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Title: The Oyster - Where, How and When to Find, Breed, Cook and Eat It
Author: Murray, Eustace Clare Grenville
Language: English
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[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.
[Illustration]
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
CHAPTER VI.
THE OYSTER ON ITS TRAVELS.
The Isle of Sheppey, the Medway, and Whitstable;
Milton, Queenborough, Rochester, and Faversham
Oysters; Colchester and Essex Beds; Edinburgh Pandores
and Aberdours; Dublin Carlingfords and Powldoodies;
Poole and its Oyster-bank; Cornish Oysters and the
Helford Beds; Poor Tyacke, and How he was Done;
Dredgers and their Boats; Auld Reekie's Civic
Ceremonial; Song of the Oyster; its Voyage to Market,
and Journey by Coach and Rail 45
CHAPTER VII.
THE OYSTER AT ITS JOURNEY'S END.
Oyster Stalls; How to Open the Oyster; an Oyster
Supper; Beer, Wines, and Spirits; Roasted, Fried,
Stewed, and Scolloped Oysters; Oyster Soup, and Oyster
Sauce; Broiled Oysters; Oyster Pie; Oyster Toast;
Oyster Patties; Oyster Powder; Pickled Oysters; Oyster
Loaves; Oyster Omelet; Cabbage, Larks, and Oysters;
and Frogs and Oysters 54
CHAPTER VIII.
THE OYSTER AND THE DOCTOR.
Oyster-eating in Prussia; Disgusting Wagers; Oysters
better than Pills, A Universal Remedy; Professional
Opinions; When Ladies should eat them; Repugnance
overcome; Oysters as an External Application; Chemical
Analysis; How to tell if Dead before Opening 68
CHAPTER IX.
THE OYSTER ABROAD.
British Oysters in Ostend Quarters; the Whitstable in
a Slow Coach; Holstein, Schleswig, and Heligoland
Natives; Norwegian and Bremer Oysters; American
Oysters; French Oysters; Dutch Oysters; Mediterranean
Oysters and Classical Judges 75
CHAPTER X.
"THE TREASURE OF AN OYSTER."
Sweet names given to Pearls; Barry Cornwall Proctor's
lines; Component parts of Pearls; Mother-of-pearl; How
Pearls are formed, Sorrows into Gems; Their nucleus;
Sir Everard Home and Sir David Brewster; Curious
shapes and fancy Jewellery; Pearl Fisheries; Bahrein
Island and Bay of Candalchy; Miseries of the Divers;
Pearls as Physic; Immense value of recorded Pearls; A
Perle for a Prince; Most precious Pearls 82
THE OYSTER
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.
Of the Millions who live to eat and eat to live in this wide world of
ours, how few are there who do not, at proper times and seasons, enjoy a
good oyster. It may not be an ungrateful task, therefore, if I endeavour
to inform them what species of animal the little succulent shell-fish
is, that affords to man so much gastronomical enjoyment—how born and
bred and nurtured; when, and where; and, lastly, how best it may be
eaten, whether in its living and natural state, or having undergone the
ordeal of cooking by the skill of a superior artist.
I have oftentimes been told that it is a mere question of
fastidiousness, or fashion, that oysters should be served for human food
only at a certain fixed period of the year—those months possessing the
letter _r_ being proverbially the only months when the oyster is fit for
human food. Why not, such reasoners have said, eat oysters all the year
round? Life is short. Why not obtain the first of gastronomical
enjoyments every month of the year and every day of the month? I can in
no manner go with these opinions, either from my practical knowledge of
the oyster, or from any just reasoning.
I am aware that there are many good men and true, and others calling
themselves, somewhat erroneously, sportsmen, beyond the white cliffs of
Britain, who would eat an oyster on the hottest day of June and July as
they would a partridge, a pheasant, or a salmon at any season of the
year. Sufficient the names oyster, partridge, pheasant—all gastronomical
delights—all to be eaten, and by them eaten whensoever and wheresoever
served, what matters it? I am also aware that in our good City of
London, in the hottest and earliest days of August,[1] oysters are
gulped down by the thousand: it is, nevertheless, an error—a revolting,
unhealthy, unclean error—which ought to be denied, both at home and
abroad, by the strong hand of the law.
I, for my part, utterly and entirely ignore fish or fowl of the game
species, as fit for human food during the seasons of breeding; and
although an oyster may be eatable in August, if the month be hot it is
rarely fresh; and what is more disgusting or more likely to be injurious
to man than a stale oyster? That which I have said, however, on the
oyster in this little book which I offer to the million—for the million
are interested in the subject—will, I hope, induce those who have
hitherto broken through a rule strictly adhered to by all gastronomes,
to abstain in future; and those who have hitherto enjoyed oyster-eating,
fearlessly to eat on and secure the first and foremost of all
gastronomical indulgences provided for man—only in due season.
On the 25th of July, says Brand, the antiquary, being St. James the
Apostle's Day, the priests of old were wont to bless apples; and a
popular belief too, in 1588, though generally ignored in the more
enlightened days in which we live, was, that whoever ate oysters on that
day would not be without money for the remainder of the year. This is
very probable, for without they were selected with great care, disease
and even death might follow. This conjunction of apples and oysters on
St. James's Day may have suggested Bianca's remark in the "Taming of the
Shrew," when comparing the resemblance of the old Pedant to that of
Vincentio, which she remarks was as complete as that of an oyster to an
apple.
One must, therefore, take care not to eat oysters during the months of
June and July, because they are unwholesome on account of the
spawning-time; and also be careful in their selection in August. There
are instances when persons, after having eaten oysters during these
months, have become ill, and have even died. Last summer, at Ostend,
thirty persons were taken ill in consequence of having eaten oysters in
the month of July. They are, during these months, very thin, and without
taste; in the month of September they become again fat and eatable,
which may be accounted for by the fact of their being self-generated.
The strength of the poor oysters is entirely spent in fattening
themselves, in order the more to tickle the palate of the epicure in the
proper season.
Now let us proceed to open the oyster.
The Oyster! The mere writing of the word creates sensations of
succulence—gastronomical pleasures, nutritive food, easy digestion,
palatable indulgence—then go sleep in peace!
Lobster salads, beef and veal, truffles and chestnuts, all good in their
way, are, nevertheless, attended with evil consequences to the human
frame.
But oysters—ye pleasant companions of the midnight hours, or the mid-day
feast; is there a man, woman or child in all Europe—ay, or in Asia,
Africa, or America—who does not owe you a debt of gratitude which they
repay to the full by the enjoyment of your society _tête-à-tête_? You
are eaten raw and alive, cooked and scolloped, in sauce and without
sauce. True, true, oh oyster! thou art the best beloved of the loved!
The oyster, when eaten moderately, is, without contradiction, a
wholesome food, and one of the greatest delicacies in the world. It
contains much nutritive substance, which is very digestive, and produces
a peculiar charm and an inexplicable pleasure. After having eaten
oysters we feel joyous, light, and agreeable—yes, one might say,
fabulously well. He who has eaten for the first time oysters is best
enabled to judge of this; for, soon after having eaten them, he will
experience a sensation he never felt before, and never had an idea of.
