Our viands

Another specimen of bread comes down to us after having been buried for centuries — this time by the ashes of a volcano; for among the relics of Pompeii we find loaves of bread, as put into the oven on the day when the rain of fiery ashes fell and caused the baker to fly for BREAD 25 his life, leaving his loaves to await customers until this nineteenth century, when they have been withdrawn from the oven to prove to admiring antiquaries that Pompeian bakers knew how to set up a batch of bread almost in the same form as those of London ; but bread was often baked in moulds, which have been found in Herculaneum, and these loaves were all divided into portions by a cross, like scones at the present day. Doubtless, all these ancient breads were what we should now call of whole meal, for there were no millers in those early days to sift away the most nutritious portion of the meal. The corn was mostly crushed on a hollow stone by means of another stone, as we know by the many specimens of these primitive mills which have been found; or it was passed between two stones fastened together to form what is called a quern, with two sticks to serve as handles, which two women sitting passed round to each other from hand to hand, thus grinding the corn as it was poured in through a hole in the centre, as in a coffee-mill. References to this kind of hand-mill are frequent in the Bible. Even now hand- mills are in use in India and in many Eastern countries ; whilst the primitive form of winnowing the grain — in which a woman stands in a doorway and pours the grain down from a vessel held as high as she can, the wind carrying away the chaff, the heavier corn falling to the ground — is still retained in some parts of Europe, as, for example, among the dwellers in Alpine valleys; but water-mills are said to have been invented in the reign of Augustus, and, long after that, in Rome, mills were turned by asses and sometimes freemen, who worked thus for a living, whilst slaves were sometimes punished by being sent to work 26 OUR VIANDS in the mills, being afterwards known as asinus. The poor donkeys enjoyed a holiday during the summer festival, being then turned loose and adorned with garlands. The variety of bread at present in use is astonishing, every country has some peculiarity, but I only purpose here to mention a few of the whcaten breads of Europe, leaving others to be treated of later. The bread of Great Britain and Ireland is too well known to need description, but in Scotland the white bread is too white and deficient in crust to please our palate, whilst the brown is superior to anything we get in London. The bread of Devonshire and Cornwall calls also for a passing notice, being baked in an iron pot, which makes it rather close and of a peculiar shape. It is, however, very sweet and good. When we cross over to France, we find wheaten bread of various qualities and forms, but characterised chiefly by length, so that to buy bread by the yard is not a merefa$0n de parler. The finer French rolls are well known, but the waiter in a restaurant frequented by the poorer classes does not present such luxuries to his customers. With two or three yards of coarse bread under his arm, he slices off thick rounds to serve with each plate of bouilli. Journeying on to Spain, we find the bread excellent, and used alike by rich and poor.