Many curious old poems may be found by careful delving in the books our great-grandfathers used to read, and which we ought to read, but don’t. For instance, the Roxborough Ballads contain a delightful poem briefly entitled “The Cook-Maid’s Garland: or the out-of-the-way Devil: shewing how four highwaymen were bit by an ingenious cook-maid” (1720). There is a still older ballad in the same collection called “The Coy Cook-Maid, who was courted simultaneously by Irish, Welch, Spanish, French and Dutch, but at last was conquered by a poor English Taylor”; this is in blackletter, and is dated 1685.
A French lady with a happy knack of verse has written the following rhymed recipe for
SAUCE MAYONNAISE
Dans un grand bol en porcelaine
Un jaune d’œuf étant placé,
Sel et poivre, vinaigre à peine,
Et le travail est commencé.
On verse l’huile goutte à goutte;
La mayonnaise prend du corps,
Epaississant, sans qu’on s’en doute,