"SCENE. _A desert part of the forest._ _Enter_ AARON THE MOOR, _with_ QUINTUS _and_ MARTIUS.
_Aaron._ Come on, my lords, the better foot before: Straight will I bring you to the loathsome pit, Where I espied the panther fast asleep.
_Quin._ My sight is very dull, whate'er it bodes.
_Mart._ And mine, I promise you: wer't not for shame, Well could I leave our sport to sleep awhile.
It is unnecessary to give in detail the horrors that ensue.
CURIOUS BILL OF FARE, AND STORM, IN 1739.
I send you two morsels, copied from a small MS. volume of a very miscellaneous character, consisting of poetical extracts, epigrams, receipts, and family memoranda of the ancestors of the gentleman who has kindly permitted me to send you the inclosed.
"_A Bill of ffare at the Christning of Mr. Constable's Child, Rector of Cockley Cley in Norfolk, Jan. 2, 1682._
"1. A whole hog's head, souc'd, with carrotts in the mouth and pendants in the ears, with guilded oranges thick sett.
2. 2 ox.'s cheekes stewed, with 6 marrow bones.
5. A chine of bief, chine of venison, chine of mutton, chine of veal, chine of pork, supported by 4 men.
7. A great minced pye, with 12 small ones about it.
11. A great dish of tarts made all of sweetmeats.
14. A great charg'r of all sorts of sweetmeats, with wine and all sorts of liquors answerable.
"The child, a girle; godfather, Mr. Green, a clergyman; godmothers, Mis Beddingfield of Sherson, and a sister-in-law of Mr. Constable's.
"The guests, Mr. Green, Mr. Bagg and his daughter, and the godmothers.
"The parish'rs entertained at another house with rost and boil'd bief, geese, and turkeys. Soon after the child dy'd, and the funerall expenses came to 6_d._"
"1739. Dec. 28, Friday, began a frost. Satterday and Sunday with the most severe sharp wind that ever was known. Monday and Tuesday fell a great deal of snow, w'ch continued upon the ground, with the most severe frost ever known, without intermission till Friday, Feb. 1st, then thaw'd in the day. Sharp frost at night. Thaw'd Satterday and Sunday, with rain and sleet of snow, cold air with frost, and continued till Sunday ye 10, when it thaw'd very fast with smal rain and wind: continued till Monday, when it changed into severe frost and a fall of snow, w'ch held till Sunday, then thaw'd, wind west, in the most gentle manner, insensibly wasting, no flood: extream dry, cold weather till ye 21 of April: y't day a little rain, and on the 22 fell a great deal of snow with a severe north and north-east wind: a little wet and cold wind continued till the 5th of May, when there was hail and snow a foot thick in many places. Continued cold till ye 9th. Wheat 6_s._ 6_d._ a strike; barley 3_s._ 6_d._; mutton, in London, 5-1/2_d._ and 6_d._ p'd, beife 5_d._; 3-1/2_d._ mutton in the country, beife 3_d._