the Mare Ponticum, and Romans, who fatted them in flour, thought delicious eating'.

LIZARD. See pp. 168, 182. It was much used in magick and filters. Pastry was also made in the form of it.

SERPENT. The Ophiomanteia consisted in drawing omens, good or bad, from the motions of serpents. This, and their intimate connection with numerous sacred rites and symbolick meanings, occasioned their domestication, of all which see p. 188, and DOMESTICK ANIMALS, p. 722.

SNAIL. The art of fattening them for the kitchen was invented by Fulvius Urpipinus 3. See pp. 170, 185.

IV. FISH.

ANCHOVY. It is not supposed to have been known to the Classical Ancients; but, if so, it is mentioned by Apicius as a sauce preserved in salt, dissolved, as now, used in the form of essence; and eaten without also in the Middle Age4.

BUCCINIUM LUPELLUS, a shell-fish, which furnishes a purple dye that has been called the purpura of the Ancients, is known on the Cornish coast 5.

CARP. This fish is supposed to be the Cyprinus of the Classical Ancients. Cassiodorus, who lived in the ninth century, is the first author who mentions it. It was brought from the Danube. Froissart speaks of it as food; and Henry says that it was introduced here as store for ponds temp. Henry VIII. The mirror carp, with yellow scales, is mentioned only by the Moderns 6.

COD. Supposing it the Asellus of Pliny, it was known to the Ancients, as well as in the Middle Age7.

CRAB.

D'Ancarville contends that the crab's claws on a female head is not the symbol of Amphitrite, as Winckelman says, but of Diana Lymphatica, or Portulana (see Paus. ii. 128, 575), and that such is its meaning upon the coins of the Brettians, &c. . See p. 154.

8.

CREYFISH. Plutarch says that the art of searching for them in rivers, by invalids, was taught by the practice of hogs. Pet. Oxe introduced them into Denmark in 1575. We find a dish of them, temp. Henry VIII. in Mr. Nichols's Progresses 9.

CUTTLE-FISH. Thetis was metamorphosed into this fish when Peleus overcame her resistance. Hence it serves for a type of Syracusan coins, and other maritime towns of Magna Grecia. The Ancients, like the modern Italians, made ink with the black liquor1o. DOLPHIN. See p. 160.

EELS. See CHAP. IX. p. 265; and CHAP. XII. § ANGLO-SAXONS, p. 524.

HERRING. This fish, mistaken for the halec of the Romans, was unknown to them 11. Froissart mentions it as Lent food. The Hollanders first began a regular fishery in 1164, and had a method of salting them, but the present mode of pickling them is ascribed to Bucklem, of Bieroliet, in 1397. According to these accounts, Andrews must be mistaken in making the fishery in the North Sea commence in 1429 12.

'Plin. xvii. 24.

2 Plin. xxix. 38. Apul. Met. x. 5 Du Cange, v. Alceium, Liquamen, Liquamenarius. Froiss. xii. 36. Henry's Gr. Brit. xii. 370. de ration. Animal. Beckm. Inven. iii. 156.

Enc.

3 Plin. ix. 56. 5 Bond's Loo, 126.

7 Plin. ix. 17. Brit. Monach.

6

4 Plin. ix. 56. Beckm. iii. 150 seq. s Enc.

9 Plut.

10 Enc. "Du Cange says, that the manidia were small salt

fish, supposed to be herrings, and called by the Greeks maindias; but Pithæus (see Juv. S. vii.) thinks, that they were menomenia, because they were prepared from month to month. Anderson's Commerce, i 160, 392, ub. plur.

12 Enc. Froissart, xii. 36.

LAMPREY. Pies made of this fish were costly presents in the Middle Age. The lamprey, lampern, pride, and murena, are different fish. They are all engraved by Dr. Nash, who observes, that the murena of the Classical Ancients was not the lamprey. This fish appears on a picture of Herculaneum with great exactness, see fig. 3, p. 352.

LIMPETS, eaten in the Middle Age 2.

LOBSTER. (See p. 168.)

MACKAREL, mentioned in 1247, as allowed to certain religious, on the third day of the Rogations. They were cried in London temp. Henry VI.3

MERULA. This Roman fish was the French merle, a fish resembling a perch 4. NAUTILUS 5, or the SAILOR. The elegant shell of this fish, engraved and richly mounted with precious stones, &c. has been a favourite subject with jewellers. Several were in Mr. Beckford's Collection. (See the Vignette, p. 755.)

