EBOOK THE OYSTER: WHERE, HOW AND WHEN TO FIND, BREED, COOK AND EAT IT *

[Illustration:

ANCIENT NATIVES OF BRITAIN, ENCAMPED NEAR COLCHESTER.

(From a curious Glyptic in possession of the Author.)]

THE OYSTER;

WHERE, HOW, AND WHEN TO FIND, BREED, COOK, AND EAT IT.

LONDON: TRÜBNER & CO., 60, PATERNOSTER ROW. MDCCCLXI.

LONDON: WILLIAM STEVENS, PRINTER, 37, BELL YARD, TEMPLE BAR.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

THE OYSTER IN SEASON.

The R. canon correct; Alimentary Qualities of the Oyster; Profitable Investment; Billingsgate, and London Consumption; English Oyster-beds; Jersey Oysters; French Oyster-beds on the Coast of Brittany 9

CHAPTER II.

ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE OYSTER.

The Ancients; Oysters a Greek and Roman Luxury; Sergius Orata, and the Oyster-beds of Baia; Immense Consumption at Rome; Failure of the Circean and Lucrinian Oyster-beds under Domitian, and Introduction of Rutupians from Britain; Agricola, Constantine, and Helena; Athenian Oysters, and Aristides. 21

CHAPTER III.

MODERN HISTORY OF THE OYSTER.

Fall of the Rutupian Supremacy; Louis IV. and William of Normandy; Conquest of England, and Revival of Oyster-eating in England; The Oyster under Legal Protection; American Oysters 24

CHAPTER IV.

THE OYSTER AT HOME.

Its Nature, Colour, and Structure; Natural Food; Perception of the changes of Light; Uses of the Celia; Fecundity and Means of Propagation; Age; Fossil Oysters in Berkshire and in the Pacific; Power of Locomotion 28

CHAPTER V.

THE OYSTER IN ITS NEW SETTLEMENT.

Dredging for Oysters; Oyster-beds and their formation; Sergius Orata; Pliny the Elder; Baia and the Lucrine Sea; Roman Epicurism and Gluttony; Martial and Horace, Cicero and Seneca; Masticate Oysters, and do not bolt them whole; Mediterranean and Atlantic Oysters; Agricola and the Rutupians; Apicius Cœlius, Trajan, Pliny, and the Vivarium 37