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Show Peacock Dinner English Custom Many Years Ago PASH1CNS in Christmas dinners come and go. In olden days at a Christmas feast in England, next In Importance to the boar's head as a Christmas dish was the peacock. To prepare the bird for the table was a task entailing no little trouble. The skin was first carefully stripped off with the plumage adhering. The bird was then roasted ; when done, and partially par-tially cooled It was sewed up again in Its feathers, Its beak painted with gilt and so sent to the table. Sometimes Some-times the whole body was covered with leaf gold and a piece of cotton saturated with spirits placed In its beak and lighted before the carver commenced operations. This "food for lovers and meat for lords" was stuffed with spices and sweets, basted with yolks of eggs and served with plenty of gravy. The noble bird was not served by common hands; that privilege was reserved for the lady guests most dis-tinguishe'' dis-tinguishe'' by birth or beauty. One of i them carried It Into the dining hall to , the sounds of music, the rest of the ladies following in due order. The dish was set down before the master of the house or his most honored guest The latest Instance of peacock eating recorded was at a dinner given to William IV, when duke of Clarence, by the governor of Grenada. |