OYSTER. The Greeks and Romans ate them at the beginning of the repast. They opened them at table, and preferred the largest. Fulvius Urpinus invented a method of fatting them, and Apicius, of keeping them a long time fresh. Stews for preserving and fattening them are ascribed by Macrobius to Sergius Orata, in order to make money by the sale of them. Our oysters, much valued by the Romans, are supposed to be those of Folkestone. Our ancestors barrelled and pickled them, and judged of their goodness by the greenness of the fin".

PIKE. This fish was caught in the eleventh century by putting clavi (whatever it means) upon the mill 7.

PORPOISE. Sold for food in Newcastle market in 15758.

ROACH, is the celebrated mullus of the Ancients. Stripped of its scales, it is a fine red, and in dying exhibits beautiful changes of colour. For this purpose it was brought upon table in a glass. The head and liver are the great delicacies in Apicius 9.

SALMON. Fat salmon was a very favourite dish in the Middle Age. It was divided into joles, &c. as now, broiled, salted, pickled, and served in various forms 10.

SHELL-FISH. Pliny mentions Fulvius Urpinus as the inventor of the art of fattening them. C. Caylus gives an Egyptian monument, engraved upon a shell of the pinna marina, and resembling a cornelian; indeed the Ancients employed more than one kind of shell, to imitate gems. A shell upon the coins of Tyre is the emblem of the Tyrian purple; upon other coins, of Venus. It also occurs upon the coins of Tarentum, Cuma, Pyrnus, &c.11

STOCK-FISH. Dried stock-fish occurs in 1338; and it was so called from its being as hard as a stock of wood 12.

STURGEON, anciently reserved as a royalty. The same royalty was annexed to whales in the Laws of the Northern Nations 13.

it

1

THORNBACK. This fish occurs upon coins of Corcyra, now Corfu 14.

TUNNY. The Sinopians were famous for the tunny fishery, whence they represented upon their coins, as appears from those of Geta 15.

Berkeley MSS. Nash's Worcestershire, i. lxxxvi.

v. Maquerellus. Strutt's Horda, iii. 62.

• Du Cange, v. Limpa.

3 Du Cange, Of the Paper Nautilus, see Wood's ZooSenec. Ep. 88, 108. Juven. S. vi. 302. Plin. ix. 56. Macrob. ix. 54. Whitak. Manchest. ii. 87. Howell's Lett. 74, 197. 7 Du Cange, v. Tramallum.

graphy, ii. 578, and pl. 20.

4 Enc.

6

Enc. Plut. Sympos. ix.

& Brand's Newcastle, ii. 359. 9 Enc. Plin. ix. 17. Senec. N. Quest. iii. c. 17, 18. 10 Hist. Troubad. 427. Brit. Monach. Lel. Collect. vi. 17, 28, 29, 30, &e. Enc. Plut. ix. 56. C. Cayl. t. ii. n. i. pl. 6.

12 Du Cange, v. Stockfish. 13 Dec. Scriptor. 526, 1566. Du Cange, v. Balena.. 14 Enc. 15 Strabo. Enc.

TURBOT. One was set before Dionysius of Syracuse. It was of late introduction among the Romans 1.

WHALE. Dio, according to Freigius, says, that Faustus, son of Sylla, gave whales with oil to the people, U. C. 693. Pliny mentions the attack of similar large fish by spears and tridents; and fish-spears are harpoons. The oil was also known in Arabia. M. Noel, of Rouen, has published an historical memoir upon the whale fishery. He traces the antiquity of it to the Northern Nations, in the ninth century, and thinks the harpooning might be introduced by the Normans, as the fishery obtained in France, &c. The Basques and Biscayans were not the first, though followed by the English, who sent out the first ships in 1611. The first and last assertions he borrowed from Hackluyt, and Anderson, who confutes him, as to the Biscayners. Anderson says, that whalebone was not known then, but the Ancients gave that appellation to ivory. It is however certain, that two handed swords made of whalebone have been found in tumuli at Westra in the Orkneys. In Ambrose Parey's Works is a wood-cut, representing the manner of cutting up the whale. A drummer and fifer are standing upon it and playing; drum-beating and bell-ringing being the signal given to the inhabitants of Aquitain, at sight of a whale. The lard was boiled, and eaten with fish in Lent, that gormandizers might have something to serve them, instead of flesh, then forbidden. The houses of the fish-eaters were built with their bones, and orchards fenced with them. See STURGEON, p. 737.

ANT. See p. 154.