This sensation scarcely remains with people who eat oysters every day;
it is more practically felt when oysters are eaten for breakfast or
before dinner, although they are also very wholesome in the evening,
when taken moderately. Gourmets and epicures eat the oyster in its
natural state, except that the beard is taken away. In England it is
eaten with pepper, in Holland with vinegar, in Germany frequently with
lemon-juice; but I am of the opinion, and am convinced, that when taken
with the liquor they still contain, they are more digestible and more
tasty. The opinion that this fluid is salt water, is an error; it is the
white blood of the oyster itself, which it emits when injured in having
its upper shell broken off. If it were sea-water, it would have a
disagreeable bitter taste, and cause sickness; but as this does not take
place, but on the contrary gives a fine taste to the oyster, the error
is evident. The error appears to arise from the fact that
unconscientious oyster dealers wash the oysters with salt and water in
order to give them a better appearance, as they say.
"The oyster," says a writer in No. 824 of the "Family Herald"—that most
agreeable of all window-seat books—"is a species of food combining the
most precious alimentary qualities. Its meat is soft, firm, and
delicate. It has sufficient flavour to please the taste, but not enough
to excite to surfeit. Through a quality peculiar to itself, it favours
the intestinal and gastric absorption, mixing easily with other food;
and, assimilating with the juices of the stomach, it aids and favours
the digestive functions. There is no other alimentary substance, not
even excepting bread, which does not produce indigestion under certain
given circumstances, but oysters never. This is a homage due to them.
They may be eaten to-day, to-morrow, for ever, in profusion; indigestion
is not to be feared, and we may be certain that no doctor was ever
called in through their fault. Of course we except cooked oysters.
Besides their valuable digestive qualities, oysters supply a recipe not
to be despised in the liquor they contain. It is produced by the
sea-water they have swallowed, but which, having been digested, has lost
the peculiar bitterness of salt water. This oyster-water is limpid, and
slightly saline in taste. Far from being purgative, like sea-water, it
promotes digestion. It keeps the oysters themselves fresh, prolongs
their life for some time until it is destroyed in our stomachs, or until
the oyster has been transformed into a portion of ourselves."
The degree of importance which different persons attach to matters
connected with the world in which we live, depends, of course, in a
great measure, on the manner in which they view them.
One person considers a loving wife, and four hundred a year, wealth and
happiness; another would be miserable without four thousand, and could
dispense with the wife. Some consider a post with five thousand a year a
tolerable means of existence; others a commissionership with twelve
hundred. Some seek a good consulship; others, till they have travelled
from St. Petersburg and back in a telega, or sledge, half a dozen times
during mid-winter, use the interest, which in other days would have
secured a snug governorship, even in the Island of Barataria, to obtain
a queen's messenger's place. At least so it used to be. Whether
competitive examinations will lead to our having the right man in the
right place, the round pegs in round holes, and the square pegs in
square ones, still remains to be seen. And so is it with most things in
life, whether personal or gastronomical. Different men are of different
opinions; some like apples, and some like—onions; but I have scarcely
ever yet met with the man who has refused a thoroughly good oyster.
There is not a man, however unobservant, but knows that oysters are a
great source of profit to some of that multitude which rises every
morning without knowing exactly how, when, and where it shall dine.
Billingsgate in the oyster season is a sight and a caution. Boats coming
in loaded; porters struggling with baskets and sacks; early loungers
looking on—it is so pleasant to see other people work—buyers and
cheapeners, the fish salesman in his rostrum, the wealthy purchaser who
can lay out his hundreds and buy his thousands—all to be met with,
together with that noise and bustle, and, far beyond it, all that
incredible earnestness which always distinguishes an English market.
Oysters, says Dryasdust, in his very useful commercial work—in which,
however, he makes alarming mis-statements—oysters are consumed in London
in incredible quantities, "and notwithstanding their high price, are
largely eaten by the middle and lower classes!"
Thanking Dryasdust for his information, and being one of the great
middle class ourselves, we can safely assert that oysters are _not_ high
in price. Fancy being able to purchase twelve succulent dainties for one
six-pence at Ling's or Quin's, at Proctor's or Pim's, or any other
celebrated shell-fish shop! Twelve "lumps of delight," as the
Mussulman—not mussel man—calls his sweetmeats! and then fancy Dryasdust
saying that they are high in price! Oh shame, where is thy blush!
A farm of four acres, if well handled, may give occupation, and even
bring pecuniary gain, to the possessor. A garden, for those who
thoroughly understand and enjoy it, may secure untold pleasures, and
perhaps help to pay the rent of the cottage. But an "oyster-bed" is a
pleasure—an _el dorado_—a mine of wealth, in fact, which fills the
owners' pockets with gold, and affords to the million untold
gastronomical enjoyment and healthy food. On the money part of the
question, the Scientific and Useful column of Number 825 of the "Family
Herald" furnishes the following information: "A very interesting report
has been recently made to the French Government on the results of
experiments made for the improvement of oyster-beds. The locality chosen
was the Bay of St. Brieux, on the coast of Brittany. Between March and
May, 1859, about 3,000,000 oysters, taken from different parts of the
sea, were distributed in ten longitudinal beds in the above bay. The
bottom was previously covered with old oyster shells and boughs of trees
arranged like fascines. To these the young oysters attach themselves,
and so fruitful are the results that one of the fascines was found at
the end of six months to have no less than 20,000 young oysters on it.
The report further states that 12,000 hectares may be brought into full
bearing in three years at an annual expense not exceeding 10,000
francs."
M. Laviciare, Commissary of the Maritime Inscription, in his 1860 report
to M. Coste, of the success of these operations in the Bay of St.
Brieux, states that "a recent examination has fully and satisfactorily
proved the advantageous results obtained on the five banks which have
been laid down, and which have exceeded the most sanguine expectations.
Three fascines, which were taken up indiscriminately from one of the
banks formed in June, 1859, contained about 20,000 oysters each, of from
one inch to two inches in diameter. The total expense for forming the
above bank was 221f.; and if the 300 fascines laid down on it be
multiplied by 20,000, 600,000 oysters will be obtained, which, if sold
at 20f. a thousand, will produce 120,000f. If, however, the number of
oysters on each fascine were to be reckoned at only 10,000, the sum of
60,000f. would be received, which, for an expenditure of only 221f.
would give a larger profit than any other known branch of industry."
But the breeding and fattening of the London oyster has long been a
lucrative branch of trade, of which Cockaine may well be proud. It is
carried on "contagious" to London, as Mrs. Malaprop would
say—principally in Essex and Kent. The rivers Crouch, Blackwater, and
Colne are the chief breeding places in the former, and the channel of
the Swale and the Medway in the latter. These are contiguous to Milton;
hence Dibdin's song, and hence also the corruption of "melting
hoysters;" melting they are too. The corruption is classical, so let it
stand.
Exclusive of oysters bred in Essex and Kent, vast numbers are brought
from Jersey, Poole, and other places along the coast, and are fattened
in beds. The export of oysters from Jersey alone is very considerable,
having amounted on an average of the four years ending with 1832[2] to
208,032 bushels a year. The Jersey fishing then employed, during the
season, about 1500 men, 1000 women and children, and 250 boats. Think of
this, ye oyster-eaters! Think that ye are doing—such is the wise
ordination of an overruling Providence—some good when you are swallowing
your ante-prandial oyster, and are giving employment to some portion of
those 3000 people who work for you at Jersey, besides helping to feed
the cold-fingered fishmonger, who, with blue apron and skilful knife,
tempts you to "Hanother dazzen, sir?"
