SMALL THINGS ABOUT GREAT MEN.

Grey River Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5808, 1 February 1887, Page 4

SMALL THINGS ABOUT GREAT MEN.

Part of the price which every eminent man pays for his exalted or prominent position is the loss of all privacy. His habits and customs, his preferences and aversions, are all publicly discussed, and the following particulars show that he cannot even have a favourite dish without the knowledge of the public. This craving for details about the lives of great men dates back as far as the time of Charlemagne, of whom it is said that his meals consisted never of more than four courses, and that his favourite dishes were eggs and roast meat, particularly venison, which was served on long spits by his foresters. Luther pi ef erred Torgau beer and hock to all other beverages. As a young man, Melanchthon was very fond of barley soup. Small fish, vegetables, and all kinds of farinaceous food he liked, but large fish and meat he disliked, and he hated all public meals or drinking bouts. He used to say that it would be easy for him to adopt Phy thagorean diet. Torquato Tasso was very fond of preserved fruits and all kinds of fancy sweets. Henry IV. was often ill from eating too many oysters or melons. His favourite drink was yin d'Arbois. Peter the Great liked nothing better than Limburg cheese (!). Charles XII., King of Sweden, preferred a piece of bread-and-butter to anything else. Voltaire, like Frederick the Great and Niipoleou 1., was very fond 6f coffee. His favourite food was oat cakes, but he preferred oranges to any other kind of food. The Dutch lady scholar A. M Schurman ate spiders as a delicacy. Leasing pref ei red lentils, and Klopstock. who was a real gourmand, fed on Balmon, mushrooms, pastry, and smoked meat. Of vegetables he liked peas best and grapes as dessert, together with a bottle of good claret or hock. Kant retained to his old age a jr. - ference for pork, all kinds of pulse, and stewed fruit. He devoted three hours a day to his dinner. Schiller was in his youthful days very fond of ham. An o:d note book belonging to a Stuttgart restaurant contains some items about "Me.ils for Dr Schiller in 1872," from which it appears that, besides a bottle of wine, ham wa3 every day among the dishes on Schiller's table. Matthisson confessed a preference for peas, beans, and pork ; .Lord Byron for Chester cheese, with ale or porter. Pope was " greatly interested" iv venison Jonathan Swift iv turbot, and Sir Walter Scott in roast goose.