V. INSECTS.

BEE. The symbol of Ephesus; common also on coins of Elyrus, Iulis, and Præsus. The fondness for this useful insect has passed through the Romans, Britons, and Anglo-Saxons, among whom they were great objects of theft, to ourselves; together with the beating-pans to make them swarm, and the cruel custom of smothering them. Du Cange mentions a right of pounding bees; and, when a swarm was going off, a ridiculous adjuration to the queen bee. Bee-hives belonging to deceased persons were turned round at the moment when the corpse was taken out of the house; all the bees were also supposed to die with the master of the house, if the hives were not removed. They were never to be bought nor removed but on Good Friday. If they kept close at home they were thought to presage bad weather 3.

BUTTERFLY. See p. 157.

COCHINEAL. See CHAP. X. p. 372.

FLIES are mentioned somewhere in Lyndwood as the emblem of unclean thoughts. They were driven away when a woman was in labour, for fear she should bring forth a daughter 4.

POLYPUS. The Polypus, or rather Vermollusque (the worm), called Medusa, is a symbol of the coins of Syracuse 5.

SPIDER. It was thought by the Classical Ancients and ourselves unlucky to kill

Enc.

Hor. Juv. S. iv. Burn. Mus. i. 419.

2

Freig. in Ciceron. ii. 526. Plin. ix. 6; xxxii. 1. Anders. Comm. i. 84. Du Cange, v. Balena, Balenatio, Balnerium. Gough's Camd. iii. 743. Nares, v. Whalebone. Amb. Parey's Works, 619. 3 Enc. XV. Script. 8. Lye, v. Beotheof. Plut. § Polit. Prec. Virg. Georg. iv. 64. and Not. Delph. Du Cange, v. Arna, Aviorum mater. Popul. Antiq. ii. 202, 203, 537, Popul. Antiq. ii. 4. 5 Enc.

539.

them, and prognostications were made from their manner of weaving their webs. Hanging three spiders round the neck was also a charm for an ague. That of the Money-spinner is also ancient, as well as their prognostication of weather. Mr. Nichols mentions spiders embroidered on the white gowns of ladies, temp. Eliz. 1

VI. VEGETABLES.

[All the accounts of these are imperfect.]

ACACIA. Of the ancient is the Cassia of Egypt, which furnishes gum-arabic; not the Acacia of the New World 2.

ACORNS. Food of oxen, in Pliny (18. 26.); among us of swine. Places were set apart by the Anglo-Saxons for trees to bear them3.

ALMONDS brought from Greece to Marseilles by the Phocæan Colonists, and imported in the Middle Age1. Faulkner, in his Kensington, says that the fruit came from the East, and was introduced in 1570.

APRICOT. Accounts vary. Brought from Greece to Marseilles (Pownall). Natives of Armenia (Gough); of America (Faulkner); introduced by the Romans (Whitaker); brought from Italy to England by Wolf, the King's gardener, in 1524 (Gough); introduced, with other fruit, about 20 Elizabeth (Stowe); about 1562 (Faulkner) 5.

APPLE. Tossing an apple to a girl was a token of love. Dr. Nott says it had always an obscene signification. As a symbol of Venus it is modern. Apple-trees were sprinkled with a libation of cider and toast for a fruitful crop, supposed to be a relick of the heathen sacrifice to Pomona, on Twelfth Eve or Christmas Day; and new apples were blessed by the priest on St. James's Day, July 25. Divinations were also practised with the kernels and parings. Throwing up little apples, and catching them on the points of knives, were favourite accomplishments of the Troubadours 6.

ARTICHOKE. The Romans used the calyx of the thistle kind as we do the artichoke. In the 15th century it was brought from the Levant to Italy, introduced into France in the beginning of the 16th century, and into England in the reign of Henry VIII. 7 ASPARAGUS. See SPARAGE, p. 750.

ASPHODEL, planted near tombs, as agreeable to the dead 8.

BARBERIES. Mr. Nichols, in his Progresses, mentions their being eaten as a sauce, like vinegar, in the sixteenth century.

BEAN. The Egyptian priests and the Pythagoreans abhorred them. The vegetable was equally familiar to the Classical Ancients and ourselves. The pods were eaten. Beans were consecrated and given away on Midlent Sunday, and such doles formed part of the funeral ceremonies, as they did those of Rome, and of the Lemuria. Fried beans, by way of allegorizing confession, because, "as beeans must be steeped before they are eatable, so we must let our confession lie in steepe in the water of meditation," were eaten after the sallad in the first Lent service. See CHAP. XIII. § JANUARY, p. 572.

