WRITERS WRITERS ARE GREAT Eaters

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 77, 1 April 1938, Page 3

WRITERS WRITERS ARE GREAT Eaters

Some Gastronomic Feats : )

TW anybody thinks Hat poets, and literary men gene:?-, a -e ethereal cr watures who care life v f nothing for ,o< d sustenance he io s h o ) had better thbw» a S a i n » wri* 3 - . el Compton injt he Evening T Naturalists Jttticed )irds of our woods and gardens V‘- --- va ys eaLug when they are not willing; and much the same thing appl J human songsters. y a Dante Gabriel Ros : « wrote beavtiful love-lyrics. He^— STecf depleted system witl most enormous meals. It is that he would lhake a light break®! of half a dozen eggs and a like 3cr °f rashers of bacon. Physiologists c;. J ate that literary work carried onf V one hour “takes more out of” a mn than manual work done for three hair' In other words, literary work is ihi - times more excusing than the t* r k of a farmlabourer or a navvy. Brain, therefore, eds more sustenance than brawn, needs it in large quantities and at n e frequent intervals. The case of lackeray was a case in point. The -ithor of Vanity Fair and The Newmes was a tremendous man stanch well over sixfeet, and likewise a fnendous worker. ; i And he had an aftite to corres- ' pond. ; 1 A pathetic story is’ld of Charlotte < Bronte meeting who was j to r a demigod, fc he first time at ‘ 8 dinner-party. She tched with sor- e rowful amazement t! immense in- c roads which her idol de on the food, a and just as he washout to engulf c ; J; • fork involuntarily t breathed, “Oh, Mi T 1 :eray, don’t!” h There is another -authenticated ci anecdote of the great jd.He was engaged to dine with fry important b personage, when he hd that a fav- v ourite dish, broad bean.id bacon, was a on the dinner-menu a* s club. He o could not resist it Heht a message to his expectant host to r that he had s met “a very old friended could not e te-jr himself away. Ttfhe made a 1< solitary and very of beans i and bacon. | a Then, who does not reaTh keray’s a poetical outburst in pr- - ast v lire * 1 ’ "A good leg of muttbti. Lucy, , I prithee have ready at 3/ Have it tender ana . stfrii’ag and juicy, I And what better meat van ’here I be?” j

d Mi.Ov man and great novelist il , xan d re Dumas, and he, >too, r was trencherman, besides r himself as a cook. It was n said be cou i d make, and dispose of, s an 01 nelette comprising a dozen eggs, r and that to him a whole roast fowl ’ L-Wargmere snack. Dumas’s interest in 1 S oo 'Wood and drink is evinced every - now Aid then throughout the pages of his noVei Se Allusion to great feats of • eating and drinking abound. Dickc ns> too, revelled in descriptions ;of come _ / cs> an d could become lyriI cal ovei* the making of a steak-and-i kidney oudding, as all readers of ■ “Martin Chuzzlewit” know. He was proud oh his skill at concocting ginounch, apd always wound up the day 1 with a jbrum of that seductive fluid. Oliver Goldsmith was no mean performer a knife and fork, and even wrote a iVem on a haunch of venison. The gastronomic performances of his friend al 3 contemporary, Samuel Johnson, il-g notorious. Tennyson- was not a puny trencherman, eithcL iik e m y mutton cut in chunks, 1 was the only remark he vouchsafed L o his dinner-neighbour on a certain ni<- lora h] e occasion. Two heart!, ea t ers o f i a ter days were G. K. Chesterton and Arnold Bennett. , The latter thought he was a gourmet, I but he was 4 nore o f a gourmand. At any rate, hel knew less, really about good eating Bhan he imagined he did. G.K.C. wal devoted to good Burgundy and it! h as been recorded that once when hel h a d been out in the rain and caught a-Aj ac i co id he preferred to chase it awajl w jth Burgundy rather than with an ~ v | of the more orthodox hot drinks. ThV generous had the desired effect. I A literary ml H 1 w hose feats of gluttony were incr| dible , was an editorial writer on the 2< ew York Press, known as “Uncle DudlL yr A fellow-member of the paper wril es o f him like this: His appetite X- as beyond belief. I saw him one m(I )rn j n g break a dozen eggs into a hugl, tumbler, butter the less liberally, anA then gct away with it down to the | last scrapin g. This achievement woull have not scemed SQ amazing had h« 4 • the eggs J with -;r te for 'luncheon three hours k?cr \ : not so good. But] he was ready tor his dinner. It is thus obvious that, whatever “Uncle Dudley’s” Ijterary output was, he needed plenty of support to achieve it.