to say truth, pork dried, or bacon, is so esteemed of the Germans, as they seem to have much greater care of their hogs than of their sheep, or other cattle. For in the morning when they turn them forth, they scratch them with their fingers, as barbers do men's heads, and bless them that they may safely return; and in the evening when they are to come back with the herd, a servant is commanded to attend them, who washeth the dust from them as they pass by the fountain, and so follows them till they come home of their own accord, without any beating or driving. The price of a fat sow is at least five, sometimes fourteen guldens, yea, at Heidelberg, it was credibly told me, that a sow, being so fat, as she could not at one feeding eat a raw egg, all her entrails being closed up with fat, had lately been sold for fifty guldens. With this fat they lard many roasted and broiled meats, as well flesh as fish: and they never eat any pigs, but nourish them to full growth, so as myself and some of my countrymen at Wittenberg, desiring to eat a pig, hardly bought one for half a dollar, and were ourselves forced to kill, dress, and roast it, the servants abhorring from such a strange work, neither could we entreat any one to eat the least bit thereof. When they roast a shoulder of mutton, they beat the upper part thereof with the backside of an hatchet, or like instrument, before they put it on the spit, to make that part tender, which they carve as the most dainty part; yet use they seldom to carve any man, lest they should seem to desire that morsel themselves, for they hold it a point of civility not to take that that is carved, but to force it upon the carver. They dip their bread in sauces, but think it ill manners to dip meat therein, as likewise to reach bread with the point of a knife, and not rather to call for it by hand. Lastly, when the table is to be taken away, they think to offer him courtesy whose trencher they offer to take up, and put into the voyder, and will in courtesy strive to do it. He that will abide in any city, may easily obtain to be entertained for bed and board at a convenient rate, by some chief citizen or doctor, as I have formerly said."

At the inns in Lower Germany, he remarks, as something extraordinary, that a bell was hung above the table, " by sounding whereof they call the servants to attend." And at Wirtemberg, a bell was hung under the table, which is rung, if any man speak immodestly. The inns in this country hang out no signs at their gates, but generally may be known by the arms of noblemen and gentlemen: " for they hold it a point of reputation to pass other inns in the number of these arms, fixed in the front of their inn, and upon the walls of the common eating room, so as I have numbered three or four hundred such arms in one inn."

The fourth chapter relates to the geography, traffic, diet, &c. of the Netherlands, Denmark, and Poland. Butter, he informs us, is the first and last dish at the tables of the Netherlanders; whence they are called butter-mouths. The boors drink milk instead of beer, and in their journeys carrying

with them cheese and boxes of butter for their food; and nothing is more ordinary, than for citizens of good account and wealth to sit at their doors, (even dwelling in the market-place) holding in their hands and eating a great lump of bread and butter, with a luncheon of cheese. They eat early in the morning, even before day, and the cloth is laid four times a day for very servants, but two of these times they set before them nothing but cheese and butter. They eat mushrooms and the hinder part of frogs for great dainties, which frogs young men used to catch and present to their mistresses for great dainties. In villages and the poorer inns, they weigh the cheese when it is set on the table and taken away, being paid by the weight," and I have known some waggish soldiers who put a leaden bullet in the cheese, making it thereby weigh little less than at first setting down, and so deceiving their hosts." He represents the Netherlanders as brutishly given to drunkenness. "At feasts they have a fashion to put a capon's rump in the salt-cellar, and to contend who shall deserve it, by drinking most for it. Some wanting companions to drink, lay down their hat or cloak for a companion, so playing themselves both parts, of drinking to and pledging till they have no more sense or use of reason than the cloak or hat hath."

From the fifth chapter on the geography, traffic, diet, &c. of Italy, we extract the following passage, as very curious:

