NOVEMBER.
November is one of our months of plenty, and a walk round the great wholesale provision markets gives us a very bright picture. However gloomy the weather may be outside, there is "good cheer" abounding here. We have game and poultry in abundance and just in their prime; the bag that sportsmen take delight in filling is here emptied for the benefit of those who rarely or never breathe the air of the moors where the birds flourished so happily. Rabbits and hares, once so fleet of foot, hang limply from every available hook, and even the barn-door fowl is a finer specimen than earlier in the season, while geese, turkeys, and Surrey capons tempt their purchase, whether we intended it or not.
Freshwater fish appear among their sea-born brethren, and help in giving us variety. Of fruits and nuts we have large choice, and the ripe grains and pulse foods are all garnered, while most of the root vegetables are ready too. Of a truth at this time of the year there is no lack of food stuffs.
Neither is there any lack of other material wherewith to make our tables gay. Dahlias and chrysanthemums, rich foliage, hedgerow gleanings and late grasses, these will stay with us until close upon Christmas, if we take the precaution of sheltering our plants from frost, and of drying our leaves, giving a touch of gum to either flower or leaf, when we see one that is inclined to fall.
None who are able to cultivate a flowering plant, or to take a walk on to a piece of waste land or in a lane, need ever plead excuse for an ungarnished table, and much pleasure is missed by those who think the table can do as well without garnishing as with it, providing there be plenty of good food upon it. We are not of their opinion. "A table well-set is half spread." Care in pleasing the eye will do a vast deal towards aiding good digestion.
Let us look more particularly at what we might call the distinctive features of the month's provisions. Pike and tench among the freshwater fish, before mentioned; oysters, skate, and gurnet among the ordinary. Grouse, snipe, teal, pheasants, hares, and rabbits, also venison amongst game; while geese and turkeys are rapidly advancing in size and quality.