Of the quantity of oysters consumed in London we cannot give even an
approximate guess. It must amount to millions of bushels. Fancy, if you
can, also, that curiously courteous exchange which goes on every
Christmas between our oyster-eating country cousins and our turkey and
goose-loving Londoners. To the man
"Who hath been long in city pent,
'Tis very sweet to gaze upon the fair
And open brow of heaven;—to breathe a prayer
Full in the face of the blue firmament"—
sings John Keats. Oh, if he had been but an oyster-eater, that article
from the "Quarterly," savage and slaughterly, would not have killed him;
but it is also very sweet to gaze upon a turkey, a leash of birds, a
brace of pheasants, and, as Mrs. Tibbetts hath it, "a real country
hare." Such a present is promptly repaid by a fine cod packed in ice,
and two barrels of oysters. How sweet are these when eaten at a country
home, and opened by yourselves, the barrel being paraded on the table
with its top knocked out, and with the whitest of napkins round it, as
we shall presently have occasion to show. How sweet it is, too, to open
some of the dear natives for your pretty cousin, and to see her open her
sweet little mouth about as wide as Lesbia's sparrow did for his lump
of—not sugar, it was not then invented—but lump of honey! How sweet it
is, after the young lady has swallowed her half dozen, to help yourself!
The oyster never tastes sweeter than when thus operated on by yourself,
so that you do not "job" the knife into your hand! True labour has a
dignity about it. The only time when I, who have seen most people, from
Tom Thumb to the Benicia Boy, from Madame Doche to the Empress Eugenie,
and from manly, sea-going Prince Alfred to the Staleybridge Infant and
Jemmy Shaw's "Spider"—the only time, I say, that I have ever seen a
nobleman look like a nobleman, was when a noble duke, a peer not only of
England and Scotland, but of _la belle France_ also, owned that he could
do two things better than most people, and that was, open oysters and
polish his own boots. I, like Othello, when he upbraided Iago for the
last time, "looked down to his feet," but found that it was no fable.
So important is our illustrious bivalve as an article of trade, that it
is protected by law. It is said that the only two things that George the
Fourth ever did—the great Georgius, whom Mr. Thackeray envies and
satirises—were to invent a shoe-buckle and an exquisite hair-dye. The
brains of the black Brunswicker could do no more. But there is one act
also—an Act of Parliament[3]—which was passed in his reign, for which he
is to be thanked. The man who was at once the Lucullus and Apicius of
his times must have had some hand in the framing of that Act.
-----
Footnote 1:
The common Colchester and Faversham oysters are brought to market on
the 5th of August. They are called _Common oysters_, and are picked up
on the French coast, and then transferred to those beds; the Milton,
or, as they are commonly called, the _melting Natives_, the true
Rutupians, do not come in till the beginning of October, continue in
season till the 12th of May, and approach the meridian of their
perfection about Christmas. The denizens from France are not to be
compared to British _Native_ oysters, which are so called because they
are born, bred, and fed in this country. These do not come to
perfection till they are four years old.
Footnote 2:
The exportation has by this time nearly doubled, but these are the
latest statistics we can arrive at.
Footnote 3:
See page 25.
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.
Horace, Martial, and Juvenal, Cicero and Seneca, Pliny, Ætius, and the
old Greek doctor Oribasius, whom Julian the Apostate delighted to
honour, and other men of taste amongst the ancients, have enlarged upon
the various qualities of the oyster; and was it not to Sergius Orata
that we owe our present oyster-beds; for he it was who introduced layers
or stews for oysters at Baia, the Brighton of ancient Rome, as we have
them at present. That was in the days when luxury was rampant, and when
men of great wealth, like Licinius Crassus, the leviathan slave
merchant, rose to the highest honours; for this dealer in human flesh in
the boasted land of liberty, served the office of consul along with
Pompey the Great, and on one occasion required no less than 10,000
tables to accommodate all his guests. How many barrels of oysters were
eaten at that celebrated dinner, the "Ephemerides"—as Plutarch calls
"The Times" and "Morning Post" of that day—have omitted to state; but as
oysters then took the place that turtle-soup now does at our great City
feeds, imagination may busy itself if it likes with the calculation. All
we know is, that oysters then fetched very long prices at Rome, as the
author of the "Tabella Cibaria" has not failed to tell us; and then, as
now, the high price of any luxury of the table was sure to make a
liberal supply of it necessary, when a man like Crassus entertained half
the city as his guests, to rivet his popularity.
But the Romans had a weakness for the "breedy creatures," as our dear
old friend Christopher North calls them in his inimitable "Noctes." In
the time of Nero, some sixty years later, the consumption of oysters in
the "Imperial City" was nearly as great as it now is in the "World's
Metropolis;" and there is a statement, which I recollect to have read
somewhere, that during the reign of Domitian, the last of the twelve
Cæsars, a greater number of millions of bushels were annually consumed
at Rome than I should care to swear to. These oysters, however, were but
Mediterranean produce—the small fry of Circe, and the smaller
Lucrinians; and this unreasonable demand upon them quite exhausted the
beds in that great fly-catcher's reign; and it was not till under the
wise administration of Agricola in Britain, when the Romans got their
far-famed Rutupians from the shores of Kent, from Richborough and the
Reculvers—the _Rutupi Portus_ of the "Itinerary," of which the latter,
the _Regulbium_, near Whitstable, in the mouth of the Thames, was the
northern boundary—that Juvenal praised them as he does; and he was
right: for in the whole world there are no oysters like them; and of all
the "breedy creatures" that glide, or have ever glided down the throats
of the human race, our "Natives" are probably the most delectable. Can
we wonder, then, when Macrobius tells us that the Roman pontiffs in the
fourth century never failed to have these Rutupians at table,
particularly, feeling sure that Constantine the Great, and his mother,
the pious Helena, must have carried their British tastes with them to
Rome at that period.
The Greeks have not said much in praise of oysters; but then they knew
nothing of Britain beyond its name, and looked upon it very much in the
same light as we now regard the regions of the Esquimaux; and as to the
little dabs of watery pulps found in the Mediterranean, what are they
but oysters in name? Indeed, the best use the Athenians could make of
them was to use their shells to ostracise any good citizen who, like
Aristides, was too virtuous for a "Greek." However, on the plea that
oysters are oysters, we presume—for it could not be on account of their
flavour—"oysters," says the author of the "Tabella Cibaria," "were held
in great esteem by the Athenians." No doubt when Constantine moved the
seat of the Empire from Rome to Constantinople, he did not forget to
have his Rutupians regularly forwarded; so, perhaps, after all it was
our "Natives," which thus found their way into Greece, that they
delighted in; and if so, the good taste of the Athenians need not be
called into question; but, as in literature and the arts, in
oyster-eating too, it deserves to be held up to commendation.
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.
With the fall of the Empire came also the fall of the Rutupian
supremacy; and even the Roman Britons, driven into Brittany and the
mountains of Wales by their truculent Saxon persecutors, had to forego
these luxuries of the table, unless, perhaps, Prince Arthur and his
knights may now and then have opened a bushel when they were seated over
their wine in that free and easy circle, which has become so celebrated
as to have formed a literature of its own. From the fourth century, to
which Macrobius brought us, to the reign of Louis IV. of France, the
history of the oyster is a blank; but that king revived the taste for
our favourite, and during his captivity in Normandy brought it again
into request with his conqueror, Duke William; so, when the Normans
invaded England under William the Conqueror—the descendant of that Duke
William, little more than a century later—they were not long in finding
out how much Kentish and Essex oysters were preferable to those of
France.
Since then the Oyster has held its own against all comers, as one of the
most welcome accessories to the table of rich and poor, and has been
protected in his rights and immunities by various Acts of Parliament.