"In general, the Italians, and more specially the Florentines, are most neat at the table, and in their inns from morning to night the tables are spread with white cloths, strewed with flowers and fig leaves, with ingestars or glasses of divers coloured wines set upon them, and delicate fruits, which would invite a man to eat and drink, who otherwise hath no appetite, being all open to the sight of passengers as they ride by the highway, through their great unglazed windows. At the table they touch no meat with the hand, but with a fork of silver or other metal, each man being served with his fork and spoon, and glass to drink. And as they serve small pieces of flesh (not whole joints, as with us), so these pieces are cut into small bits, to be taken up with the fork, and they seethe the flesh till it be very tender. In summer time, they set a broad earthen vessel full of water upon the table, wherein little glasses filled with wine do swim for coolness. They use no spits to roast flesh, but commonly stew the same in earthen pipkins, and they feed much upon little fishes and flesh cut and fried with oil. They have no skill in the art of cookery, and the meat is served to the table in white glistering and painted dishes of earth (whereof the finest are much esteemed with us.) They are not willingly invited to eat with other men, esteeming basely of those who live at other men's trenchers, calling them, vulgarly, scroccatori d'i pasti, shifters for meals. And the reason hereof is, that they would not be tied to invite others again, which, in their pride, they would do, if they should be invited to them, and this is the chief

cause that makes them nice to converse with strangers. Of the Florentines, though most courteous, yet sparing, other Italians jest, saying, that when they meet a man about dinner time, they ask Vos' Signoria ha desinato, Sir, have you dined? and if he answer, ay, they reply as if they would have invited him to dinner: but if he answer no, they reply Andate Signor, ch'è otta, Go, Sir, for it is high time to dine. They think it best to cherish and increase friendship by meetings in market places and gardens, but hold the table and bed unfit for conversation, where men should come to eat quickly, and sleep soundly. Thus, not provoking appetite with variety of meats, or eating with others for good fellowship, they must needs be more temperate than others enticed, by these means, to eat beyond hunger. In cities, where many take chambers in one house, they eat at a common table, but each man hath his own meat provided, the hostess dressing it, and serving each man with his own napkin, glass, fork, spoon, knife, and ingestar or glass of wine, which, after meat, are severally and neatly laid up by the hostess. And at the table, perhaps one man hath a hen, another a piece of flesh, the third poached eggs, and each man several meats after his diet: but it is no courtesy for one to offer another part of his meat, which they rather take to be done in pride, as if he thought that he that had a sallad or eggs, could not have a hen or flesh, if he listed, for want of money. To conclude, they hold it no honour or disgrace to live plentifully or sparingly, so they live of their own, and be not in debt, for, in that case, they are esteemed slaves. Thus, living of their own, they give due honour to superiors, so they return due respect to them, otherwise they despise him that is richer, saying, in scorn, Let him dine twice a day, and wear two gowns if he will, it is enough for me to have convenient diet and apparel.' They have a very delicate sauce for roasted meats, called savore, made of slices of bread, steeped in broth, with as many walnuts, and some few leaves of marjoram beaten in a mortar, and mingled therewith, together with the juice of gooseberries, or some sharp liquor put in when it is set on the table."

Passing by the chapter relating to Turkey, we come to France of the diet and mode of living there, he gives the following account:

"The French are commended and said to excel others in boiled meats, sauces, and made dishes, vulgarly called quelques choses, but, in my opinion, the larding of their meats is not commendable, whereby they take away all variety of taste, making all meats savour of pork; and the French alone delight in mortified meats. They use not much whitemeats, nor have I tasted there any good butter, which our ambassadors cause to be brought unto them out of England, and they have only one good kind of cheeses, called angelots, pleasing more for a kind of sharpness in taste, than for the goodness. As well the gentlemen as citizens live more sparingly than the English in their ordinary private diet, and have not their tables so furnished with variety and number of dishes. They dine most with sodden and liquid

meats, and sup with roasted meats, each having his several sauce: but their feasts are more sumptuous than ours, and consist, for the most part, of made fantastical meats and sallads, and sumptuous compositions, rather than of flesh and birds. And the cooks are most esteemed, who have best intention in new made and compounded meats. And as in all things the French are chearful and nimble, so the Italians observe that they eat or swallow their meat swiftly, and add, that they are also slovenly at meat, but I would rather say they are negligent or careless, and little curious in their feeding. And to this purpose I remember an accident that happened to a Frenchman, eating with us at the master's table in a Venetian ship governed by Greeks, and sailing from Venice to Jerusalem, who turning his foul trencher to lay meat on the clean side, did so offend the master and all the mariners, as well the best as common sort, as they hardly refrained from offering him violence. For mariners in general, but especially the Greeks, are so superstitious, as they took this his negligence in turning his trencher, (being of like opinion for the turning of any thing in the ship upside down,) as if it had been an ominous sign, that the ship should be cast away.

