ing them with water, and adding carrots,
onions, turnips, and a bunch of sweet herbs. To make this dish richer
and more savoury, half-roast the rump, and afterwards stew it in strong
stock and a little Madeira. This is an expensive method, and is not,
after all, much better than a plainer-dressed joint.

THE BARON OF BEEF.--This noble joint, which consisted of two
sirloins not cut asunder, was a favourite dish of our ancestors.
It is rarely seen nowadays; indeed, it seems out of place on a
modern table, as it requires the grim boar's head and Christmas
pie as supporters. Sir Walter Scott has described a feast at
which the baron of beef would have appeared to great advantage.
We will quote a few lines to remind us of those days when
"England was merry England," and when hospitality was thought to
be the highest virtue.

"The fire, with well-dried logs supplied,
Went roaring up the chimney wide;
The huge hall-table's oaken face,
Scrubb'd till it shone, the day to grace,
Bore then, upon its massive board,
No mark to part the squire and lord.
Then was brought in the lusty brawn,
By old blue-coated serving-man;
Then the grim boar's head frown'd on high,
Crested with bays and rosemary.
Well can the green-garb'd ranger tell
How, when, and where the monster fell;
What dogs before his death he tore,
And all the baiting of the boar;
While round the merry wassel bowl,
Garnish'd with ribbons, blithe did trowl.
There the huge sirloin reek'd; hard by
Plum-porridge stood, and Christmas pie;
Nor fail'd old Scotland to produce,
At such high tide, her savoury goose."

When a lord's son came of age, in the olden time, the baron of
beef was too small a joint, by many degrees, to satisfy the
retainers who would flock to the hall; a whole ox was therefore
generally roasted over a fire built up of huge logs. We may here
mention, that an ox was roasted entire on the frozen Thames, in
the early part of the present century.

STEWED SHIN OF BEEF.

671. INGREDIENTS.--A shin of beef, 1 head of celery, 1 onion, a faggot
of savoury herbs, 1/2 teaspoonful of allspice, 1/2 teaspoonful of whole
black pepper, 4 carrots, 12 button onions, 2 turnips, thickening of
butter and flour, 3 tablespoonfuls of mushroom ketchup, 2 tablespoonfuls
of port wine; pepper and salt t