use not for common diet any thing that comes from the cow, neither have I observed them to have any butter in Saxony, or the lower parts of Germany, but they use a certain white matter, called smalts, instead of it, not tasting like our butter. They do not commonly eat any cheese, neither remember I that I ever tasted good cheese there, excepting one kind of little cheese made of goat's milk,which is pleasant to eat: but salt and strong cheeses they sometimes use to provoke drinking, for which purpose the least crumb is sufficient. These cheeses they compass round with thread or twigs, and they begin them in the midst of the broad side, making a round hole there, into which hole, when the cheese is to be set up, they put some few drops of wine, that it may putrify against the next time, when they eat the mouldy pieces and very creeping maggots for dainty morsels, and at last the cheese becomes so rotten and so full of these worms, that if the said binding that compasseth it chance to break, the cheese falls into a million of crumbs no bigger than motes. They have a kind of bread brownish and sourish, and made with aniseeds, which seemed very savoury to me. They serve, instead of a banquet, a kind of light bread like our fritters, save that it is long, round, and a little more solid, which they call fastnacht kuchen, Shrovetide baking, because then and upon St. Martin's day, and some like feasts, they use to make it. They use not in any place almost, to offend in the great number of dishes, only some few inns of chief cities give plentiful meals. And for the Saxons, they for the most part set on the pot or roast meat once for the whole week: yet in the golden bull they have. a law, that hosts shall not serve in more than four dishes, the price of them to be set by the magistrate, and that they should not gain in the reckoning more than the fourth or at most the third penny, and that the guests should pay severally for their drink, the Germans drinking so largely as it was impossible to prescribe the rate thereof. It were to be wished by strangers, that not only drink should be paid for apart from meat, but that each man should pay the share himself drinks, and no more, so the charges of sober passengers in Germany, having all things reasonably cheap, would not in such measure increase, as otherwise they do through their companions intemperancy. The said Saxons set the dishes on the table one by one, for the most part gross meats, whereupon I have heard some merrily compare them to the tyrants of Sicily, of whom one being dead, still a more terrible monster succeeded him. Here and in these parts of the Lower Germany, they use to serve in sour crawt or cabbage upon a void circle of carved iron standing on, three feet, under which they serve in one large dish, roast flesh and pullets, and puddings, and whatsoever they have prepared, which dish a countryman of mine did not unproperly compare to the ark of Noah, containing all kinds of creatures. Also in Saxony, for the first dish they serve in stewed cherries or prunes, then toasted or sodden pullets, or other flesh, and last of all bacon, to fill his belly that hath not enough. Almost all their tables are round, and of so great a compass, as each dish being served one by one, (not as we use to have the table fully furnished with meat), they that sit at the corners of the table, are forced to stand on their feet as often as they

cut any meat. The Germans seldom break their fasts, except it be in journeys, with a little gingerbread and aquavitæ. They sit long at table, and even in inns as they take journeys, dine very largely, neither will they rise from dinner, till though slowly, yet fully they have consumed all that is set before them. And they cannot speak more reproachfully of any host, than to say; Ich hab mich da nicht satt gefressen, that is, I did not eat my belly full there: yea, at Berne, a city of Switzerland, they have a law, that in feasts they shall not sit more than five hours at the table. And at Basle, when doctors and masters take their degrees, they are forbidden by a statute, to sit longer at table, than from ten of the clock in the morning to six in the evening, yet when that time is past, they have a trick to cozen this law, be it never so indulgent to them, for then they retire out of the public hall into private chambers, where they are content with any kind of meat, so it be such as provoketh drinking, in which they have no measure, so long as they can stand or sit. Let the Germans pardon me to speak freely, that in my opinion they are no less excessive in eating, than drinking, save that they only protract the two ordinary meals of each day, till they have consumed all that is set before them, but to their drinking they can prescribe no mean nor end. I speak of their ordinary diet, especially at inns by the way as they travel: in feasts their provision is rather full than sumptuous. At Leipsic, for mere curiosity, I procured myself to be initiated to a marriage feast, in one of the chief citizen's houses; the marriage was in the afternoon, and at supper they served in a piece of roasted beef hot, and another cold, with a sauce made with sugar and sweet wine; then they served in a carp fried, then mutton roasted, then dried pears prepared with butter and cinnamon, and therewith a piece of broiled salmon, then bloated herrings broiled, and lastly a kind of bread like our fritters, save that it is made in long rolls, and more dry, which they call fastnacht kuchen, that is, Shrovetide baking, together with cheese. And thus with seven dishes a senator's nuptial feast was ended, without any flocks of fowl, or change of fishes, or banquetting stuff, which other nations use, only was endless drinking, whole barrels of wine being brought into the stove, and set by us upon a table, which we so plied, as after two hours, no man in the company was in case to give account next morning, what he did, said, or saw, after that time. To nourish this drinking, they used to eat salt meats, which being (upon ill disposition of my body) once displeasing and unwholesome for me, and I complaining thereof to my host, he between jest and earnest replied, that the use of salt was commended in Scripture, alleging that text: Let all your speeches be seasoned with salt, and then said he, much more should our meats be thus seasoned. Salt thus pleaseth their pallet, because it makes the same dry, and provokes the appetite of drinking. For which cause also, when they meet to drink, as they dine with dried pork, and beef heavily salted, together with cheese sharp like that of Parma, so when the cloth is taken away, they have set before them, raw beans, waternuts, (which I did see only in Saxony), and a loaf of bread cut into shives, all sprinkled with salt and pepper, the least bit whereof will invite him to drink that hath least need. And

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