major domos of popes, lady abbesses, kings'
favourites, learned artists, Arabian alchemists,
Venetian physicians, have all helped to rear
this imperishable Tower of Babel. The cooks
taken prisoners by Louis the Twelfth when he
invaded Italy, cast their bread upon the waters,
and it returned to them before many days.
Many of the recherché, light, and tempting
dishes, invented by these exiles, and tinged
with the sentiment of their situation, still
obtain in France. Empires may pass away,
but the fricassée will remain. A feminine
grace was now added to the robust
cooking of the middle ages. This was a time
of greater inventions than steam. Steam!
Why it is to the time of Leo the Tenth that
we are indebted for the Fricandeau, that
delicious larded segment of veal, stewed with
bacon, spices, carrots, onions, and parsley, and
served with Macedonian sauce or sorel. The
sublime inventor of this delicious morsel was
Jean de Carême (Jack o' Lent), who derived
his name from a celebrated soup maigre, which
he invented for the Pope, his master. He was
the direct ancestor of our modern Carême, who
was cook to George the Fourth, and afterwards
to Baron Rothschild. It was the same Pope
who fostered the genius of Raphael and the
genius of the discoverer of the fricandeau.

It is also more than probable that we owe the
useful invention of forks to this same splendid
and luxurious age. The Romans had no forks.
It took man five thousand five hundred odd
years before he could invent the fricandeau or
discover the use of forks. Think of that!
Voltaire's statement that forks were in use in Europe
in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries has
hitherto been disputed; but we have lately
discovered a fact which we think is important,
as it upsets many previous theories of social
historians. Hitherto Fynes Moryson, an
Elizabethan traveller, and Thomas Coryat, a
Jacobean traveller, have always been quoted as
proof of the earliest mention of forks as a new
invention of the sixteenth century. Moryson
says, " At Venice each person was served
(besides his knife and spoon) with a fork to hold the
meat while he cuts it, for there they deem it
ill-manners that one should touch it with his
hand." Coryat, writing in 1604, describes
with his usual Pepysian unction the Venetian
custom of forks and umbrellas, and adds of
the former, "I myself have thought it good to
imitate the Italian fashion since I came home
to England," and describes his merciless friend,
Mr. Whittaker, who does not scruple at table
to nickname him "Furcifer," from his fantastic
predilection to those " Italian neatnesses,"
namely, forks. Now, at the present Art Exhibition
at Leeds, there happens to be a singular
picture by Bernardino Pinturricchio (1454-
1513) epitomising events in thie history of
the Piccolomini of Sienna (Number Eleven,
Gallery A). In one part of this picture there
are tables laid out ready prepared for a banquet.
They stand near a buffet of several tiers, on
which are arranged gold cups and chased
salvers. On the tables you can see a knife and fork
laid for every guest, besides a manchet or roll.
There are also Venetian enamelled red dishes, and
if we remember right, little nosegays placed
with great taste for each person. This, therefore,
clearly proves that though Voltaire might
be hasty in placing the introduction of forks as
early as he does, yet that forks were in full use
in Italy before 1513. The fact is incontrovertible.

But the great epoch in French cooking was
when Henry the Fourth, his favourite the
Duchess of Beaufort being dead, married Mary
of Medicis.

Mr. Hayward, who has written so learnedly,
and with such refined taste and pleasant humour
on the gastronomic science, particularly
mentions that the culinary artists in Mary's train
first introduced ices into France. Yes; that
delicious sweetmeat ice, perfumed with the
essence of fruits, was the invention of a
contemporary of the divine Raphael.

The great Condé, the foe of Mazarin, and the
knightly leader of the Fronde and the slingers
of De Retz's party, was nourished and
supported at Rocroi, that great fight, and at the
great jostles of Sens and Nordlingen by the
good cooking of his immortal maître d'hôtel,
Vattel, that generous spirit who threw himself
on the edge of his own sword at Chantilly,
because an insufficient quantity of turbots and
lobsters had arrived from the seaports, the
second day of the king's visit.

In his old age Louis the Fourteenth, methodical
in everything, a formalist, and a stickler for
the severest etiquette, became fanciful about his
diet; and it was to protect him from the grosser
fat of cutlets that Madame de Maintenon devised
the celebrated Côtelettes à la Maintenon. The
wily devotee first stewed the cutlets in the
Venetian way for an hour with mushrooms,
shalot, parsley, rasped bacon, and a little
butter. She then seasoned them with salt and
pepper, cut some bacon into the shape of hearts
to place at each side of them, wrapped them in
oiled writing paper, and broiled them on a very
slow fire, so that the paper might absorb all the
grease; then she put in a spoonful of velouté,
and thickened with the yolks of three eggs,
mixed with cream, lemon juice, and a spice of
cayenne pepper. What a delicate proof of
ever vigilant love! These cutlets were no
doubt suggested by the overpowering genius of
Béchamel, the author of one of the most
exquisite sauces ever devised by man. It is
made of butter, slices of veal, ham, onions,
mushrooms, and parsley, stewed together, but
in what proportions we can only mention
privately, and to acknowledged gourmets; several
spoonsfull of flour, some consommé, and a little
boiling cream bring this divine sauce to final
perfection. Liqueurs are said to have been
invented to console the old age of the Grand
Monarch. Distillation, the alchemist's art,
brought to Europe, it is said, by the Crusaders,
if not derived from the Moors in Spain, had not
led to the general use of brandy much before the