APPENDIX.
LUXURIES OF THE TABLE IN FRANCE AND IN ENGLAND, IN MEDIÆVAL AND MODERN TIMES.

According to Brantome, the first nobleman in France who introduced at court a more luxurious table was the Marshal St. André. The historian thus speaks of him:—“Et certes estoit par trop excessif en friandises et délicatesse de viandes, tant de chair que de poisson et autres friands mangers, tellement que quelqu’un qui n’eust ouy que de sa vie délicieuse n’eust jamais pu n’y en juger n’y croire qu’il fust esté si Grand Capitaine.” Among the kings of France, the first who distinguished himself by this sumptuosity of fare was Francis I., and he carried his table extravagance to a foolish and absurd extent; for besides the unequalled luxury of the royal table, there were, according to Brantôme, the tables of the grand master, of the great chamberlain, of the chamberlain, of the gentlemen of the chamber, of the gentlemen servants, and ever so many others. The graphic memoir writer, the Seigneur de Bourdeille adds:—“Et toutes si bien servies que rien n’y manquoit. Et ce qui estoit plus remarquable c’est que dans un village, dans les forêts, dans les assemblées, l’on y estoit traité comme si l’on eust esté dans Paris.”

Henri II. and Francis II. kept as good a table as their father and grandfather; but things changed under Charles IX. and Henry III., of whom Brantôme says, “C’était par boutades que l’on y faisoit bonne chere, car le plus souvent la marmité se renversoit; chose que hait beaucoup le courtesan qui aimeà avoir bouche à cour et à l’armée parceque alors il ne lui conte rien.”

Henry IV., for a long time, was as “heinously unprovided” (to use a Shakespearian phrase) as his royal predecessor. His finances were so straitened, say the “Memoirs of the Duke of Angouleme,” “que souvent sa table manquoit, et qu’il se trouvoit contraint d’aller manger chez quelqu’un de ses sérviteurs.” Louis XIII. established, in a great degree, the luxury of Francis I.; and Louis XIV., to use the words of Le Grand, effaced even the remembrance of the repasts of the most luxurious of former kings, by his elaborate feasts. It was under his reign that “collations grasses” were eaten after dinner. Madame de Sévigné writes, in 1680, “La Princesse de Tarente m’a faite une collation en viande; je la lui ai rendue. C’est une sotte mode; je pense que cela ne durera pas.” Bélon, who published his “Traité des Oiseaux,” in 1555, describes how magnificently the dinner tables were served in that day. “Pour entrées,” he says, “nous avons mille petits deguisemens de chair comme potages, fricassées, hachis, salades. Le second service est de rôti, de bouilli, de diverses viandes, tout de boucherie que de gibier. Pour issue de table choses froides comme fruictages, laictages, et doulceurs, rissoles, petits choux tout chauds, petits gateaux caveux, ratons de fromage, pommes de capendu, salade de citron ou de grenades.”

Gontier, who wrote in the seventeenth century, complains of the luxury of the dinners in 1668, at which period, he says, there were no less than eight courses. The “Mercure Galant” gives a description of the royal banquet that was given at Versailles, for the marriage of Mademoiselle de Blois, natural daughter of Louis XIV., with the Prince of Conti. At this feast there were three courses of 160 dishes at each course. The first course was half soups and half entrées; the second, half in entremets and half in roasts; the third, dessert. The roasts were all small, and the ortolans alone cost 16,000 francs.

Later in the reign of Louis XIV., the mode of serving dinners in France a good deal resembled the system followed in the present day. In the entertainment given by Louvois to the Queen at Meudon, covers were laid for nineteen, and there were four courses.

The first course consisted of forty entrées, the second of forty roasts and salads, the third of hot and cold entremets, and the last course of dessert. In the kitchen of Louis XV. there were about thirty cooks employed, and four pâtissiers-bouche.

I now proceed to give a few bills of fare, from the days of Louis XIV. to the present time.

The first is the menu of a dinner given 212 years ago by Matthew Molé, keeper of the seals in France to Mons. Le Prince Louis de Bourbon-Condé, on the 9th August, 1652:—

XIV. potages maigres,

XIV. plats de poissons.

XIV. plats de rost.

XIV. sallades.

XIV. assiettes gauffrées.

XVIII. jattes de fruicts et aultres,

Dont cxii. escus pour le coust d’yceulx fruicts et fleurs, et pour le tout de la despense généralle, mil neuf cens soixante et cinq liures, et unze sols,

The second is the menu of a supper of the Regent Orleans, moitié gras, moitié maigre:—

Menu d’une Table de Douze Couverts, pour un Souper du Régent, servi moitié Gras, moitié Maigre.