"In the month of May oysters cast their spawn," says an old writer in
the "Transactions of the Royal Society," "which the dredgers call spat,
and this spawn cleaves to stones, old oyster-shells, pieces of wood, and
other substances at the bottom of the sea, which is called cultch.
During that month, by the law of the Admiralty Court, the dredgers have
liberty to take every kind of oyster, whatsoever be its size. When they
have taken them they gently raise with a knife the small brood from the
cultch, and then they throw the cultch in again, to preserve the ground
for the future, unless they are so newly spat, that they cannot be
safely severed from the cultch, in which case they are permitted to take
the stone or shell, which the spat is upon, one shell having often
twenty spats. After the month of May, it is felony to carry away the
cultch, and punishable to take any other oysters except those of the
size of a half-crown piece, or such as when the two shells are shut will
admit of a shilling to rattle between them." These brood and other
oysters are carried to creeks of the sea, and thrown into the channel,
which are called their beds or layers, where they grow and fatten, and
in two or three years oysters of the smallest brood reach the standard
size.
The property in oyster beds is defined by the 7 & 8 George IV., c. 29,
s. 36, which makes it larceny for any person to steal any oyster or
oyster brood from any oyster bed belonging to another person, if such
bed is sufficiently marked out and known as such; and even the attempt
to take either oysters or oyster brood from such an oyster bed, though
none be actually disturbed, is a misdemeanor, punishable by fine or
imprisonment, or both, though nothing is to prevent the fishing for
floating fish within the limits of any oyster fishery.
The Admiralty Court also imposes great penalties upon those who do not
destroy a fish, which they call Fivefingers (the crossfish, or common
starfish of our coasts), because it is supposed that that fish gets into
the oysters when they gape, and sucks them out. That it is injurious to
oyster beds may be true; for its food, in part, consists of mollusks. It
does not, however, walk into the oyster bodily, as the Admiralty Court
suggests, but rather appears to overpower its prey by applying some
poisonous secretion, and pouting out the lobes of the stomach, so as to
convert them into a kind of proboscis, and thus suck the mollusks from
their shells.
The reason of the penalty for destroying the cultch is that the ouse
then will increase, and mussels and cockles will breed there and destroy
the oysters, because they have no convenience for depositing their spat.
Hence, mud and sea-weeds are extremely injurious to the "breedy
creatures'" propagation and increase; for no less than starfish,
cockles, and mussels, other enemies amongst shellfish and crustaceous
animals, particularly crabs and scollops, eagerly devour the oyster,
when they can capture it.
In America, where the quality of the native oyster, though little
inferior to the larger species of Britain, is greatly over-rated, the
legislature is now called upon to make a similar provision for its
protection against its greatest enemy, man. "It has been estimated,"
says a correspondent in No. 769 of the "Family Herald," "that the State
of Virginia possesses an area of about 1,680,000 acres of oyster beds,
containing about 784,000,000 bushels of oysters. It is also stated that
the mother oyster spawns annually at least 3,000,000; yet,
notwithstanding this enormous productive power, and the vast extent of
oyster beds, there is danger of the oyster being exterminated unless
measures are adopted to prevent fishermen from taking them at improper
seasons of the year. It is therefore proposed to have either a flotilla
of four steamboats employed to protect the oyster beds from piratical
intruders, or to farm out the oyster beds to private contractors to do
with them as they please."
CHAPTER IV.
THE OYSTER AT HOME.
Its Nature, Colour, and Structure; Natural Food; Perception of the
changes of Light; Uses of the Cilia; Fecundity and Means of Propagation;
Age; Fossil Oysters in Berkshire and in the Pacific; Power of
Locomotion.
The Oyster belongs to those Mollusks which are headless, having
their gills in the form of membranous plates, and are named
_Lamellibranchiata_, from the Latin word _Lamella_, a plate; or
_Conchæ_, the Latin name for the whole family of oyster, scollop,
cockle, mussel, and other well-known bivalves. Properly speaking,
only six kinds are fit to take part in the gastromal treat, to say
nothing of the sanitary advantages the family are good enough to
provide for the world at large. These six peculiar and most
agreeable aristocrats all belong to the family of the common oyster,
_Ostrea edulis_, by far the most important tribe, and in fact, that
in behalf of whose meritorious qualities I have more particularly
taken up my pen.
The oyster bears different names in accordance to the localities in
which it is found, whether on rocky ground, mud, or sand, and has
different colours in different places. In Spain, oysters are found of a
red and russet colour; in Illyria they are brown, but the fish is black,
and in the Red Sea, of the colours of the rainbow. The green oyster, the
Parisian delicacy, is brought from Brittany; but the same flavour and
colour can be produced by putting oysters into pits where the water is
about three feet deep in the salt marshes, and where the sun has great
power. In these they become green in three or four days; for these
colours are derived from the elementary substance on which they feed;
not, however, that it produces any peculiar difference as to flavour. I
may, however, as well decide at once that the green oyster is, to my
taste, the oyster _par excellence_, in which decision I shall doubtless
be borne out by most _gourmets_ whose knowledge extends to a choice of
the good things of this life.
I know, in this, some of my friends north of the Tweed may differ, and,
if still living, amongst them I should have had to include Professor
Wilson, so long the very life and soul of oyster-suppers and
whisky-toddy. But nobody can judge of the true flavour of an oyster
without well _masticating_ his delicious food; and, by his own showing,
both he and the "Shepherd" bolted their "Pandores." These same
"Pandores," by the way, are large fat oysters, much relished in modern
Athens, which are said to owe their superior excellence to the brackish
contents of the pans of the adjacent salt-works of Prestonpans flowing
out upon the beds. Taken away young and transferred to the Ostend beds,
these Pandores furnish the very best oysters to be met with on the
Continent, surpassing even the far-famed ones of Flensburg, in Holstein.
Had "Christopher North" tickled the fish first to death with his
incisors before he swallowed it, I might have submitted my judgment to
his; but how can a man who bolted his food be quoted as an authority in
matters of taste? At best, his must have been but an after-taste, a mere
bilious reminder of what the repast had been, in which the whisky played
as prominent a part as the "breedy creatures" themselves.
[Illustration]
But let us return. The lower shell (*) of the oyster is concave, the
upper flat. These shells are opened and closed by the medium of a strong
muscle acting upon a hinge (+), far more complete in its structure than
ever locksmith could produce, even at the forthcoming Exhibition of all
Nations.
On the outside of the shell, when placed in a dark place, we may often
observe a shining matter of blueish light, like a flame of brimstone,
which sticks to the fingers when touched, and continues shining and
giving light for a considerable time, though without any sensible heat.
This light is produced by three varieties of minute animalcules, most
interesting when examined under the microscope.
The oyster possesses an organ of respiration similar to that of a
fish—branchiæ or gills, in fact (_br_), which are fringed by a mantle or
beard divided into two lobes (_m_), filled up by small membranous fibres
which terminate in the mouth (_b_), in the form of rays, serving the
animal also with power to catch and eat. Unlike other shelled mussels
the oyster has no feet; thus it is unable to make any other voluntary
movement, save that of opening and closing its shell, as already named,
in order to receive its food, which consists principally of small
microscopical spores and young shoots of marine plants, made soft and
thin by the action of the waves; whence arise the green beards or
mantles. With some difficulty I have been enabled to separate a small
portion of this vegetation from the mantle of an oyster, and having
placed it under a strong microscope, discovered sea weed, of precisely
the same species as that in which oysters are packed. They also feed on
an infusion of sea worms called oyster animalcules. These are very
accurately described in the "Journal des Savans," by M. Auzout. Some are
irridescent, but others are not, and good specimens of all may be
secured immediately the oyster has been taken from the sea.
