We yet read with pleasure those fêtes, which were the admiration of all Europe, and of those tournaments in which, for the last time, the lace glistened that has since been replaced by the bayonet, and the knights clad in shining armour, no longer of use against the fury of the cannon.

Those fêtes terminated with a banquet, which appeared to be the crowning of all, for such is the nature of man, that he can never be completely happy, as long as his taste is not wholly gratified; and this imperious want has brought even graminar under his subjection, so much so, that to say a thing is done in a superior manner, we say it was done with taste.

As a necessary consequence, those who presided over the preparations for those banquets, became men of much importance, and justly so, for they unite many different qualities, that is, genius to invent, knowledge to dispose, judgment in observing proportion, and sagacity to discover defect, firmness to have their orders carried out, and punctuality, in having all in due time.

It is on those great occasions, that the splendour of the surtouts, (epergne) began to be displayed, a new art, which unites painting and sculpture, and presents to the eye an agreeable picture, and sometimes a site appropriate to the circumstance or the hero of the fête.

It was here that the genius of the artist was required, and showed itself.

But soon, more select parties and more delicate repasts required much more accurate attention and greater care.

It was at the small dinner party at the Favorites, and the suppers of courtezans and the wealthy that the cooks displayed their talents, and animated by laudable ambition they sought to eclipse each other.

Towards the end of this reign the names of the most celebrated cooks were always associated with that of their patrons, who ever acknowledged them with pride; and the names of the most distinguished figured in books on cooking by the side of those dishes which they patronised, invented or created. This strange medley is not to be met with in our days; we are not less gourmands than our ancestors, on the contrary, but we give ourselves much less trouble about the name of the artiste who reigns no more above ground. The praise which we give through the left ear is the only tribute of admiration we accord to the artiste who contributes so much to our pleasures; and the

restaurateurs, that is, the public cooks, are those who receive. the only praise which ranks them with great capitalists. Utili dulci.

It was for Louis XIV. that the summer thorn, which he called the sweet pear, was brought from the Levant; and it was in his old age that liqueurs were first used.

This prince suffered much from debility and those symptoms which people generally feel after the age of sixty; brandy was mixed with sugar and perfumes to make for him, what was called cordial potions. Such was the origin of the liqueur trade.

We may remark that nearly about this time cookery was in its highest state of perfection in England. Queen Anne was very fond of the pleasures of the table; she was often known even to converse with her cook; and the old English cookery-books contain several dishes designed after Queen Anne's taste.

This science, which remained stationary during the sway of Madame de Maintenon continued to progress under the regency.

The duke of Orleans, who was an enlightened prince, so far as regards the table, was well known for the elegance of his entertainments, which, as we know from authentic sources, consisted principally of the rarest and most delicate fowl, fish of various kinds and as fresh as when taken out of the water, and the finest turkeys, stuffed with truffles.

Truffled turkeys!!! the fame of which is increasing every day; blessed stars, whose apparition fills the heart of every lover of good cheer with delight.

The reign of Louis XV. was equally in favour of the science of cookery. Eighteen years' peace soon healed up the wounds inflicted by sixty years' war; wealth acquired by industry and diffused by commerce, together with the salaries of government officers, did away with the inequalities of fortune, and the spirit of conviviality was diffused through all classes of society.* It is very easy to entertain a large number when their

From the information, writes Brillat-Savarin, which I have got from several inhabitants of the provinces, a dinner for ten persons, in 1740, consisted of as follows:

appetites are good; with butchers' meat, fowl, venison, and a few well selected dishes of fish, you have a dinner for sixty persons.

But to gratify those who never open their mouths but to make pretty faces, to entice those flatulent women, to excite papier mache stomachs, or put life into those worn out thin flanked individuals of no appetite, would require more genius, more judgment and perseverance than would be necessary to solve the most difficult problem of geometrical infinity.

Having now come to the reign of Louis XVI. and the days of the Revolution, we shall not dwell upon those changes which our fathers witnessed; but shall merely notice the most remarkable of those improvements that have taken place since 1774 in the banqueting art.

Those improvements have had for their object the natural part of the art, and the customs and institutions of the people connected therewith; and although these two orders of things are constantly acting upon each other, we have considered it advisable for the sake of clearness to treat each separately.

All professions connected with the preparing or selling of food, such as cooks, victuallers, pastry cooks, confectioners and provision dealers, &c., have multiplied and are steadily increasing and what proves that this increase was really wanted is, that their numbers have not interfered with their prosperity.

