* * * * * Let us look more particularly at what we might call the distinctive features of the month's provisions. Pike and tench among the freshwater fish, before mentioned; oysters, skate, and gurnet among the ordinary. Grouse, snipe, teal, pheasants, hares, and rabbits, also venison amongst game; while geese and turkeys are rapidly advancing in size and quality. * * * * * Celery is fast getting to perfection, Scotch kale is fine, so are savoys and salsify. * * * * * Chestnuts, filberts, walnuts, figs, and grapes, in addition to the grand autumn wealth of pears, apples, quinces, and golden oranges, not to mention the preserved fruits which are just beginning to be shown in the windows. * * * * * What we will call our characteristic menu of the month ought, then, to be an easy one to compile. We give an alternative one for those who may find themselves unable to provide the first-named. * * * * * MENUS. Let us take for soup: A _purée_ of chestnuts, or cream of celery. For our fish course: Skate _à la crème_, or baked tench. For an _entrée_: Baked ham with wine sauce, or curried rabbit. For a roast: Wild duck and orange sauce, or roast pheasant and fried potatoes. As an _entremet_: Scalloped salsify, or Jerusalem artichokes. As a sweet: Apple mirotons and quince jelly. * * * * * The recipe for chestnut soup has been given in these columns before. To recapitulate it as briefly as possible is to remind our readers that the chestnuts must be first boiled until the husk and peel can be easily removed, and then to boil them again with minced onion, a few herbs, a carrot, and an ounce or more of butter, and sufficient water to just cover them. This should afterwards be rubbed through a sieve until a _purée_ is obtained, a pint of boiling milk added, and a teaspoonful of cornflour (previously wetted) stirred in to thicken it. Boil up once more, then serve at once. It should be of the consistency of cream. * * * * * Cream of celery soup is made by stewing a couple of heads of celery, cut fine, with one or two onions and any garden herbs in a little water until thoroughly soft, then rubbing all through a sieve, adding sufficient milk to make up the requisite quantity, a spoonful of cornflour to thicken, seasoning, butter, and after this has boiled add a little cream and a few croutons of fried bread. * * * * *