lamb; seventy meat pies; seventy dishes of veal; 104 dishes of fish; 110 dishes of roast beef; and forty loads of wheat-flour were baked into pies and bread. The liquors drank were four hogsheads of wine; eight hogsheads of punch; thirteen hogsheads of ale; and twenty hogsheads of strong beer.

At the dinner, given by Henry of Winchester, at the nuptials of his sister-in-law, Cincia, with Prince Richard, celebrated at Westminster, Nov. 23, 1243, there were no less than 30,000 dishes. In the reign of Edward the Fourth, the Earl of Warwick's brother entertained a large portion of the nobility and clergy upon being installed Archbishop of York. At this feast were consumed eighty fat oxen; six wild bulls; 200 kids; 300 hogs; 300 calves; 300 pigs; 1,004 wethers; and 4,000 rabbits: 100 peacocks; 200 cranes; 200 pheasants; 400 plovers ; 500 partridges; 2,000 chickens; 2,000 woodcocks; 3,000 geese; 3,000 capons; 4,000 ducks, and 4,000 pigeons: 400 bucks, does, and roebucks; 1,506 hot venison pasties, and 4,000 cold ones; 300 pikes; 300 breams; four porpuses, and eight seals: 400 tarts; 1,000 dishes of jelly parted; 4,000 dishes of plain jelly; and 6,000 custards. There were also consumed 300 quarters of wheat; a pipe of spiced wine; 350 tons of ale; and 104 pipes of wine.

In the time of William of Rosenberg, the annual revenue of a small state was frequently expended at a marriage. This nobleman, being one of the richest in Bohemia, married Mary, Margravine of Baden. At this marriage were drank forty tons of Spanish wine; 1,100 setiers of Austrian, Rhenian, and Tyrolian wine; besides vast quantities of liquors. The festivities began on the

1

26th January, 1378, and closed on the first of May: during which time there were consumed 150 oxen; 450 sheep; 546 calves; and 634 hogs: thirty heath-cocks ; 240 pheasants; 2,050 partridges; and not less than 2,130 hares. Besides these, there were 120 pieces of other game, and forty stags. Of poultry there were 3,106 capons and pullets, with 5,135 geese, garnished and attended with 30,997 eggs. The quantity of fish consumed was equally surprising; as most of them were river fish: 675 lampreys; 6,080 trout; 1,820 carp; and 10,209 pikes; besides 350 tails of stock-fish; 2,600 lobsters; and 7,096 dried fish of different descriptions.

IX.

As a companion to this we may enumerate the quantity of provisions, consumed at the festival, given by the Duke of Orleans, at his chateau of Villers Cotterets, to Louis the Fifteenth, after his coronation.

There were consumed 3,071lbs. of ham; 10,550lbs. of bacon and hog's lard; 29,045 heads of poultry and game; 100,809lbs. of butcher's meat; £580 worth of sea and fresh-water fish; 150,096 lbs. of bread; 36,464 eggs, and 6,660lbs. of butter: 800 bottles of old hock; 200 hogsheads of common wine; 80,000 bottles of Champagne and Burgundy'; and 3,000 bottles of liqueurs: 800 pomegranates; 2,000lbs. of sugar-plums; 15,000lbs. of sweetmeats; 65,000 oranges and lemons; and 150,000lbs. of apples and pears: 1,500lbs. of chocolate; 2,000lbs. of coffee, besides tea; and 8,000lbs. of sugar.

It is said, that where Nature furnishes a guest, she seldom fails to furnish a banquet; but profusion like this

must have caused many a father to pine for the misery of his unfortunate infants.

The wealth of the entertainer, and the magnificence of the fête, may be still further illustrated by an allusion to the linen; the number of china dishes and plates; and the gold and silver utensils. These were 900 dozens of napkins; 2,000 dozens of aprons for the various cooks, and other persons employed; with 3,300 table-cloths. There were, also, 20,000 pieces of crystal dishes, on which to serve sweetmeats, &c.; 30,000 china plates and dishes for the dessert; 115,000 glasses and decanters; with 50,000 plates, dishes, tureens, and other pieces of silver and gilt silver.

Such were the feasts of princes!-The comforts of a social family-what are they to the vile raptures of a military people? The Romans of the empire delighted in the shows of animals. In the days of the republic, Pompey was drawn in triumph by elephants'; and Anthony by lions. Aurelian was drawn by deer; Firmus by ostriches: Heliogabalus was sometimes drawn by four lions; then by four tigers; now by four elephants; then by four mastiffs; not unfrequently by four camels; and once-by four naked women! At one time, he caused to be collected a thousand rats; at another time a thousand weasels; and at another ten thousand mice;-all of which he exhibited to the Roman people. And, for the purpose of estimating the magnitude of the city,

1 Bacchus seems to have set the example of being drawn by wild beasts; as Pliny says, that he triumphed in India in a chariot, drawn by elephants.— Nat. Hist. viii. 2.

⚫ August. Hist.

he caused to be collected such a number of spiders', as were never collected together before, nor have ever since been seen by human eye. They weighed upwards of ten thousand pounds! He would, also, give most curious presents to those, he called his friends. Ten bears to one; ten crickets to another; to some ten camels; to others ten flies; ten ostriches; and ten pelican's eggs. To some, dead dogs; to others dead bulls; and to some, vessels full of worms, of frogs, of toads, of serpents, or of scorpions: and frequently at his feasts, he would introduce bears and pards, lions and panthers, deprived of their teeth and claws.

X.

It may here be observed, that Probus, at the time of his triumph, gave the largest show of wild beasts, that was ever witnessed in Rome3. On the first day a thousand ostriches were exhibited; a thousand chamois; a thousand stags; a thousand fallow deer; and a thousand wild boars. These the people were permitted to kill, at their own discretion. On the second day, there were let loose, in the same capacious arena, a hundred

3 It may not be irrelevant here to relate, that when Pompey exhibited huntings of wild beasts, at Rome, in which five hundred lions were killed, and twenty elephants; the howling of the latter was so horrible to the ears of the people, who esteemed them in such use, and of a nature, so similar to man, that they wept largely, and heaped curses upon Pompey, for such an extraordinary instance of cruelty.-Vide Dio. Cass. lib. xxxix-Augustus * exhibited thirty-six crocodiles ;—and Gordian and Philip† ten camelopards.

* Dion. Cass. lib. lv.

Jul. Capitol. Gordian 111. c. 23.

Lybian leopards; a hundred Syrian leopards; a hundred lions; a hundred lionesses; and three hundred bears! The united roar of these animals presented a savage concert, such as the world had never before heard; and such as the imagination of man has little power to conceive. Oh! lay me by the side of a waterfall; and let me listen to its murmur, rendered more sacred by the notes of a nightingale !

CHAPTER II.

after

RETIRED in the country at C--, or at L unremitted toil in the senate, and desirous of varying your mode of life, my Lelius, send your servants into the fields. Let the collation be spread; and, surrounded by your family, and' sheltered from the heat of the sun, enjoy the coolness of the wide-extending oak, and the rivulet, that waters its roots. Mount the highest of your mountains; lie down upon its mossy surface; and watch the course of the clouds; or observe the animals, bounding from one end of the hill to the other. Rise to the rock, and shudder with agreeable horror, as the goat bounds from precipice to precipice: or on the margin of a river or a lake, while every object seems to move, recline in peace within your boat, and drink in rapture, as you move along.

Nothing can be more delightful than the water parties of the Constantinopolitans, on the bosom of the Euxine, and the Marmora; or those of the inhabitants of Vevay