IX / 248
.PREFACE
I CLAIM no merit for the following pages, other
than may attach to industry, application, the
gift of copying accurately, and the acquisition of
writer's cramp. The mechanical writing is—
to the great joy of the compositors who have
dealt with it—every letter mine own ; but the
best part of the book has been conveyed from
other sources. In fact the book is, as the old
.'t
lady said of the divine tragedy of Hamlet^ " full
of quotations." The hand is the hand of Gub-
bins, but the voice is, for the most part, the
voice of the great ones of the past, including
Pliny and Gervase Markham. The matter, or
most of it—I am endeavouring to drive the fact
home—is culled from other sources 5 and if this
is the most useful and interesting work ever
published it is more my fortune than my fault.
The genial reception of my earlier effort.
Cakes and Ale—which was condemned only by
worshippers of Ala^ who were not expected
to applaud—together with the hope of earning