I was after a needlecase, and found a nice old one on ebay. I always like it when these things contain their original threads and notions. But what really drew me to this particular case was its prim little maxim:
These lines are conventional, and may appear elsewhere, but I know them from William King’s poem, The Art of Cookery (1708), notable for its enthusiastic celebration of eighteenth-century British food, “squab pie” and “white pot” and “Leicester beans and bacon, food of kings!”
“Happy the Man that has each Fortune tried,
To whom she much has giv’n, and much deny’d:
With abstinence all delicates he sees,
And can regale himself with Toast and Cheese:
Your Betters will despise you if they see
Things that are far surpassing your degree;
Therefore beyond your substance never treat,
‘Tis plenty in small fortune to be neat.”
Well, I’m off to make a PIE.
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