By means of the beard or mantle described (_m_), the oyster secures his
food, bringing it gradually, by means of little hooks bent inwards, to
its mouth (_b_), wherein it is crushed and slowly consumed.
The stomach (_i_) is situated near the mouth, and all the organs are
very simple. The mantle (_m_ and _m'_) above-named replaces the lungs.
The liver (_f_) is small; the gall, comparatively speaking, large; the
larger blood vessels little rarefied. The heart (_h_) consists of two
cameras at a tolerable distance from one another, resembling small round
bladders. The pulse beats rather slowly (caused by, perhaps, the want of
food and sea water). From the stomach the rectum (_a_) leads directly to
the anus. How digestion is effected in this short and simple way, I can
scarce venture to assert. But it is a fact well known, that, after the
spawning season, the oyster becomes thin, but a very short time enables
it to recover its fat and succulence.
On examining the oyster the mantle (_m_), divided into two lobes (_m_
and _m'_), the edges of which are fringed, will be perceived filling the
greater part of the shell; also four membranous leaves crossed with
stripes, which at their hinder extremities have as many capillary tubes.
These leaves, or veins, unequally divided around the edges of the body
perform the functions of the lungs, and separate from the water the
necessary air for the maintenance of the animal.
The mouth (_b_) is a kind of trunk, or long aperture surrounded by four
lips nearly resembling those of a gill, but far shorter.
Behind the muscles is to be seen a large fleshy white and cylindrical
substance moving on a central muscle, and containing the stomach and
intestines (_i_). This part resembles the trunk of other conchæ, but it
has no power of opening or contracting. The canal of the intestines is
situated on the top of the muscle (_a_).
The oyster has circular vessels, on the bottom of which are to be seen
deep muscular cavities, occupying the place of the heart (_h_), and
sending their moisture to the small skin through which they come in
contact with the water or the air.
In his "Outline of the Animal Kingdom," Professor Rymer Jones most
happily describes all these peculiarities. "Wonderful indeed is the
elaborate mechanism," are his words, "employed to effect the double
purpose of renewing the respired fluid and feeding the helpless
inhabitants of these shells! Every filament of the branchial fringe,
examined under a powerful microscope, is found to be covered with
countless cilia in constant vibration, causing, by their united efforts,
powerful and rapid currents, which, sweeping over the surface of the
gills, hurry towards the mouth whatever floating animalcules, or
nutritious particles, may be brought within the limits of their action,
and thus bring streams of nutritive molecules to the very aperture
through which they are conveyed to the stomach, the lips and labial
fringes acting as sentinels to admit or refuse entrance, as the matter
may be of a wholesome or pernicious character."
Nature, too, has given the oyster a sensitive perception of the changes
of light as the means of its protection from the many enemies it has to
contend with; for if the shadow of an approaching boat is thrown forward
so as to cover it, it closes the valves of its shell before any
undulation of the water can have reached it. This sensitiveness is
easily studied in the marine vivary, where the oyster, with its
beautiful cilia, more beautiful by far than the richest lace of a
bride's wedding dress, is always an object of great interest.
The oyster is an hermaphrodite animal, and hence its propagation is
effected by self-produced eggs, which it bears within in the form of a
greenish milky juice which it casts as spat in May, and which, as has
already been stated, in this country is protected by wise and prudent
acts of the Legislature. "The liquor in the lower shell of the oyster,"
says a writer in No. 587 of the "Family Herald," "if viewed through a
microscope, will be found to contain multitudes of small oysters,
covered with shells and swimming nimbly about—120 of which extend about
an inch! Besides these young oysters, the liquor contains a variety of
animalcules." Indeed, with the aid of a microscope one million of young
have been discovered in a single oyster. Guarded by their two tender
shells, these swim freely in the sea when ejected by the parent oyster,
until, by means of a glutinous substance, they fix themselves so fast to
some object that they can be separated only by force. These young are
very soon able to produce others, many say at four months after their
birth. When the oyster attains the size of a crown the shell is still
very tender and thin; it is only after the second, third, or fourth year
that it becomes fit for human food.
If we cannot answer the Fool's question in Lear, and "tell how an oyster
makes his shell," we can, nevertheless, tell by his shell what is his
age.
"A London oysterman," says a correspondent of No. 623 of the "Family
Herald," "can tell the ages of his flock to a nicety. The age of an
oyster is not to be found out by looking into its mouth. It bears its
years upon its back. Everybody who has handled an oyster-shell must have
observed that it seemed as if composed of successive layers or plates
overlapping each other. These are technically termed 'shoots' and each
of them marks a year's growth; so that, by counting them, we can
determine at a glance the year when the creature came into the world. Up
to the time of its maturity, the shoots are regular and successive; but
after that time they become irregular, and are piled one over the other,
so that the shell becomes more and more thickened and bulky. Judging
from the great thickness to which some oyster-shells have attained, this
mollusk is capable, if left to its natural changes unmolested, of
attaining a great age." Indeed, fossil oysters have been seen, of which
each shell was nine inches thick, whence they may be concluded to have
been more than 100 years old.
For the most part the offspring remains near the mother, which accounts
for the large oyster banks or beds which are found in almost all the
seas of the temperate and torrid zones, and which in some places have
been known to attain such magnitude as to cause ships to be wrecked upon
them. The lower stratum is necessarily lifeless, being pressed upon by
the upper one, so that the oysters beneath are unable to open
themselves, and are consequently deprived of food.
The immense propagation of the oyster may be understood from the fossil
oyster bed near Reading, in Berkshire. These fossils have the entire
shape, figure, and are of the same substance as our recent
oyster-shells, and yet must have lain there from time immemorial. This
bed occupies about six acres, forming a stratum of about two feet in
thickness. But the largest fossil oyster banks are those raised by
earth-quakes along the western shores of South America, which measure
from sixty to eighty feet in depth, are often forty miles in length, and
in many places stretch above two miles into the interior.
The Abbé Dicquemare, fond of trying experiments in the spread of
gastronomy, even to the stewing a mess of _Gemmaceæ_, the _Gems_ of our
water-vivaries, till they had something of the flavour of oysters,
asserts that, when in a state of liberty, oysters can move from one
place to another by suddenly admitting sea water into the shell, which
they are able to open and shut with extraordinary power and rapidity,
whereby they produce a strange sound; and this observation has been
confirmed by other naturalists, and is recorded as an ascertained fact
in several books of natural science. In like manner they defend
themselves against smaller animals, especially against the spider crab,
which constantly tries to penetrate into their half open shells. Much
natural instinct or foresight is also attributed to the oyster; in proof
of which I may name that, when in a position which is exposed to the
variations of the tide, oysters seem to be aware that they remain for
some hours without water, and consequently provide it within their
shells.
This makes such oysters far more fit to be conveyed to a distance, than
those taken nearer to the shore, which evacuate the water, thus exposing
themselves to the heat of the sun, the cold, or an attack from their
enemies; and this, too, is the reason why Colchester or Pyfleet oysters,
packed at the beds, are in such request.
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.
