they will fall back, and grow lean. Be sure to make their potage very sweet. AN EXCELLENT WAY TO CRAM CHIC- KEN