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month ; and a cold sugared eniremet , at the making of which Carfeme had presided , readily fetched a higher price than the public now pay for the ' Complete Works' of the poet of Green-Arbemr-ccrart ! " Cariime studied under various great masters , but he perfected his studies under Boucher , chqf des services of the Prince Talleyrand . The glory of Carema wits co-eval with that of Napoleon : those two individuals were great men at the same period ; but the glory of one will , perhaps , be a little more enduring than that of the other . I will not say whose glory will thus last the longer ; for as was remarked courteously by the Oxford candidate for honours , who was more courteous than ' crammed , ' and who was asked which were the minor- Prophets , ' I am not willing to draw invidious distinctions !' " In the days of the Empire , —the era of the greatness , of the achievements , and of the reflections of Car&me , —the possession of him was as eagerly contested by the rich . as that of a nymph by the satyrs . He was alternately the glory of Talleyrand , the boast of Lavalette , and the pride of the Saxon Ambassador . In their houses , too , his hand was as often on his
pen as on the handle of his casserole ; and inspiration never visited bis brain without the call being duly registered in his note-book , with reflections thereon highly philosophical and gastronomic . " But Careme was capricious . It was not that he was unfaithful , bnt he was volage ; and he passed from kitchen to kitchen , as the bee wings from flower to flower . The Emperor Alexander dined with Talleyrand , and forthwith he seduced Careme : the seductionmerrey was only 10 W . sterling per month , and the culinary expenses . Careme did not yield without much coyness . He urged his love for study , his desire to refine the race of whieh he made himself the model , his love for his country ; and he even accompanied , for a brief jnome-Bt , Lord Stewart' to Vienna ; but it was more in the way of policy than pastry : for Count Orloff was sent after hint on a mission , and Carfeme , after flying , with the full intention of being followed , to London and Paris , yielded to the golden solicitation , and did the Emperor Alexander the honour of becoming the head of the imperial kitchen in whatever palaee his Majesty presided . But the delicate susceptibility ot Careme was-wounded by
discovering that hra book of expenses was subjected to supervision . He flung up his appointment in disgust , and . hastened across Europe to England . The jealous winds wished to detain him for France , and they blew him , back on the coast between Calais and Boulogne , exnetly as they did another gentleman , who may not be so widely known as Careme , but who Has been beard of in England under the name of William Wordsworth . Careme accepted the omen , repaired to Paris , entered the service of the Princess Bagratipn , and served the table © f that capricious lady , en maitre d"hotel . As the guests uttered ecstatic praises of the fare , tlie Princess would smile upon him as he stpod before her , aiid exclaim , * He is the pearl of cooks I' Is it a matter of surprise that he was vain ? Fancy leing called n ' pearl' by a princess ! Qu reading it we think of the days when Lady Mary W or tly Montague put nasty footmen into eclogues , and deified the dirty passions of Airs . JIahony ' s ¦ lacquey .,. '' . ' u The Princess , however , ate herself into a permanent indigestion , and Careme transferred his services to the English Ambassador at the Court of Vienna . There , every morning , seated in his magnificient kitchen , Careme received the visit of * Milor Stewart , ' -ivlio seldom
lefMiim without-presents and encouragements . Indeed , these rained upon the immortal artist . The Emperor Alexander had consented to have Careme ' s projects in culinary architecture dedicated to him , and , with notice of consent , sent him a diamond ring . When Prince Walkousbi placed it on his finger , the cook forgot his dignity , and burst into tears . So did all the Gther cooks m the Austrian capital , —out of sheer jealousy ; " Careme , two years before George IV . was King , had been foe a short period a member ef the Regent's household . Ha left Vienna to be present at the Coronation ; bat lie arrived too lute ; and he does not scruple to say , very ungenerously , that the banquet was spoiled for want of his presence , nor to insinuate that the colleagues with whom he would have been associated were unworthy of such association , —ah insinuation at once base and baseless . After being the object of a species of semi- ¦ w orship , and yielding to every new offer , yet affecting to despise them all , Careme ultimately tabernacled with Baron Rothschild in Paris ; and the . super-human excellency of his dinners ^ is it not written in the ' Book without a Name' of Lady llorgan ? Arid was not his residence there the object of envy , and cause of much melancholy , and opportunity for much eulogy , on the part of George IV . ? Well , Anthony Careme would have us believe as much with respect to himself and the King ; bnt > ve dp not believe a word of it ; for the royal tahle was never better cared for b > y the royal officers , whose duty lay in such care , than at this very period . Georee IV . is said to have