The Oyster does not leave his home like the duckling, upon the call of
"come here and be killed." If he is wanted, like Mrs. Glasse's hare, we
must "first catch him." This is done by dredging, and this dredging for
oysters is performed by means of rakes and scrapers, on which is
fastened a bag of sail-cloth, leather, or net-work. These are lowered
into the sea by means of ropes and chains, and are dragged along its
bottom by boats in full sail, or by rowing-boats. When the net or
scraper is drawn to the surface, the oysters are immediately separated
from all else which may be swept up. These oysters are then stowed away
and sent up to market in due course. But it is not of these that are
formed the new settlements or oyster-beds, which I am about to describe.
These oyster-beds are cavities or reservoirs which communicate with the
sea by means of canals, and are placed in such manner that the level
beds remain dry when the tide is high. These beds are made with
sand-stones or other hewn stones; and the water is kept in or let out at
low tide by means of locks, or traps, as may be most readily effected.
At some periods, however, the water is kept in for many days, or even
weeks together. In the latter case the oyster becomes, for the most
part, very tender, and green and fat, because the stagnant water
promotes the germination of those microscopical spores of marine plants,
which always abound in natural sea-water, and upon which it delights to
feed. These reservoirs, therefore, are not only the means of preserving
them for sale, but of purifying them from the muddy odour which they
have imbibed at sea, and which indicates them to be hard and devoid of
that luscious and somewhat gastronomic quality so much prized by the
world at large.
The bottom and sides of these caves or reservoirs are paved with stones
and thick layers of sand, to keep them free from all mud, which is not
only very injurious to the animal, but sure to harbour its enemies; and
great care is also observed not to admit too great a flow of water at
one time, as that might drive particles of sand into the shells. When
the reservoir is properly prepared, the oysters are placed in their
natural position—the flat side being upwards, in a sloping or horizontal
direction. The more care that is taken in keeping their beds clean and
free from mud, by washing the sides of the reservoirs, pouring water
over the oysters, especially those which are dry, and removing the dead
ones, which can be recognised by their shells being open, the better;
for the more valuable will they be as human food, both as to profit and
condition, and the more appreciated by the gastronomic million, who hail
the oyster season as does a sportsman the advent of grouse and
partridges, hares and pheasants.
The oysters, which are thus preserved, cleaned, nursed, and fattened are
taken from their beds at the low tide when the water is out.
There are doubts, various and conflicting, as to whether oysters
contained in reservoirs, where the water is changed each successive
tide, are not on that account preferable to those which exist in the
same water for two weeks at a time. I give a decided preference to the
latter, though the water must be kept very clean by constant care and
attention to the removal of the dead, the decomposition of which would
otherwise, but for the frequent change of water, seriously affect the
health of the whole settlement, by an accumulation of sulphuretted
hydrogen, with a smell like that emitted by the Thames and other
drainage rivers in the dog-days. These oysters slip down the human
throat divine with a tenderness and sublime relish which no words can
describe.
Let me pass over, for the nonce, the mode of packing and sending them to
the interior. Thanks to the railways, the gastronomical delight of
oyster eating is now secured to many who for years scarcely knew what an
oyster meant in its entire freshness and best qualities.
Sergius Orata, as Pliny the Elder tells us in the eighty-ninth book of
his invaluable Natural History, and, as we have already stated, first
conceived the idea of planting oysters in beds. This epicure had large
reservoirs made at Baia, where he gathered thousands of these mollusks.
Not far from these oyster-beds rose a palace in which the wealthy Roman
used to assemble his choicest friends and feast with them the whole day
and night. Oysters occupied the place of honour on the table of Sergius
Orata; at every feast thousands of them were consumed. Satiated, but not
yet satisfied, these gourmets were in the habit of adjourning into an
adjoining room, where they relieved the stomach of its load by
artificial means, and then returned to indulge again their appetite with
a fresh supply of oysters.
Strange as it may appear to us in the nineteenth century, this custom
was universal amongst the wealthy of Imperial Rome, Cæsar himself often
indulging in it, when the repast was to his taste; and ladies, the cream
of the cream of that luxurious period, carried about with them peacocks'
feathers and other dainty throat ticklers for the purpose, when they
anticipated a more luxurious feed than usual.
Who amongst us cares to eat white-bait in the crowded city? When the
mood seizes us, do not we take boat and proceed up or down the river, as
the whim dictates? The old Roman had no white-bait; and the oyster to
him was therefore doubly welcome. To him the journey to his marine
villa, by water or land, as with us, added but a zest to the anticipated
treat. In the Bay of Naples is a smaller bay close to its most
north-western point, bounded on the west by the pretty town of Baia and
its hot wells, and on the north-east by the no less charming town of
Pozzuoli. These little bays on the Italian coasts are dignified by the
name of seas by the writers of classical antiquity, and round the
headland of Baia, to the north, in the open Mediterranean—the Tyrrhenian
Sea—just such another bay, the present Lago di Fusaro, was called the
Lucrine Sea, with its far-famed oyster-beds, easy of access from Baia
and Pozzuoli, both situated in a charming country. Here, close to the
Lucrine, under a clear sky, surrounded by a delightful atmosphere, were
situated the country houses of the more wealthy Romans, where, far away
from business and the noise and turmoil of the forum, these accomplished
disciples of Epicurus, without fear or care, used to give themselves up
to the delights of the table. Here they tasted the little-shelled
oysters which Martial liked so much, and which, but a few hours
previously to being served up, had been gathered on the sea-shore.
Gastronomic annals mention the names of some of these dainty persons who
daily swallowed several hundreds of oysters; but Vitellius in this
respect beat them all. That emperor, it is said, ate oysters four times
a day, and at each meal swallowed neither more nor less than 1200 of
them. Seneca himself, who so admirably praises the charms of poverty,
yet left prodigious wealth behind him; Seneca the wise and moderate, ate
several hundreds of them every week.
"Oyster, so dear to people of taste!" he exclaims; "thou dost but excite
instead of satisfying the appetite, never causing indisposition, not
even when eaten to excess; for thou art easy of digestion, and the
stomach yields thee back with facility." Cicero did not hesitate to
confess that he had a special predilection for oysters; but he adds,
that he could renounce them without any difficulty; which, by the way,
he might as well have told to the Marines, if they were in existence in
his day, for all the credence this remark of his has gained from
posterity.
We prefer Horace, who in every passage honestly makes known his love for
oysters, and eats them himself with as much gusto as he extols them to
others. Carefully, too, does he note down from whom he procured them,
and the name of the famous gourmet who at the first bite was able to
tell whether an oyster came from Circe or the Lucrine Sea, or from any
part of Natolia. The ancients, our teachers in all arts, but especially
in æsthetics, did not bolt the oyster, but masticated it. With true
Epicurean tact, they always extracted the full enjoyment out of the good
things set before them. Not so we; most of us now bolt them; but this is
a mistake, for the oyster has a much finer flavour, and is far more
nourishing, when well masticated.
"Those who wish to enjoy this delicious restorative in its utmost
perfection," says Dr. Kitchener, "must _eat_ it the moment it is opened,
with its own gravy in the under shell; if not _eaten_ absolutely alive,
its flavour and spirit are lost. The true lover of an oyster will have
some regard for the feelings of his little favourite, and contrive to
detach the fish from the shell so dexterously that the oyster is hardly
conscious he has been ejected from his lodging till he _feels the teeth_
of the piscivorous gourmet tickling him to death."
The Romans needed not even the use of their teeth to tell from whence
the oyster came; a mere look sufficed to distinguish it, as may be seen
in the following lines ascribed to Lucilius.
"When I but see the oyster's shell,
I look and recognize the river, marsh or mud,
Where it was raised."