PREMIER SERVICE.

Deux potages, savoir:

Les quatre jattes, savoir:

Les six plats à festons, savoir:

Deux plats de poissons pour relever les potages, savoir:

SECOND SERVICE.

Deux plats de pâtisserie, savoir:

Quatre plats de rôt, savoir:

Quatre salades différentes avec quatre différentes sauces.

Quatre petits entremets chauds, savoir:

The following is the menu of a supper of Louis XV. at La Muette, on 18th February, 1749:—

Souper du Roi Louis XV. à la Muette, le Samedi, 18 Février, 1749.

Deux grandes entrées.

Deux oilles.

Deux potages.

Seize entrées.

Quatre relevés.

Deux grands entremets.

Quatre moyens.

Huit plats de rôts non mention-nés.—Seize entremets.

Here is a Carte Dinatoire for twelve persons, for the table of the Citoyen Directeur et Général Barras, le Décadi, trente floréal:—

(Autographes de M. Théodore Vivien.)

Les six entrées.

Les deux plats de rôt.

Les six entremets.

Trop de poisson. Otez les goujons. Le reste est bien. Qu’on n’oublie pas encore de mettre des coussins sur les siéges pour les citoyennes Tallien, Talma, Beauharnais, Hinguerlot et Mirande.

Et pour cinq heures très-précises.

Signé Barras.

Faites venir des glaces de Veloni. Je n’en veux pas d’autres.

Here is a menu of a dinner served to the Emperor Napoleon and his family, on the Samedi Saint, 1811:—

Menu d’un Dîner de la Famille Bonaparte, aux Tuileries.

Deux potages.

Deux relevés.

Quatre entrées.

Deux rôtis.

Deux plats de légumes.

Quatre entremets au sucre.

Now comes the first dinner en maigre which Louis XVIII. had at Compiegne. It is certainly a most recherché one:—

Premier Diner du roi Louis XVIII., à Compiegne.

(En Maigre.)

Quatre potages.

Quatre relevés de poissons.

Quatre grosses pièces.

Trente-deux entrées.

Les croquettes de brochets.

La grosse anguille à la Régence.

La marinade de bonne morue.

Les filets de soles à la Dauphine.

La bar à la vénitienne.

La orly de filets de carrelets.

Quatre grosses pièces d’entremets.

Quatre plats de rôts pour les contre-flancs.

Trente-deux entremets.

Les aiguillettes de goujons.

L’hermitage Indien.

Les poules de mer.

Les sarcelles au citron.

L’hermitage Russe.

Les petites truites au bleu.

Pour extra, dix assiettes de petits soufflés en croustades.

Dessert.

There is now the bill of fare of the dinner given by the Emperor Alexander, on his birthday, at Vertus, near Chalôns, on the 11th September, 1815. Covers were laid for 300, and the dinner began with 600 plates of oysters, for which 300 lemons were provided:—

(Table de 300 couverts, servie à la russe.)

600 assiettes d’huîtres, 300 citrons.

PREMIER SERVICE.

Les huîtres, les citrons.

Trois potages.

Vingt-huit hors-d’œuvres.

De petits vol-au-vent à la purée de gibier.

Vingt-huit entrées froides.

De galantines de poulardes à la gelée.

Vingt-huit grosses pièces.

De filets de bœuf au vin de Madère, demi-espagnole.

Cent douze entrées.

Vingt-huit plats de rôts.

Cinquante entremets de légumes.

Cinquante-six entremets au sucre.

Underneath is the bill of fare of the first diplomatic dinner given by the Duke of Wellington, when ambassador in Paris, in 1815. It will be seen that the fare was simple, and most of the dishes dressed in the English fashion:—

PREMIER SERVICE.

Potage.

Deux bouts de table.

Six entrées.

SECOND SERVICE.

Milieu.

Deux salades.

Six entremets.

Treize assiettes de dessert.

I conclude French bills of fare with a menu of a royal banquet given at the Tuileries, on Twelfth-day, 1820, at which Louis XVIII., Monsieur (afterwards Charles X.), and the Duchess of Angouleme, the Duke and Duchess of Berri, the Duke and Duchess of Orleans, the Duke and Duchess of Bourbon were present:—

Menu du Grand-couvert, ou Banquet Royal aux Tuileries, pour le jour des Rois, 6 Janvier, 1820.

