cattle in the mouth. Very popular were these confiscations; and in view
of so many augmentations of the stock at Kenilworth, it was not too much
to hope that the ravenousness of the public appetite would be allowed
its wonted scope. No longer was there meat for breakfast, not even on
Sunday morning when we had leisure to masticate it. To tell anybody, to
hint the heresy that eight ounces of meat sufficed to preserve health,
would be indiscreet. To suggest that an extra plate of porridge with a
few sardines thrown in (that is, to follow) might make up the
deficiency, would be rude. Tinned sardines, salmon, crawfish, brawn, and
such eatables were not reckoned fish at all; they were eaten--to stave
off starvation--but they did not appease. As for butter; we had none for
our bread! Fresh butter was unprocurable. Even the salted unguent sold
in tins was hard to get, and only a very good customer could buy a tin,
at a huge price, from his grocer. The hens stood the test of the times
better, and laid their eggs generously as if nothing had happened. But
their numbers were small, and not sufficient to provide for local
consumption at any time--still less so since chops had been proscribed.
The owners of the birds, sad to say, were in many cases small,
too--mentally; they ate more eggs, in lieu of butter, on toast than was
necessary. The price of eggs kept daily moving up by sixpences and
shillings, and they were yet comparatively cheap at elevenpence each
(each egg!). But it was some comfort, however cold, that money _could_
buy eggs. They were indubitably fresh, but beyond the reach, too "high"
(at elevenpence) for the average man, or even for men of substance
opposed on principle to eating money. Ham and bacon, also, were
expensive. The local pork had never been highly prized. The African pig
is more noted for his _speed_ than for the rashers he offers when his
race is run; he is tough, and grunts vapidly; his tail corrugates rather
than curls; he eschews jewellery--his nose is free; and the land also
being free, he pays no rent. But the ox was "off" (in large measure),