tempted him by offering triple salaries ; but all in vain ; for London was too tristi an abiding place for a man whose whole soul , out of kitchen hours , was given to study . And so Careme remained with his Jewish patron until infirmity overtook his noble nature , and he retired to dictate his immortal works ( like Milton , very !) to his accomplished daughter . Les beaux . restes of Careme were eagerly sought after ; but he would not heed what was no longer a temptation ; for he was realising twenty thousand francs a year from the booksellers , besides the interest of the money he had saved . Think of it , shade of Milton 1 Eight hundred pounds sterling yearly , for writing on kitchen-staff I Who would compose ¦ epics after that ? But Curdiue ' s books were epics after their sort , and they are highly civditublo to the scribo who wrote them from his notes . Finally , even Antony Cureme died , like cooks of less degree ; but lie had been the imperial despot of European kitchens , had been ' beringed ' by Monarchs , and been smiled on by Princesses ; he had received lords in his kitchen , and had encountered ladies who gave him a great deal for very little knowledge in return ; and finally , ns Fulke Groville hud inscribed on his tomb that he had been the friend of Sir Philip Sidney , so the crowning joy of Cureme ' a Ufa might have been chiselled on his monument , indicating that he hud been the friend of one whom he would havo accounted a greater man than the knightly hero in question , —namely , il Maestro Rossini ! Carl'ino ' s cuj ) was thereat full ; and ho died , perfectly convinced that paradise itself would lie glad at his coming . "
ilie Table Traits arc so laden "with good tilings , in the shape of information and advice , that we are at a I 093 to know what to select . Those who wish to " read medicinally , " therefore , must buy the book and read for themselves . Let us rather take a peep at some of our ancestors in the last century : — " I havo noticed , the love of good eating , and the coarseness connected with it . There was also a coarse economy attendant on it . The Duchoas of Devonshire would call out to the Duke , whew both were presiding at supper nfter one of their assemblies , * Good God , Duke 1 don't cut the ham ; nobody will cut anyi' and thon she would relate the circumstances of her private menage to her neighbour : * \ Vhen tlieru ' s only my Lord and I , besides ii pudding , wo liavo always 11 dish of roast '—no very dainty fare fora ducul pair . Indeed , there was in well want of diuntinosa , and of dWrtv " , too , in many of thoso with whom both . might Iihvq boen looked for as a possession . Lord Coventry ehnsod his lady round tho
dinner-table , « nd scrubbed tho paint , oil her cheolcs with a nnpkin . Tho Duko un < l Duchess of Hamilton wore more contomftiblo in their pomposity thnn their graces of Devonshire wore in thoir plainness . At their own house they walked iu to dinner before thoir company , ant together ut the upper end ot their own table * , aito together oft' one pluto , and drank to nobody bunoath tho rank of Karl . It was , indeed , a wonder that they could get any one of ¦ any rank to diuo with them « t nil . But , in point of dinners , people arc not ' nieo' ovon now . J ) uko » very recently dined with 11 railway potcntnto , iu hopon « l" prollting by tlic coiulasoentiion ; nnd Duchesses heard , without a amilo , that potentate ' s lady superbly dismiss thorn ¦ with « n ' au retervoir /' - —ftn expression , by tho wuy , which is refined , when compared with thftt taught by our nobility , a hundred years ngo , to tho rich Hohommn Countoaa Chnmfelt ; namely , D—n you P nn < I , * Kiua me ! ' but it > viw npologutionlly n : iid of hor , tlint uho novor uaoij tho iormer but upon the miacarriugo of the latter . This wns utu timo vlion vast ns-Bcmbhoaworq followed by vj » st Huppoi-H , vuat suppers by vast drinking , and when nymphs ana Bwains roaohed homo nt dawn with wigs , liku Uanger'n in tho comedy , vastly buttered , And not very fit to bo seen . "
