would be much to be lamented in what they must, I fear, have
considered a prostitution of the noble talents which had been
given him."]

* * * * *

FOOD OF THE PEOPLE.--BILLS OF FARE IN 1683--HUMBLE PIE.

The food of the people must always be regarded as an important element
in estimating the degree of civilization of a nation, and its position
in the social scale. Mr. Macaulay, in his masterly picture of the state
of England at the period of the accession of James II., has not failed
to notice this subject as illustrative of the condition of the working
classes of that day. He tells us that meat, viewed relatively with
wages, was "so dear that hundreds of thousands of families scarcely knew
the taste of it.... The great majority of the nation lived almost
entirely on rye, barley, and oats." (_Hist. Eng._ vol. i. p. 418., 4th
ed.)

It is not uninteresting to inquire (and having found, it is worth making
a note of) what sort of fare appeared on the tables of the upper and
middle classes,--who, unlike their poorer neighbours, were in a
condition to gratify their gastronomic preferences in the choice and
variety of their viands,--with the view of determining whether the
extraordinary improvement which has taken place in the food of the
labouring population has been equally marked in that of the wealthier
orders.

Pepys, who was unquestionably a lover of good living, and never tired of
recording his feastings off "brave venison pasty," or "turkey pye," has