The modern Romans still love the flesh of the wild boar,
and I have eaten it in Italy served up with a sauce, the
chief ingredients of which were raisins and the kernels of
pine cones, but the flesh of the Roman wild boar is lean
and hard, and can scarcely rival that of the domestic porker,
well fatted, and served with apple sauce in the old English
style. But in various parts of Europe the wild boar still
affords excellent sport, and heads from these sometimes find
their way to England. It was probably to one of these that
the anecdote of Solomon Hart, the Jewish R.A., related in
'Frith's Reminiscences,' applies — 'On the occasion of a
visit of a party of artists to Preston Hall, the pleasant seat
of Mr. Betts, they were entertained, as always, in baronial
fashion. At one of the splendid banquets for which
hospitable Mr. Betts was famous, a huge boar's head, with
the usual garniture, was placed upon the table. Hart was
78 OUR VIANDS
said to have looked longingly at it, when he exclaimed,
" Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian." '
It would appear from ' The Book of Days ' that in olden
times the boar's head garnished with bay and rosemary, and
heralded by trumpets, was borne to the king's table on a
dish of gold or silver by the server, followed by a long pro-
cession of nobles, knights, and ladies. The same book
gives the origin of the custom of serving this ancient dish
at Queen's College, Oxford, to a variation of the old carol.
This arose from the presence of mind of a student of the
college, who, when studying Aristotle in Shotover Forest,
encountered a wild boar, which rushed at him open-
mouthed, whereupon the scholar thrust the book down the
creature's throat, thus ' choking the savage with the sage.'
The carol used in serving the boar's head ran —
1 " Caput apri defer o
Reddens laudes Domino."
The boar's head in hand bring I
With garlands gay and rosemary ;
I pray you all sing merrily
Qui tstis in cowuivio.
' The boar's head,- I understand,
Is the chief service in this land ;
Look wherever it be found,
Servite cum cantico.
' Be glad, both more and less,
For this hath ordained our steward,
To cheer you all this Christmas —
The boar's head and mustard !
" Caput apri defer o
Reddens laudes Domino" '
CHAPTER VI
SUNDRY MEATS
WE will begin this chapter by treating of that which, by
universal consent, is allowed to be the best and most
wholesome of animal food — that is, mutton.
In the colonies mutton ranks with daily bread as a
prime necessity of life— mutton chops for breakfast, mutton
roasted or boiled for dinner, and cold mutton for supper,
till people say they are ashamed to look a sheep in the
face ; but it speaks well for the wholesomeness and tooth-
someness of the meat, that it can thus be eaten daily from
year's end to year's end without producing disease or
satiety. Perhaps of no other meat could the same be said.
Our viands
1893Page 35
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The modern Romans still love the flesh of the wild boar,
and I have eaten it in Italy served up with a sauce, the
chief ingredients of which were raisins and the kernels of
pine cones, but the flesh of the Roman wild boar is lean
and hard, and can scarcely rival that of the domestic porker,
well fatted, and served with apple sauce in the old English
style. But in various parts of Europe the wild boar still
affords excellent sport, and heads from these sometimes find
their way to England. It was probably to one of these that
the anecdote of Solomon Hart, the Jewish R.A., related in
'Frith's Reminiscences,' applies — 'On the occasion of a
visit of a party of artists to Preston Hall, the pleasant seat
of Mr. Betts, they were entertained, as always, in baronial
fashion. At one of the splendid banquets for which
hospitable Mr. Betts was famous, a huge boar's head, with
the usual garniture, was placed upon the table. Hart was
78 OUR VIANDS
said to have looked longingly at it, when he exclaimed,
" Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian." '
It would appear from ' The Book of Days ' that in olden
times the boar's head garnished with bay and rosemary, and
heralded by trumpets, was borne to the king's table on a
dish of gold or silver by the server, followed by a long pro-
cession of nobles, knights, and ladies. The same book
gives the origin of the custom of serving this ancient dish
at Queen's College, Oxford, to a variation of the old carol.
This arose from the presence of mind of a student of the
college, who, when studying Aristotle in Shotover Forest,
encountered a wild boar, which rushed at him open-
mouthed, whereupon the scholar thrust the book down the
creature's throat, thus ' choking the savage with the sage.'
The carol used in serving the boar's head ran —
1 " Caput apri defer o
Reddens laudes Domino."
The boar's head in hand bring I
With garlands gay and rosemary ;
I pray you all sing merrily
Qui tstis in cowuivio.
' The boar's head,- I understand,
Is the chief service in this land ;
Look wherever it be found,
Servite cum cantico.
' Be glad, both more and less,
For this hath ordained our steward,
To cheer you all this Christmas —
The boar's head and mustard !
" Caput apri defer o
Reddens laudes Domino" '
CHAPTER VI
SUNDRY MEATS
WE will begin this chapter by treating of that which, by
universal consent, is allowed to be the best and most
wholesome of animal food — that is, mutton.
In the colonies mutton ranks with daily bread as a
prime necessity of life— mutton chops for breakfast, mutton
roasted or boiled for dinner, and cold mutton for supper,
till people say they are ashamed to look a sheep in the
face ; but it speaks well for the wholesomeness and tooth-
someness of the meat, that it can thus be eaten daily from
year's end to year's end without producing disease or
satiety. Perhaps of no other meat could the same be said.