Nor was this so very difficult a matter, for the shell, no less than the
animal itself, as has already been shown, exhibits the nature of the
food upon which the oyster has fed.
In Italy and Gaul it was for a long time a matter of dispute, which
country produced the best oysters. At that time the Lucrine Sea
maintained the superiority; but Pliny preferred those from Circe.
"According to my opinion," he says, "the most delicious and most tender
oysters are those from Circe."
At last, however, the preference was given to those of Britain, which
under the wise administration of Julius Agricola had conformed to the
manners and customs of her conquerors, and there no longer was need of
dispute as to whether the Mediterranean oysters of Italy or Gaul should
have the precedence. The little watery pulpy dabs, which had hitherto
delighted the conquerors of the world, were cast aside in disgust. They
had found a real oyster at last, and the insignificant and flavourless
bivalves of the coasts of Italy ceased to be in demand. From that time,
on the shores of the Atlantic, thousands of slaves were employed in
procuring the oysters, which in Rome were paid for by their weight in
gold. The expenses were so great that the censors felt themselves
obliged to interfere. Not content with getting their oysters from
distant shores, they had means by which to preserve them for some time
in hot weather; for which purpose, as we see in the Pompeian model-house
at the Crystal Palace, their domiciles were furnished with a receptacle
for water; for with those famous epicures the water-vivary was an
essential necessary for the preservation of living fish, and all that
was necessary was to substitute sea-water for fresh. Probably by some
such means, Apicius Cœlius, who must not be confounded with the writer
of a book of cookery which bears his name, sent Trajan, when that
emperor was in the country of the Parthians, oysters, which when
received were as fresh as they ever could be eaten when just taken from
their beds; and Pliny even believed that the journey had proved
beneficial to their flavour.
CHAPTER VI.
THE OYSTER ON ITS TRAVELS.
The Isle of Sheppey, the Medway, and Whitstable; Milton, Queenborough,
Rochester, and Faversham Oysters; Colchester and Essex Beds; Edinburgh
Pandores and Aberdours; Dublin Carlingfords and Powldoodies; Poole and
its Oyster-bank; Cornish Oysters and the Helford Beds; Poor Tyacke, and
How he was Done; Dredgers and their Boats; Auld Reekie's Civic
Ceremonials; Song of the Oyster; its Voyage to Market, and Journey by
Coach and Rail.
Who that has travelled by water from London Bridge to Herne Bay—and who
among us who live within the sound of Bow bells has not?—should the trip
have been made in the beginning of August, but must have noticed, after
having passed the Isle of Sheppey, a little fishing-town to his right,
in East Swale Bay, raising its head out of the river like a joyous child
dressed in its gayest attire, anticipating a long-looked-for holiday? It
is the 4th of August, and its holiday is at hand, for to-morrow the
oyster season begins; and the town is Whitstable, in Kent, standing out
gaily with its bright flags and pennons in beautiful relief from the low
marshy soil by which it is surrounded. Then, too, the dredgers, in their
picturesque costume, add greatly to the gay appearance of the place,
whilst some seventy or eighty vessels lying in the offing bespeak the
importance of the oyster traffic between it and the Great Metropolis.
What the Lucrine was to the citizen of Rome is the estuary of the Medway
with the Swale to the citizen of London. The "Natives" obtained at
Milton are in the highest repute, and consumed in every part of England;
nor are the Faversham, Queenborough, and Rochester denizens less so;
nor, indeed, any of the "breedy creatures" which are raised in the other
beds of the Swale or the Medway.
The trade in oysters, as we have seen, has been an object of
consideration in England for many ages, and now ranks in importance with
the herring, pilchard, and other fisheries. The excellence of our
oysters made the formation of artificial beds an object of attention
soon after the Roman conquest; and the Kentish and Essex beds show a
pedigree in consequence much older than that of the noble descendant of
any Norman adventurer who came over with the Conqueror, claiming, on
this head alone, precedence for our "Natives" amongst all the oysters of
the known world. But Britain is the boasted land of liberty, and the
"Natives" of one part of her coast boldly assert their equality with the
"Natives" of any other. If London delights in Milton and Colchester
oysters, Edinburgh has her "whispered Pandores" and Aberdours, and
Dublin her Carlingfords[4] and "Powldoodies of Burran;" whilst all
round our shores each locality boasts of its own "Natives" as the best
oysters in the land. Poole points proudly to her oyster-bank, and tells
miraculous tales of her fishery, and of the number of oysters she sends
to the London market, besides those which are pickled at sea for the
export trade to lands where a fresh oyster is still a luxury unknown.
The Poole fishermen who open oysters in their boats for pickling are
compelled, by an Act of the Legislature, to throw the shells on the
strand, and these, in the course of time, have formed a strong barrier
against the waves of the sea at the flow of the tide, having the
appearance of an island at high-water; and, simple as it is, such is the
sole construction of this celebrated breakwater.
I cannot be expected to take the reader on a voyage of discovery all
round the coast, nor to the Channel Islands, to taste the oysters which
Providence has spread out for our enjoyment with such a lavish hand. But
there is one little spot on the shores of Cornwall which I cannot pass
over, because from it came one of the colonies on the banks of the
Thames, from which the Whitstable boats still draw their annual supply.
Into Mount's Bay the Helford River, upon which stands the little town of
Helstone, empties itself, opposite Mount St. Michael's, into the sea,
and in the estuary of that little river, a person of the name of Tyacke,
within the memory of the "oldest inhabitant," rented certain
oyster-beds, famous amongst Cornish gourmets for a breed of oysters,
which, it is said, the Phœnicians, "a long time ago," had discovered to
be infinitely preferable to the watery things they got at home. These
Helford oysters are regularly brought to London; but when Tyacke rented
the beds they were unknown to the good citizens who frequented the
oyster taverns, of which the Cock in Fleet Street is but a last
lingering type. Determined to make his venture, Tyacke loaded a fishing
smack with the best produce of his beds, and coasted along the southern
shores, till passing round the Isle of Thanet he found himself in the
Mouth of the Thames. Little did the elated oyster dredger think that
that Mouth would swallow up the whole of his cargo; but so it came to
pass. It had long been evident to those on board that oysters that
travel, no less than men, must have rations allowed on the voyage, if
they are to do credit to the land of their birth. Now the voyage had
been long and tedious, and the oysters had not been fed, so Tyacke got
into his boat, and obtained an interview with the owner of the spot at
which it touched land. He asked permission to lay down his oysters, and
feed them. This was granted, and after a few days the spores of _ulva
latissima_ and _enteromorpha_, and of the host of delicate fibrous
plants which there abound, and all of which are the oyster's great
delight, made the whole green and fat, and in the finest condition for
reshipment. Four days, it is said, will suffice to make a lean oyster,
on such a diet, both green and plump; and Tyacke, joyful at the
improvement which he daily witnessed, let his stock feed on for a week.
It was towards evening that he bethought himself, as the tide was out,
that if he meant to reach Billingsgate by the next morning, it would be
wise to reship his oysters before turning in for the night. The boat was
lowered; but, as he attempted to land, he was warned off by the owner of
the soil, who stood there with several fierce looking fellows, armed
with cutlasses and fowling-pieces, evidently anticipating the
Cornishman's intention, and determined to frustrate it at all hazards.
"What do you want here?" he asked of Tyacke.
"The oysters I put down to feed," was the reply. "They were placed there
by your permission, and now I am anxious to reship them, to be in time
for to-morrow's market."
"True," replied the Kentishman, "I gave you leave to lay down the
oysters and feed them, but not a word was said about reshipping them.