In a village of Normandy, half way between Rouen and Dieppe, called Totes, and, in like sort, in all the inns of those parts, before the civil war, as soon as passengers lighted from their horses, the host gave them water to wash, and bread and wine; for the French have not the patience to expect their supper without some refection. Then, at supper, the table was served with mutton, a capon or pullet, partridges and like meats, with a kind of banquet, as, in summer, apples, cherries, and grapes, and in winter, chestnuts, rice, raisins, and stewed prunes. Then they gave their guests clean sheets, drying them at the fire in their presence, and, in the morning, gave them for breakfast some buttered toasts, or morsel of meat, and for all this, together with horsemeat, each man paid some twenty-two or twenty-five sous; as likewise the bating at noon, for horse and man, cost each some ten sous. After the civil war I passed through these parts, and commonly, each meal, paid twelve or fifteen sous, with worse entertainment, and, for breakfasts, paid severally, but no great rate. Towards the confines of Flanders, the hosts only cover the table, and a side table, upon which every passenger hath his glass, for the French are curious not to drink in another man's cup, and the hosts are only to be paid for this service. Otherwise, at times of eating, they call the cooks dwelling near the inns, who bring the best meat they have, and when the guests have chosen their meat, and agreed for the price, they carry it back to dress it, and so send it warm, with sauces. In general, through the cities of France, passengers seldom dine at their inns, but, with some companions go to the taverns or cooks' shops: but, at night they must eat with the host that gives them beds, where they shall have clean sheets, and see them dried before their faces, but they are of coarse cloth, and very few chambers are private, but most have three or four beds, wherein they lie not single, but, for the most part, with bedfellows. Also the guests, as well merchants and gentlemen, as those of common sort, eat at an ordinary table, and for

supper, commonly large, with divers roasted meats, each man pays some fifteen sous. He that hires a chamber in cities, which he may have well furnished at Paris for some two crowns a month, he must buy his meat at cooks' shops, which are frequent and very cleanly, neither is it any disgrace, as with us, to buy a morsel of meat there, and to agree for the price before it be eaten. And they that hire chambers can have no better conveniency for diet, either at Paris, or in other cities. But he that stays long in a city, may agree in a citizen's house, or an inn for his diet and lodging by the year, which he may have at Paris in extraordinary sort for some one hundred and fifty crowns yearly, and ordinarily for less; and at Rome for one hundred twenty, or one hundred crowns, and in many cities for eighty crowns, and in many good inns for sixty crowns yearly. Drunkenness is reproachful among the French, and the greater part drink water mingled with wine, and always French wines, not sack or Spanish wines (which are sold as physic only by apothecaries), or other foreign wines, whereof I remember not to have seen any in the northern parts of France. Yet mariners, soldiers, and many of the common sort, used to drink perry and cyder to very drunkenness; yea, I have seen many drink wine with like intemperance, and when these kinds of men set at drinking, they use much mirth and singing (in which art they take great delight), as the French in general are by nature cheerful and lively. Women for the most part, and virgins always (except by stealth they offend against the cutom) used to drink water, except it be in the provinces yielding perry and cyder, which all sorts used to drink without exception. And at Paris I remember to have seen a poor woman to beg a cup of water, which being given her, she drunk it off and went away merrily, as if she had received a good alms."

The next chapter relates to England: from his description of the counties, it appears that several of them differed then, in many particulars, very much from their present characteristics. Cornwall then had such abundance of corn, that great quantity of wheat was annually exported thence to Spain. On the other hand, in no part of England did the ground require more expense then in Devonshire," for in many places it is barren, till it be fatted with the ooze or sand of the sea, which makes it wonderfully fruitful;" at present Devonshire is more of a corn county than Cornwall; and sea sand is much more used in the latter than the former. He gives a different account of the junction of the sees of Bath and Wells, from that commonly received. After describing the medicinal waters at Bath, he adds, "The Bishop of Wells, buying this city of Henry I., removed his episcopal seat thither, yet still keeping the old name of Bishop of Wells, and there built a new cathedral church." Bristol, he represents, as next to London and York, being preferred to all other cities of England, on account of its -fair buildings, and its public and private houses.

Malmsbury was, at this time, celebrated for its woollen.