Cedric the Saxon's dining table, described in _Ivanhoe_, was of a much simpler description than the one noted above; and the fare also. But there was no lack of assorted liquors--old wine and ale, good mead and cider, rich morat (a mixture of honey and mulberry juice, a somewhat gouty beverage, probably), and odoriferous pigment--which was composed of highly-spiced wine, sweetened with honey. The Virgin Queen, at a later epoch, was catered for more delicately; and we read that she detested all coarse meats, evil smells, and strong wines. During the Georgian era coarse meats and strong wines were by no means out of favour; and Highland banquets especially were Gargantuan feasts, to be read of with awe. The dinner given by Fergus MacIvor, in honour of Captain Waverley, consisted of dishes of fish and game, carefully dressed, at the upper end of the table, immediately under the eye of the English stranger. "Lower down stood immense clumsy joints of beef," says the gifted author, "which, but for the absence of pork, abhorred in the Highlands, resembled the rude festivity of the banquet of Penelope's suitors. But the central dish was a yearling lamb, called a "hog in har'st," roasted whole. It was set upon its legs, with a bunch of parsley in its mouth, and was probably exhibited in that form to gratify the pride of the cook, who piqued himself more on the plenty than the elegance of his master's table. The sides of this poor animal"--the lamb, not the cook, we suppose is meant--"were fiercely attacked by the clansmen, some with dirks, others with the knives worn in the same sheath as the dagger, so that it was soon rendered a mangled and rueful spectacle." A spectacle which reminds the writer of a dinner table at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, in the early sixties. "Lower down," continues Sir Walter, "the victuals seemed of yet coarser quality, though sufficiently abundant. Broth, onions, cheese, and the fragments of the feast, regaled the sons of Ivor, who feasted in the open air." The funeral baked meats used after the interment of the chief of the Clan Quhele (described in _The Fair Maid of Perth_) were also on a very extensive scale, and were, like the other meal, "digested" with pailfuls of usquebaugh, for which no Highland head that supported a bonnet was ever "the waur i' th' morn." And the custom of placing bagpipers behind the chairs of the guests, after they have well drunk, which is still observed in Highland regiments, was probably introduced by the aforesaid Fergus MacIvor, who really ought to have known better.