of the approaching Lent. It is so
called, because it was the last day allowed for eating animal food before
Lent; and our ancestors cut up their fresh meat into collops, or steaks,
for salting or hanging up until Lent was over; and even now in many
places it is still a custom to have eggs and collops, or slices of bacon,
for dinner on this day.

In Westmoreland, and particularly at Brough, where I have witnessed it
many times, the good people kill a great many pigs about a week or two
previous to Lent, which have been carefully fattened up for the occasion.
The good housewife is busily occupied in salting the flitches and hams to
hang up in the "pantry," and in cutting the fattest parts of the pig for
collops on this day. The most luscious cuts are baked in a pot in an
oven, and the fat poured out into a bladder, as it runs out of the meat,
for hog's-lard. When all the lard has been drained off, the remains
(which are called _cracklings_, being then baked quite crisp) resemble
the crackling on a leg of pork, are eaten with potatoes, and from the
quantity of salt previously added to them, to preserve the lard, are
unpalatable to many mouths. The rough farmers' men, however, devour them
as a savoury dish, and every time "lard" is being made, _cracklings_ are
served up for the servants' dinner. Indeed, even the more respectable
classes partake of this dish.

PIG-FRY--This is a Collop Monday dish, and is a necessary appendage to
"_cracklings_." It consists of the fattest parts of the entrails of the
pig, broiled in an oven. Numerous herbs, spices, &c. are added to it; and
upon the whole, it is a more sightly "_course_" at table than fat
cracklings. Sometimes the good wife indulges her house with a pancake, as
an assurance that she has not forgotten to provide for Shrove Tuesday.
The servants are also treated with "a drop of something good" on this
occasion; and are allowed (if they have nothing of importance to require
their immediate attention) to spend the afternoon in conviviality.

AVVER BREAD.--During Lent, in the same county, a great quantity of bread,
called avver bread, is made. It is of _oats_, leavened and kneaded into a
large, thin, round cake, which is placed upon a "_girdle_"[17] over the
fire. The bread is about the thickness of a "lady's" slice of bread and
butter.

[17] Rutherglen, in Lanarkshire, has also long been celebrated
for baking _sour cakes_--_See_ vol. X. MIRROR, p 316.--I am of