If the style of the work be faulty, the reason--not the excuse--is that the style is innate, and not modelled upon anybody else's style. The language I have endeavoured to make as plain, homely, and vigorous as is the food advocated. If the criticisms on foreign cookery should offend the talented _chef_, I have the satisfaction of knowing that, as I have forsworn his works, he will be unable to retaliate with poison. And if the criticisms on the modern English methods of preparing food should attract the attention of the home caterer, he may possibly be induced to give his steam-chest and his gas-range a rest, and put the roast beef of Old England on his table, occasionally; though I have only the very faintest hopes that he will do so. For the monster eating-houses and mammoth hotels of to-day are for the most part "run" by companies and syndicates; and the company within the dining-room suffer occasionally, in order that dividends may be possible after payment has been made for the elaborate, and wholly unnecessary, furniture, and decorations. Wholesome food is usually sufficient for the ordinary British appetite, without such surroundings as marble pillars, Etruscan vases, nude figures, gilding, and looking-glasses, which only serve to distract attention from the banquet. It is with many a sigh that I recall the good old-fashioned inn, where the guest really received a warm welcome. Nowadays, the warmest part of that welcome is usually the bill. It is related of the wittiest man of the nineteenth century, my late friend Mr. Henry J. Byron, that, upon one occasion, whilst walking home with a brother dramatist, after the first performance of his comedy, which had failed to please the audience, Byron shed tears. "How is this?" inquired his friend. "The failure of my play appears to affect you strangely." "I was only weeping," was the reply, "because I was afraid you'd set to work, and write another." But there need be no tears shed on any page of this food book. For I am not going to "write another." CONTENTS CHAPTER I BREAKFAST Formal or informal?--An eccentric old gentleman--The ancient Britons--Breakfast in the days of Good Queen Bess--A few tea statistics--Garraway's--Something about coffee--Brandy for breakfast--The evolution of the staff of life--Free Trade--The cheap loaf, and no cash to buy it Pages 1-9 CHAPTER II BREAKFAST (_continued_) Country-house life--An Englishwoman at her best--Guests' comforts--What to eat at the first meal--A few choice recipes--A noble grill-sauce--The poor outcast--Appetising dishes--Hotel "worries"--The old regime and the new--"No cheques"; no soles, and "whitings is hoff"--A halibut steak--Skilly and oakum--Breakfast out of the rates 10-21 CHAPTER III