must be exceedingly difficult for any one, how well furnished soever,
completely to answer your just, or even most moderate demands. I
intreat the favour of you, however, to accept for once this short
payment in lieu of better,

or at least as a public testimony of that profound regard wherewith I
am,

SIR,

Your affectionate friend,
and most obliged servant,
St. George's day, 1780.

S. PEGGE.




PREFACE

TO THE

CURIOUS ANTIQUARIAN READER.

Without beginning _ab ovo_ on a subject so light (a matter of
importance, however, to many a modern Catius or Amasinius), by
investigating the origin of the Art of Cookery, and the nature of it
as practised by the Antediluvians [1]; without dilating on the
several particulars concerning it afterwards amongst the Patriarchs,