Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/365

 334 THE ." H I?S TX)R YT IBook L. ifland birds. The former fhall be fpecified hereafter. The lat- ter muft have been the duck, the teal, the widgeon, the wildgoofe, and the fwan ; the woodcock, the quail, the heathcock or groufe, and the fnipe ; the latk, the quoift or flock-dove, and others. Thefe are all natives of the ifland, as either the appellations of them in the Britifh language or the mention of them in the Bri- tifh poems of Offian 5 evidently (hew ; and none of thefe appear to have been prohibited, as fome certainly were, by accidental cuftoms or religious obligations. And the Britifh Cheneros or wildgoofe was a&ually efteemed a great dainty in the reign of Vefpafian, and was preferred by ther Britons for the iabte ttf Imoft of the other animals in the ifland . . • • But this bill of the- Britifh fere was greatly enlarged by the Romans. The intimate connection «of • the Britifh ■ with the ;Rafc man refidents, and. their faithful imitation of the Jtomatt masi* tiers,, muft have naturally diflbWed the obligations which' the mere influence of accidental opinions had preicribed to the Bri- tifh tables.' The declenlibn of the druidical religion, arid the neceffarily preceding relaxation of its [practical- rigours, muft have naturally untwifted the bonds Which the mere prejudices of na* tional religion had impoffed" upon the B^itifli palates.' Geefe hares and poultry were nb more prohibited to be eaten. The Britifh hen now firft began to be fattened, and the Britifh cock now firft began to be caftrated. The pra&ice of cramming the hen was originally tried at Deles, and was prohibited by a law at Rome a little before the third Punic WarV But to dairi up the current of luxury in one channel frequently ferves only to make it direftly break out into another. Hens were crammed no longer : but both hens and cockrels were fattened, as they are ftill fattened amongft ourfelves, with food fteeped in milk, and were even rendered more agreeable to the palate than the former And the method of fattening the cock by the a& of caft ration 4eems to have been entirely a Roman invention, and was certainly introduced into Britain by the Romans, the un- happy vi&im of barbarous luxury being ftill denominated among us by his Roman appellation of Capo or Capon 9 > Nor