Deux potages.

Quatre grosses pièces.

Seize entrées.

Quatre grosses pièces.

Quatre plats de rôts.

Seize entremets.

Deux plombières, extra. Dessert.

At the period when luxurious tables became prevalent in France, good cheer also prevailed in London. In the time of Queen Mary, according to Maitland, luxury prevailed to such an excessive degree in the sumptuousness and extravagance of the city magistrates, that many of the principal citizens chose rather to retire into the country than to serve expensive offices. It was enacted by the Common Council, to prevent such extravagances, that the mayor should have no more than one course either at dinner or supper; and that on a festival day, a flesh day, a repast was to consist of no more than seven dishes, whether hot or cold; and on every festival day being a fish day, of eight dishes; and on every common flesh day, six dishes; and on every common fish day, seven dishes, exclusive of brawn, collops with eggs, salads, potage, butter, eggs, herrings, sprats, and shrimps, together with all sorts of shell-fish and fruits.

Regulations were also issued for the aldermen, sheriffs, and City companies at their several entertainments.[37] They were to have neither swan, crane, nor bustard under the penalty of forty shillings.

During the reign of Elizabeth, the city venison feasts became offensive to the queen and her nobility. In consequence, a letter, signed by the Lord Mayor and two aldermen, was addressed to Lord Burleigh, in which these officials say, “For avoyding the excessive spending of venison and other vitail in the halles of this citie, which we understand to have been offensive to her ma^tie and the nobilitie, we have by act of common counsel forbidden such festes hereafter to be kept, and have restrained the same only to necessary metinges in w^h also venison is permitted as by copie of this act herewith sent into y^r L. may appere.” These worshipful personages go on to assure Lord Burleigh that, unless similar proceedings be adopted in St. Martin’s and Westminster, the restraints imposed on the City of London would be of little use.

The golden age of cookery in modern times in England, however, was the reign of Queen Anne. The Queen herself was fond of good eating, and elaborate feasts became the custom among the nobility, gentry, and wealthy traders. In this reign it was that Dr. King published his “Art of Cookery,” in imitation of Horace’s “Art of Poetry,” making an attempt to introduce French dishes. In an oft-quoted passage of his poem he says:—

Sir John Hill, M.D., followed Dr. King, with “Mrs. Glasse’s Cookery Book,” in which are some few receipts for French dishes. The great Lord Chesterfield, however, was the first nobleman who made the most strenuous efforts to introduce French cookery. He engaged as his cook La Chapelle, a descendant of the famous cook of Louis XIV. La Chapelle published a treatise on cookery in three volumes, which is now very rarely met with. It is entitled “The Modern Cook,” by Vincent La Chapelle, chief cook to the Earl of Chesterfield, and was printed for the author in 1733, and sold by Nicholas Prevost, a Frenchman, over against Southampton Street, in the Strand.

About the period of the publication of this book, Lord Chesterfield was lord steward of the household to George II., and undoubtedly was the most renowned and fashionable host in London. His dinners and suppers were then deemed perfection; and these entertainments were one of the few items in which his expenditure was liberal. Lord Chesterfield lived till 1773, and I more than once heard the late Earl of Essex say, more than thirty years ago, at Brookes’s Club, that he remembered as a boy of fourteen or fifteen seeing the Earl seated on a rustic seat, inhaling the air outside the court-yard of his house in May Fair. Chesterfield House was ninety-one years ago at the very extremity of London, and all beyond it was an expanse of green fields.

The table of twenty or twenty-five covers was one of the noble earl’s official dinners, but the supper was for a party of intimate friends:—

A Table of Twenty or Twenty-five Covers, served with Twenty-nine Dishes.

FIRST COURSE.

The middle of the table.

A surtout in the middle.

Two terrines.

Two pots of olió.

Two terrines.

Four soops.

Eight entries, four with meat, and four in meager.

The four meager dishes.

Eight small dishes of melons, figs, and radishes.

Four removes for the soops.

To remove the eight small dishes of melons, figs, and radishes.

Four of meat.

SECOND COURSE.

For the large entremets for the middle of the table.

For the two sides of the table.

Eight dishes of roast, viz., four of meat and four meager.

The four meager.

THIRD COURSE.

Eight entremets, to remove the eight dishes of roast.

Eight hot entremets to remove the four sallets and four sauces.