BEECH. The tree, covered with skins, was worshipped by travellers, and the wood

Antiq. Vulgar. 93. Popul. Antiq. ii. 537. Nich. Progr. 2X. Script. 1776. 3 Enc. 4 Pownall's Prov. Rom. 56. M. Par. 531. 5 Pownall, ub. supr. Whitak. Manchest. ii. 49. Brit. Topogr. i. 133. Stowe's Ann. 1038. Enc. Nott's Catull. ii. 63. Popul. Antiq. i. 28, 274, 300, 303. Hist. Troubad. 201. 7 Beckm. i. 356. Brit. Topogr. i. 133. • Enc. 9 Enc. Chron. Precios. 75, &c. Du Cange, v. Goussa. Strutt's Sports, &c. 256. Popul. Antiq. i. 97, 101.

was used for chests, scrinia, &c. It is said to have been unknown in Britain when Cæsar landed; but see Whitaker and Gilpin, as below quoted1.

BETONY was planted in churchyards to guard against bad visions; and the places in which it grew secured; and also to sanctify those who carried it about them 2.

Box. See p. 236.

BROOM. Plenty of blossoms on it was thought to prognosticate a fruitful year of corn 3.

CABBAGE. The Egyptians began their repast with cabbage, as did the Greeks and Romans, who deemed it a preventive of intoxication. Pliny mentions eating it with vinegar, like our pickled cabbage; Cato its medical and other properties, and Palladius the husbandry. Under the general name of Worts esculent greens were included, but that particular kind called cabbage was known here, according to Henry, temp. Edward IV. but neglected. Gough says, that Sir Anthony Ashley introduced it; and that there is a cabbage at the foot of his monument at Winborn St. Giles, in Dorsetshire. Tailors' cabbage is derived from Cablish, windfaln, or brushwood; as their Hell from Helan, to hide. See CHAP. XIII. § NOVEMBER, p. 585.

CARROT, eaten as now, occurs in Galen; and Pintianus mentions its cultivation in Gaul 5.

trees.

CEDAR, CEDRAT. The Ancients included under this term three distinct kinds of 1. The cedar of Lebanon, of which the Syrians, Phenicians, and Egyptians, built vessels, and of which fine wainscotting and the statues of some divinities, because incorruptible, were made, as well as family images. It was also used for beams, torches, on account of the odour, and for oil, with which they rubbed the furniture, &c. 2. The juniper or common cedar, of which the Egyptians made the coffins of the mummies. 3. The cypress. Possibly the Romans introduced it here, for cedar (of whatever kind) is mentioned in the Life of Dunstan. The cedar of Lebanon is supposed to have been introduced here after the Reformation 6. Of Cedrat, see TABLES, CHAP. IX. p. 334. CHERRY. Faulkner says that this fruit is affirmed to have come originally from Cerasus, a city of Pontus, whence Lucullus brought it into Italy; and that it was introduced into Britain about the year 53. Pownall makes it an introduction to Marseilles by the Phocean Colonists, and Strutt a Roman importation to this island. The Anglo-Saxons are said to have lost it; and Richard Harris, fruiterer to King Henry VIII. to have re-imported it; but good native cherries have been found in Norfolk, and they were known in the thirteenth century 7.

CHESNUT. The Romans are said to have introduced this tree, which is called a native of the South of Europe. Our ancestors made great use of it in their buildings, especially in the roofs of great halls 8.

CITRON. Pownall makes this tree an importation of the Phocean Colonists at Marseilles; but it was not known at Rome till about the time of Lucullus. Lister, on Apicius, says that citrons were not edibles, and Pliny that they were only used as a counter poison. Athenæus, on the contrary, affirms that his Roman contemporaries con

Plin. xvi. 43. Apul. ii. 3. ed. Bissout. Whitak. Manchest. ii. 47. Gilp. For. Scen. b. i. § 6. p. 115 seq. 2 Burt. Anat. Melanch. 720, ed. fol. 3 Popul. Antiq. ii. 560. 4 Enc. Plin. xix. 8. Cat. re rust. clvii. Pallad. Apr. iii. Sept. xiii. Henry, xii. 266. Gough's Brit. Topogr. i. 233. Popul. Antiq. i. 289, 302. 5 Gal. de Alim. &e. Cl. ii. p. 49. Pintian. in Plin. xix. 5. Enc. Angl. Sacr. ii. 100. Brit. Topogr.

i. 133. 7 Faulkner. Pownall, Prov. Roman. 56. Strutt's Horda, i. 1. Brit. Topogr. i. 133. Henry, xii. 266. 8 Whitak. Manchest. ii. 49. Gilpin's For. Scener. i. 60. Archæol. i. 46. Faulkner's Kensington.