SNAIL-EATING.
(Vol. viii., p. 33.)
The Surrey snails referred to by H. T. Riley, are thus mentioned by Aubrey in his account of Box Hill:
"On the south downs of this county (Surrey), and in those of Sussex, are the biggest snails that ever I saw, twice or three times as big as our common snails, which are the Bavoli or Drivalle, which Mr. Elias Ashmole tells me that the Lord Marshal brought from Italy, and scattered them on the Downs hereabouts, and between Albury and Horsley, where are the biggest of all."
Again, Aubrey, in his Natural History of Wiltshire, says:
"The great snailes on the downes at Albury, in Surrey (twice as big as ours) were brought from Italy by * * * Earle Marshal, about 1638."—Aubrey's History, p. 10., edited by John Britton, F.S.A., published by the Wiltshire Topographical Society, 1847.
The first of these accounts, from Aubrey's Surrey, I have quoted in my Promenade round Dorking, 2nd edit. 1823, p. 274., and have added in a note:
"This was one of the Earls of Arundel. It is probably from this snail account that the error, ascribing the planting of the box (on Box Hill) to one of the Earls of Arundel, has arisen. The snails were brought thither for the Countess of Arundel, who was accustomed to dress and eat them for a consumptive complaint."
When I lived at Dorking (1815-1821) a breed of large white snails was found on Box Hill.
John Timbs.
Mr. H. T. Riley is informed that the breed of white snails he refers to is to be plentifully found in the neighbourhood of Shere. I have found them frequently near the neighbouring village of Albury, on St. Martha's Hill, and I am told they are to be met with in the lanes as far as Dorking. I have always heard that they were imported for the use of a lady who was in a consumption; but who this was, or when it happened, I have never been able to ascertain.
Nedlam.
The breed of large white snails is to be found all along the escarpment of the chalk range, and is
not confined to Surrey. It is said to have been introduced into England by Sir Kenelm Digby, and was considered very nutritious and wholesome for consumptive patients. About the end of the last century I was in the habit of collecting a few of the common garden snails from the fruit-trees, and taking them every morning to a lady who was in a delicate state of health; she took them boiled or stewed, or cooked in some manner with milk, making a mucilaginous drink.
E. H.
I have somewhere read of the introduction of a foreign breed of snails into Cambridgeshire, I forget the exact locality, for the table of the monks who imported them; but unfortunately it was before I commenced making "notes" on the subject, and I have not been able to recollect where to find it.
Seleucus.