H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, according to report, invariably eats carrot soup on the 26th of August. The French call it "CRÉCY" soup, because their best carrots grow there; and Crécy it may be remembered was also the scene of a great battle, when one Englishman proved better than five Frenchmen. In this battle the Black Prince performed prodigies of valour, afterwards assuming the crest of the late Bohemian King--three ostrich feathers (surely these should be carrot tops?) with the motto "_Ich Dien_." _Crécy Soup._ Place a mirepoix of white wine in the pot, and put a quantity of sliced carrots atop. Moisten with broth, and keep simmering till the carrots are done. Then pour into a mortar, pound, and pass through a tammy. Thin it with more broth, sweeten in the proportion of one tablespoonful of sugar to two gallons of soup; heat up, pop a little butter in at the finish, and in serving it add either small cubes of fried bread, or rice boiled as for curry (see page 145). CHAPTER XI VEGETABLES (_continued_) "Earth's simple fruits; we all enjoy them. Then why with sauces rich alloy them?" The brief lives of the best--A vegetable with a pedigree--Argenteuil--The Elysian Fields--The tomato the emblem of love--"Neeps"--Spinach--"Stomach-brush"--The savoury tear-provoker--Invaluable for wasp-stings--Celery merely cultivated "smallage"--The "_Apium_"--The parsnip--O Jerusalem!--The golden sunflower--How to get pheasants--A vegetarian banquet--"Swelling wisibly." It is one of the most exasperating laws and ordinations of Nature that the nicest things shall last the shortest time. "Whom the gods love die young," is an ancient proverb; and the produce of the garden which is most agreeable to man invariably gives out too soon. Look at peas. Every gardener of worth puts in the seed so that you may get the different rows of marrow-fats and telephones and _ne plus ultras_ in "succession"; and up they all come, at one and the same time, whilst, if you fail to pick them all at once, the combined efforts of mildew and the sun will soon save you the labour of picking them at all. Look at strawberries; and why can't they stay in our midst all the year round, like the various members of the cabbage family?