w cultivated in France. For instance, it is known that
the excellent vines of Thomery, near Fontainebleau, which yield in
abundance the most beautiful table grape which art and care can produce,
were already in use in the reign of Henry IV. (Fig. 83).

[Illustration: Fig. 83.--The Winegrower, drawn and engraved in the
Sixteenth Century, by J. Amman.]

In the time of the Gauls the custom of drying grapes by exposing them to
the sun, or to a certain amount of artificial heat, was already known; and
very soon after, the same means were adopted for preserving plums, an
industry in which then, as now, the people of Tours and Rheims excelled.
Drying apples in an oven was also the custom, and formed a delicacy which
was reserved for winter and spring banquets. Dried fruits were also
brought from abroad, as mentioned in the "Book of Street Cries in
Paris:"--

"Figues de Melites sans fin,
J'ai roisin d'outre mer, roisin."

("Figs from Malta without end,
And grapes from over the sea.")

Butchers' Meat.--According to Strabo, the Gauls were great eaters of meat,
especially of pork, whether fresh or salted. "Gaul," says he, "feeds so
many flocks, and, above all, so many pigs, that it supplies not only Rome,
but all Italy, with grease and salt meat." The second chapter of the Salic
law, comprising nineteen articles, relates entirely to penalties for
pig-stealing; and in the laws of the Visigoths we find four articles on
the same subject.

[Illustration: Fig. 84.--Swineherd.

Illustration: Fig 85.--A Burgess at Meals.

Miniatures from the Calendar of a Book of Hours.--Manuscript of the
Sixteenth Century.]

In those remote days, in which the land was still covered with enormous
forests of oak, great facilities were offered for breeding pigs, whose
special liking for acorns is well known. Thus the bishops, princes, and
lords caused numerous droves of pigs to be fed on their domains, both for
the purpose of supplying their own tables as well as for the fairs and
markets. At a subsequent period, it became the custom for each household,
whether in town or country, to rear and fatten a pig, which was killed and
salted at a stated period of the year; and this custom still exists in
many provinces. In Paris, for instance, there was scarcely a bourgeois who
had not two or three young pigs. During the day these unsightly creatures
were allowed to roam in the streets; which, however, they helped to keep
clean by eating up the