Our non-claaatcal readers may like to hear something of tho after-dinner enjoyments of a Roman emperor : — aJr *! ?\ llA mu 9 t ne J * boon a most unpleasant person to diiio with . Ho entertained himfloii nnu his Ruoata with tho niyht of men torUnid on tho ruck , and ha got ui > littlo priviit " OM . 0 MU 011 B on thoao oooiw o »» to onllvon tho aaono . Wo read of her ftlMJoatA private 0011-cci t « , . mU how Mrs . Andooon presided ut tho piano , llul tho Konuna only hoard of thoir
Ernperor ' s killing fun to frighten his guests with , and how his divinity's private headsman Niger Barbatus , performed , as usual , with his well-known dexterity . His frolics were really of a frightful character . It was after a banquet , when the capital jest of slaying had failed to make him as merry as usual , that he rushed to the sacrificial altar , attired in the dress of a victim-killer , that is , with a linen apron for his sole costume . He seized the mallet as though he were about to slay the appointed victim , but he turned suddenly round on the resident official and "butchered him instead . And thereat , all who had -witnessed the frolicsome deed of their master , declared that' 'Fore Jove , ' twas a more capital joke than the last ! ' His answer to the Consuls who ventured to ask the cause of a sudden burst of laughter in which he indulged at a crowded feast , is well known ; ' I laugh to think , " said the amiable creature , ' that with one wave of my hand I can sweep all your stupid heads off ! ' His method of loving was equally characteristic . He would fling his terrible arm round the fair neck he professed to admire , and express his delight that he could cut it off when he pleased . There was the brilliant Cesonia : ' I cannot tell , * said her imperial lover at a feast ' vrhy it is that I am so fond of that girl . I'll have her put on the rack for a quarter of an hour , that she may be compelled to tell me the reason- ' Blue Beard was the mildest of quaker gentlemen compared with this Caligula . A lady might as well have been wooed by a boa constrictor . "
To pass from , ancient emperors to modern authors , -we come to Peter Pindar : — " The table life of Peter Pindar was afar more joyous one than that of much greater poets . At Truro he was noted for his frugal fare , and he never departed from the observance of frugality of living throughout his career . He would sometimes , we are told , -when visiting country patients , and when he happened , to be detained , go into the kitchen and cook his own beefsteak , in order to show a country cook how a steak was done m London , — the only place , he said , where it was properly cooked . He laughed at the faculty as he did at theking , and set the whole profession mad by sanctioning the plentiful use of water , declaring that physic was an uncertain thing , and maintaining that in most cases all that ¦ was required on the doctors part was ' to watch nature , and when she was going right , to give her a shove behind . ' He was accustomed to analyse the drugs which he had prescribed for his patients , before he-would allow the latter to swallow them , and he gave a decided county bias against pork by remarking of a certain apothecary that he was too fond of bleeding the patients who resorted to him , and too proud of his large breed of pigs . The inference was certainly not in favour of pork . Peter ' s practical jokes in connexion with the
: able were no jokes to the chief object of them . Thus , when a pompous Cornish member of Parliament issued invitations for as pompons a dinner to personages of corresponding pomposity , ' Peter , recollecting that the senator had an aunt who was a laundress , sent her an invitation in her nephew's name , and the old lady , happy and proud , excited universal surprise , and very particular horror in the bosom of the parliament-man , by making her appearance in the august and hungry assembly , -who welcomed her about as warmly as if she had been a boule asphyxiatre' of the new French artillery practice . " It is going a long way back to ascend from ' Pindar' to Tasso , but both poets loved roasted chesnuts , — -and there is the affinity . Peter never drank anything but old rum a wine glass , ( never beyond a wine glass and a half , ) served him for a day , after a dinner of the plainest kind . The doctor eschewed wine altogether , at least in his latter days , as generating acidity . Tasso , however , unlike our satirical friend , was a wine-bibber . During the imprisonment ¦ wh ich had been the result of his own -arrogance , he -wrote to the physician of the Duke of Ferrara , complaining of intestinal pains , of pounds of bells in his ears , of painful mental images and varying apparitions of inanimate things appearing : to hinU and of