The sciences of chemistry and physics have lent their aid to the alementary art. The most learned men have not thought it beneath them to occupy themselves about our daily wants, and have introduced improvements from the simplest dish of the artisan to the most costly and exquisite meats served up in gold and crystal.

New professions have sprung up; for instance, those small pastry cooks, combining the pastry cook, properly speaking, and the confectioner. Their trade consists of all those preparations in which butter is mixed with sugar, eggs, lees, such as biscuits, macaroons, ornamented cakes, meringues, and other delicacies in pastry.

The art of preserving food has also become a distinct pro

The plates were changed but three times, after soup, at the second course and dessert; coffee was seldom served up after dinner, but very often raspberry, or cherry brandy, which was then not long in

use.

fession, the object of which is to supply us in every season with those things which are peculiar to a particular time of the year. Horticulture has made great progress, hot houses supply us with the fruits of the tropics; various kinds of vegetables that have been acquired by cultivation or from foreign countries, and amongst others that kind of musk melon which never produces bad fruit, give the lie to the proverb.*

We have cultivated, imported and presented in regular order, the wine of every country, the Madeira which opens the trenches, the French wines that divide the duty between them, and the wines of Spain and Africa, which crown the work, The French have adopted foreign dishes such as karik, beefsteak; sauces such as caviar, soy; drinks as punch, negus and others.

In England Coffee has become very popular, in the morning for breakfast, and after dinner, as a tonic and refreshing drink.

A great variety of vases and utensils have been invented with other necessaries, which give the repast more or less an appearance of luxury and festivity; so that when strangers. come to Paris, they find on the tables several objects of which they know neither the name nor the use.

From all those facts we may draw this general conclusion; that the order, system, and regularity observable before, during and after our banquets show a desire to please, which must be highly gratifying to our guests.

We have from the Greek the word gastronomy; it sounds pleasing to the educated ear, and although not well understood, it suffices to pronounce it to bring a smile on every

countenance.

La Gourmandise has been distinguished from voracity or gluttony; it has been looked upon as merely a propensity which may be acknowledged as a social quality, agreeable to the host, profitable to the guest, and useful to science; and gourmands have been ranked beside all other amateurs who have also a known object in view.

A general spirit of conviviality has diffused itself through

*"You must try fifty to get one to your liking." It seems that the melon as we cultivate it was not known to the Romans: what they called melo and pepo was but a kind of cucumber which they eat with a very rich sauce. See Apicius, De Re Culinaria. Ed. Bernhold, Ansbach, 1800.

every class of society; dinner parties are becoming more nu- . merous, and each in entertaining his friends, endeavours to provide for them the best of whatever he has remarked in other more distinguished circles.

The pleasure that people feel in being thus together has led to more appropriate divisions of time, in devoting to business the time that elapses between day-break and sun-set, and the surplus to those pleasures that accompany and follow the banquet.

Cold breakfasts, déjuners à la fourchette, have been instituted, a repast remarkable as well for the class of meats of which it is composed, as the gaiety that always reigns there, together with the négligée it tolerates in dress.

Tea is now frequently introduced in the evening, a refreshment the more extraordinary, as it is intended for those who have dined sumptuously, and who are not supposed to be either hungry or thirsty; its only object being to serve as a pastime, and is taken merely as a drawing-room dainty.

Political banquets have been instituted, and frequently given for the last sixty years whenever it has been found necessary to bring any influence to bear upon a large number of persons; a repast which is always presided over by a chairman, who, however, attracts no particular attention, and where pleasure is only looked upon as a future memory.

At last restaurateurs have made their appearance, an institution altogether new, and which was quite unexpected, and such that any man who can command four or five shillings in London, or three or four francs in Paris, may in a moment, and without fail, or any other trouble but that of desiring it, supply himself with all those real enjoyments of which the taste is susceptible.

The restaurateur is a man whose business it is to supply the public with a banquet at a moment's notice, and whose dishes are retailed at a fixed price, to suit the convenience of his

customers.

The establishment is called a restaurant, and he who directs it a restaurateur. The bill of fare contains a list of the different dishes with the price of each annexed; and the pay-bill, which is furnished after dinner, is a list of those dishes that have been served, with the price of each marked opposite.

Amongst the crowds who frequent the restaurants, there are few who suspect that the man who founded the restaurant must have been a man of geuius and a deep thinker.