GLUTTONS OF OLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 78, 3 April 1926, Page 21

GLUTTONS OF OLD.

FEASTS WHICH LASTED WEEKS. GUESTS DEE AT THE TABLES. Menus of olden.-times, when kings and robber knights served,tons of food and wine to their castle party guests during feasts which 'sometimes continued for weeks, have been appearing recently in the German newspapers, which marvel at the capacities to eat and drink of the individuals living 300 or 400 years ago. Scientists agree that it is scarcely conceivable ,how the kings and their friends could really consume the quantities of food and drink which have been accredited to some of the famous old characters of history. An example of a feast at the Court of Hanover in the sixteenth century, when thirteen different meat dishes were served, has caused much comment, especially by writers who compare the fat days of past centuries, and the 'Tean" days in Germany during the war and since. First section—Two kinds of wine soups, baked singing birds, meat pie, venison, mutton breast, wild pork, veal, roast chicken, Dolled beef, two kinds of fish, veoetaMes, and wine. Second section — Lobster, trout, carp, pickled meats, lamb chops, roast deer, young roast pig, ox feet, artichoke, fig cake, dessert, wine _nd brandies. The old habit of gourmandising as practised by the kings has passed for ever. The people of to-day, who do not stuff themselves, are happi r and in better health generally than their gluttonous forefathers, who sometinies died of apoplexy at the table.