liis inability to study . The doctor advised him to apply a cautery to his leg , abstain from ¦ wine , and confine liimself to a diet of broth and gruels . The poet defended the sacredness of his appetite , and declined to abstain from generous wine ; but he urged the medico to find a remedy for his ills , promising to recompense him for his trouble , by making him immortal in song . At a later period of his life , when he was the guest of his friend ' Manco , in his gloomy castle of Bisaccio , the illustrious pair were seated together , after dinner , over a dessert of Tasso ' s favourite chesnutB and some generous wine ; and there he affrighted his friend by maintaining that he was constantly attended by a guardian spirit , who was frequently conversing with him , and in proof of the same , he invited Manco to listen to their dialogue . The host replenished his glass and announced himself ready . Tasso fell into a loud rhapsody of mingled folly and beauty , occasionally pausing to give his spirit an opportunity of speaking ; but the remarks of this agathodsemon were inaudible to all but the ears of the poeU The imaginary dialogue went on for an hour ; and at the end of it , when Tasso asked Manco what lie thought of it , Manco , who was the most matter-of-fact man tliat ever lived , replied that , for his part , he thought Tasso had drunk too much wine and eaten too many chesnuts . And truly I think so too . "
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XEWELL PASTURES . Lewell Pastures . By the Author of " Sir Frederick Derwent , " " Fabian ' Tower , " and " Smugglers and Foresters . " Uoutledge . Lii-wmi , Pastures is an interesting and well-Tvritten novel . " Story , God bless you , there is none to tell ;'' or at least it is _ slight , and not particularly original . The hero , jilted by a fine lady , and disgusted -with the world , resigns his commission in the Household troops , and retires to a farm which he has inherited , a lonely , sterile , neglected , estate , to the ungrateful task of improving -which he resolves to devote himself . His existence is diversified by occasional intercourse with his friends the Ersltines , an ill-assorted couple ; by continual warfare with a savage old miser of large property , whose lands " march" with liis own , but who becomes through an accident reconciled and greatly indebted to him : and by a little romance about a
l-nysterious , fair calm prc-Raphaehto beawty , the supposed illegitimate grand-daugiiter of the old miser above mentioned . The hero and the fair calm maiden , after the proper number of pages , are united ; and the talc ends in good orthodox fashion , -with the death of the wealthy miser , who makes a will in favour of his ancient enemy , and the discovery of papers , proving ( of course ) the legitimacy of the disowned grand-daughter . So far tho framework , which is simple enough . The claims of Lewell Pastures to be considered a good novel , rest , we conceive , on other merits . It is very pleasantly and unaffectedly witten , is full of excellent description , and very true , but not common-place , analysis of character . Tho hero ' s first arrival in this desolate place seems almost more like colonising in the bush than settling in a civilised country ^ and yet there is nothing exaggerated ia tho description of his various difficulties , quietly submitted to by the apathetic
natives , but appalling to the stranger , who has not ovon their resources , or in his submission to tho horrid old virago , who , with her idiot husband , compose his household , and of whom it is impossible to get rid . Tiic two poor half-crazed old maids , A ' ope and Pagan , as the country people call them , and the good-natured vulgar ironmaster ' s willow , with hor attentive servant , are good sketches ; the old miser , Sir Jasper , is something more . But tho cleverest and truest portraits in th « book , delicately , yet most lorcibly touched , are the Erskincs . Wo bare rarely seen that vague and buiHing scourge of married life , iiu'otH / wtibiliti / , malpoa with ft more masterly hand . In ordinary novels , the fhnme incompnm i . s a faultless victim , her tyrant such a monster Hint one wonders , notwithstanding the proverbial mask worn by a lover , how » hu ever could have married him . I ho old adage of " Faults on both aides , " rarely findo Invour in tho realms oi romance . Nothing can be Iriior than llio description of these two persons
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August 5 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . 739
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 5, 1854, page 739, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2050/page/19/
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