electuary, a ragout of capons'-ftones, and fome dormice faufages.

If, as friends do with one another at a venison-pasty, you should fend for a plate, you know you may command it; for what is mine is your's, as being entirely your, &c.

IN IMITATION OF

HORACE'S ART OF POETRY.

WITH SOME LETTERS TO DR. LISTER AND OTHERS,

Occafioned principally by the Title of a Book publifbed by the Doctor, being the Works of Apicius Cælius concerning the Soups and Sauces of the Ancients; with an Extract of the greatest Curiofities contained in that Book *.

Humbly infcribed

TO THE HON. BEEF-STEAK CLUB.

Firft printed in 1708.

TO DR. LISTER.

INGENIOUS Lifter! were a picture drawn

With Cynthia's face but with a neck like Brawn,
With wings of turkey and with feet of calf,
'Tho' drawn by Kneller it would make you laugh.
Such is, good Sir! the figure of a feast

By fome rich farmer's wife and fifter dreft,

5

*Of Dr. Lifter's book only 120 copies were printed in 1705. It was reprinted at Amfterdam in 1709 by Theod. Janf. Almeloveen, under the title of Apicii Cælii de Opfoniis et Condimentis, five Arte Coquinaria, Libri Decem. Cum Annotationibus Martíni Lifter, e Medicis Domefticis Sereniffimæ Majeftatis Reginæ Annæ, et Notis felectioribus, variifque Lectio. nibus integris, Humelbergii, Barthii, Reinefii, A Van Der Linden, et aliorum, ut et variarum Leftionum Libello. Editio Secunda. Dr. Afkew had a copy of each edition.

Volume I.

H

Which were it not for plenty and for steam
Might be refembled to a fick man's dream,
Where all ideas huddling run so fast,
That fyllabubs come first and soups the last.
Not but that Cooks and poets ftill were free
To use their pow'r in nice variety;
Hence mack'rel feem delightful to the eyes
'Tho' drefs'd with incoherent goofeberries:

ΙΟ

Crabs, falmon, lobsters, are with fennel spread, 15
Who never touch'd that herb till they were dead:
Yet no man lards falt pork with orangepeel,
Or garnishes his lamb with spitchcock'd eel.
A Cook perhaps has mighty things profeft,
Then fent up but two difhes nicely dreft:
What fignify Scotcht-collops to a feast?

20

Or you can make whipp'd cream; pray what relief
Will that be to a failor who wants beef,

Who lately fhipwreck'd never can have ease
Till reeftablish'd in his pork and pease?
When once begun, let industry ne'er cease
Till it has render'd all things of one piece:
At

your deffert bright pewter comes too late When your first courfe was all ferv'd up in plate.

25

Most knowing Sir! the greatest part of Cooks 30 Searching for truth are cozen'd by its looks. One would have all things little, hence has try'd Turkey-poults fresh from the egg in butter fry'd: . Others to fhew the largencfs of their foul

Prepare you muttons fwol'd and oxen whole. 35

40

45

To vary the fame things fome think is art:
By larding of hogs-feet, and bacon-tart,
The tafte is now to that perfection brought
That care when wanting skill creates the fault.
In Covent Garden did a tailor dwell
Who might deserve a place in his own hell :
Give him a single coat to make he'd do 't;
A veft or breeches fingly; but the brute
Could ne'er contrive all three to make a fuit!
Rather than frame a fupper like fuch clothes
I'd have fine eyes and teeth without my nose.
You that from pliant paste would fabricks raise,
Expecting thence to gain immortal praise,
Your knuckles try, and let your finews know
Their pow'r to knead and give the form to dough:
Chufe your materials right, your feas'ning fix,
And with your fruit refplendent sugar mix;
From thence of course the figure will arise,
And elegance adorn the surface of your pies.
Beauty from order fprings: the judging eye
Will tell you if one fingle plate is awry :
The Cook must flill regard the present time;
T'omit what 's just in season is a crime:
Your infant pease t' asparagus prefer,
Which to the fupper you may best defer.

Be cautious how you change old bills of fare;

Such alterations fhould at least be rare;

Yet credit to the artist will accrue

55

60

Who in known things ftill makes th' appearance new.

65

Fresh dainties are by Britain's traffick known,
And now by conftant use familiar grown.
What lord of old would bid his Cook prepare
Mangoes, potargo, champignons, caveare?
Or would our thrum-capp'd ancestors find fault
For want of fugartongs or spoons for falt?
New things produce new words, and thus Monteth
Has by one veffel fav'd his name from death.
The scafons change us all. By autumn's frost
The fhady leaves of trees and fruit are loft;

70

76

But then the spring breaks forth with fresh supplies,
And from the teeming earth new buds arise.
So ftubble-geefe at Michaelmas are seen
Upon the fpit; next May produces green.
The fate of things lies always in the dark;
What Cavalier would know St. James's Park? 80
For Locket's stands where gardens once did spring,
And wild ducks quack where grasshoppers did fing:

In the time of King Henry VIII. the Park was a wild wet field; but that prince, on building St. James's palace, enclo fed it, laid it out in walks, and collecting the waters together gave to the new-enclofed ground and new-raised building the name of St. James's. It was much enlarged by Charles II. who added to it feveral fields, planted it with rows of limetrees, laid out the Mall, formed the canal with a decoy and other ponds for waterfowl. The limetrees or tilia, whose blossoms are incomparably fragrant, were probably planted in confequence of a fuggeftion of Mr. Evelyn in his Fumifugium, publithed in 1661.-The improvements lately made seem in fome measure to have brought it into the state it was in before the Restoration; at least the wild ducks have in their turn gi ven way to the grasshoppers.