The Romans sought to deprive the wild boar of its terrible ferocity; they raised them on their farms,[XIX-76] and sometimes they acquired enormous proportions. These immense beasts weighed no less than a thousand pounds.[XIX-77] But delicate connoisseurs had always the wisdom to prefer the dangerous inhabitant of the forest to these bloated victims of enervating domesticity,[XIX-78] whose insipid and degenerate flavour hardly betrayed their origin. The wild boar was generally served surrounded by pyramids of fruits and lettuces.[XIX-79] _Wild Boar à la Pompée._--Clean and salt a wild boar, cover it with cummin; let it remain in salt during twenty-four hours; then roast it; sprinkle with pepper, and serve with a seasoning of honey, garum, sweet and cooked wine.[XIX-80] _Quarter of Wild Boar à la Thébaine._--Cook it in sea water with bay leaves. When very tender take off the skin, and serve with salt, mustard, and vinegar.[XIX-] _Fillet of Wild Boar à la Macédonienne._--Pound pepper, alisander, wild marjoram, skinned myrtle leaves, coriander, and onions; add honey, wine, garum, and a little oil. This seasoning must be submitted to a gentle fire; thicken with flour, and pour the whole over the wild boar as you draw it from the oven.[XIX-82] _Wild Boar’s Liver à la Grecque._--Fry it, and serve with a seasoning of pepper, cummin, parsley seed, mint, thyme, savory, and roasted pine nuts; to which add honey, wine, garum, vinegar, and a little oil.[XIX-83] _Wild Boar’s Head à la Cantabre._--Make the seasoning in the following manner: mix well, pepper, alisander, parsley seed, mint, thyme, and roasted pine nuts; add wine, vinegar, garum, and a little oil; afterwards onions and rue; thicken with whites of eggs; boil over a slow fire, and stir gently.[XIX-84] _Green Ham of Wild Boar à la Gauloise._--Insert a long and narrow blade at the joint, and carefully separate the skin from the flesh, so that the latter may be well covered with the following seasoning: pound pepper, bay leaves, rue, and benzoin; add to it some excellent gravy, cooked wine, and a little oil. Fill the ham, close the opening, and then cook it in sea water, with some tender shoots of laurel and dill.[XIX-85] Under the Norman kings the wild boar’s head was considered a noble dish, worthy of the sovereign’s table. This, we are told, was brought to the king’s table with the trumpeters sounding their trumpets before it in procession. “For,” says Holinshed, “upon the day of coronation (of young Henry), King Henry II., his father, served him at table as sewer, bringing up the bore’s head with trumpetes afore it, according to the ancient manner.”--STRUTT, “_Manners and Customs_,” Vol ii., p. 19.