Force-meat balls flavoured with rare spices from the East;
Sardines from Sardinia;
Tunny fish from the Mediterranean and Sturgeon from Russia;
Steaming boars' heads with lemons in their mouths;
Turkeys, peacocks and swans;
Ortolans;
Wonderful roasts and delicious stews;
Roe deer and Bears' hams;
Sweets in all sorts of curious shapes, as, for instance, cakes like castles with little men made of sweet-stuff for sentries on the battlements, each complete in gilded armour and with a halberd over his shoulder. (A rare sight!) And eagles carved of ice hovering over silver dishes filled with apricots.
Then followed the smaller dishes:
Tiny cakes as white and delicate as ladies' fingers;
Birds' nests made of spun sugar (and in the nests were eggs of marsh-mallow, and in each egg was a tiny chicken made of caramel!);
One might fill pages merely by setting down the names of all the delicacies.
Each dish was brought in by the servants in a kind of procession, headed by the Master-Cook, looking as grand and solemn as an archbishop, for he was a grave and dignified person, and of course he had a great responsibility. The guests were served by little page-boys of noble birth, dressed in the liveries of their masters, and these pages handed the dishes and the wines most politely on their bended knees as they had been taught to do.