Where they are, there they stay; and if you persist in trespassing, I
shall know what to do."
Poor Tyacke found himself much in the predicament of many a flat who has
been picked up by a sharp. A century ago law was not justice, nor
justice law. Perhaps it may not even be so now; and the story of the
lawyer who ate the oyster in dispute, and gave each of the disputants a
shell, may hold as good in our day as it did in that when the author of
the "Beggar's Opera" put it into verse.
The demand for oysters, wherever it exists along our coasts, creates a
profitable source of employment to a class of men who necessarily become
experienced seamen; and dredging for oysters is carried on in fleets, as
the beds mostly lie within a comparatively small space. The boats, which
are about fifteen feet long, usually carry a man and a boy, or two men.
The dredge is about eighteen pounds weight, and is required to be
heavier on a hard than on a soft bottom, and each boat is usually
provided with two dredges.
In former days the commencement of the dredging season was held
sufficiently important to entitle it to a civic ceremonial, at least
such was the wont of the municipal authorities of "Auld Reekie," who
also paid a particular regard both as to the supply and the price of
the"breedy creatures" furnished to the good citizens of Edinburgh. The
"Feast of Shells" was ushered in by the municipality of the ancient city
making, for provosts and bailiffs, a somewhat perilous voyage to the
oyster-beds in the Frith of Forth; and though the solemnity of wedding
the Frith formed no part of the chief magistrate's office, as wedding
the Adriatic with a gold ring did that of the Doge of Venice, the welkin
was made to ring, as three cheers from all present uprose and announced
the lifting of the first dredge upon the deck of the civic barge.
There is something poetical and pretty in the idea, which once
prevailed, that the oyster was a lover of music, and as the fishermen
trolled their dredging nets they sang,
"To charm the spirits of the deep."
The old ballad in use is still found in the mouth of many a hardy seaman
as he pursues his toil to the melodious words—
"The herring loves the merry moonlight,
The mackerel loves the wind,
But the oyster loves the dredger's song,
For he comes of a gentle kind."
Raised out of his native waters, the oyster makes the voyage to the
first station in his destined travels in the company of those to whom
long and kindred ties have bound him, on board the smack upon the deck
of which they were jointly landed from the deep; and during the whole
voyage, if it prove a long one, he is attentively supplied with
refreshing water, so that when the smack lays alongside the wharf at
which he is to part company with his captors, he is still as lively as
when they first took him as a passenger on board.
Arrived in port, the oyster first truly becomes sensible of the miseries
of slavery. Shovelled into sacks, or cast anyhow into carts and
handbarrows, he may consider himself fortunate if a kindly hand but
extends to him, in his great necessity, a drink of water impregnated
with salt, instead of his own delicious beverage from the sea. Yet this
is a cruelty which should be avoided wherever sea-water can be obtained,
because it is neither the salt nor the water which sustains the oyster's
life, but the spores of vegetation which abound in the sea, and by
mixing salt with fresh water we destroy even the life of the incipient
fresh-water plants which the latter contains. It is as great a mockery
as when Grumio proposes to give the famished Katherine the mustard
without the brawn, and need no longer exist if oyster dealers, who
cannot obtain sea-water, would provide themselves with the prepared
salts for the instantaneous production of artificial sea-water, the
recipe for the preparation of which is thus given in No. 735 of the
"Family Herald:"—
"For ten gallons it requires, sulphate of magnesia, 7-1/2 ounces;
sulphate of lime, 2-3/4 ounces; chloride of sodium, 43-1/4 ounces;
chloride of magnesia, 6 ounces; chloride of potassium, 1-1/4 ounce;
bromide of magnesium, 21 grains; carbonate of lime, 21 grains."
This should be allowed to stand exposed to the air in a strong sunlight
for a fortnight before it is used, during which time a few growing
plants of _enteromorpha_, or _ulva_ should be introduced to throw off
spores. These plants cost about one shilling each in London. The water
then, when under the microscope, will be found to contain a confervoid
vegetable growth, which forms as nourishing a food for the oyster as the
spores of sea-weed in its ocean bed. Oysters laid down in a large trough
and covered with this water will continue to live and thrive for months;
and it was to some such method as this that the Romans were indebted for
the preservation of their oysters in inland stews. On no account should
oatmeal, flour, or any such _dead_ stuff, be added, which only serves to
make the water foul and the oyster sick.
When oysters are to travel by coach or rail, they are usually dispatched
in barrels. Where the barrels are packed at the beds, as the Colchester
or "Pyfleet barrelled oysters" are, they should not be disturbed till
wanted for the table, as they will keep good as they are for a week or
ten days; for being carefully packed so as not to spill the water each
carries in a reservoir of Nature's providing, they need no other
viaticum for the journey.
The moment an oyster in the barrel opens its mouth it dies, because
there is nothing in the barrel to sustain its life. It is therefore as
well, on the receipt of the little cask, to open it at once by removing
the top and the first hoop, and then to place the top on the upper-most
layer of oysters, keeping it in position by the addition of some heavy
weight, which causes the staves to spread and stand erect; and as the
layers of oysters are required for the table, it is only necessary each
time to replace the top and the weight to a similar position to keep the
remainder fresh for a few days. But the true lover of an oyster will
have some regard for his little favourite. Sea-water may be had in
London and other large towns for sixpence per gallon, and when that
cannot be procured the pound packet of salts, according to the recipe we
have given, will not cost more than eighteen-pence at any chemist's, and
that quantity will produce three gallons of artificial sea-water. Thus
provided, unpack the barrel, and spread out the oysters in a large flat
earthenware dish, just covering them with water, and you may keep them
for many weeks as fresh as when they first left their beds.
-----
Footnote 4:
The Carlingford oyster is the best in Ireland; a black-bearded fellow,
delicate and of fine flavour, to be eaten in Dublin alternately with
the Redbank oyster, at a magnificent establishment in Sackville
Street, and to be washed down with alternate draughts of brown stout.
The Hibernian will tell you that even our Natives are inferior to
these. He is right in his patriotism, but wrong in his assertion. How
often do our prejudices trip up our judgment!
CHAPTER VII.
THE OYSTER AT ITS JOURNEY'S END.
Oyster Stalls; How to Open the Oyster; an Oyster Supper; Beer, Wines,
and Spirits; Roasted, Fried, Stewed, and Scolloped Oysters; Oyster Soup,
and Oyster Sauce; Broiled Oysters; Oyster Pie; Oyster Toast; Oyster
Patties; Oyster Powder; Pickled Oysters; Oyster Loaves; Oyster Omelet;
Cabbage, Larks, and Oysters; and Frogs and Oysters.
"If where Fleet Ditch with muddy current flows
You chance to roam, where oyster-tubs in rows
Are ranged beside the posts, there stay thy haste,
And with the savoury fish indulge thy taste."—GAY.
I am writing for the Million, and the least the Million can do in return
is every one to buy a copy of my book, and bid everybody to recommend
everybody to do the same. The Fleet Ditch, which was once in the centre
of the old Fleet Market, has disappeared since Gay wrote the lines I
have just quoted, and now forms the great sewer of Farringdon Street;
but with the Ditch have not disappeared the oyster-stalls; they have
only changed their locality, and, like the Wandering Jew, have turned up
in the most out-of-the-way places, where nobody would expect to find
them. I know what stall-oysters are; for when I was a school-boy many
and oft is the time I spent my pennies, on the sly, at a stall behind
the old cathedral that just abutted the ancient Market Cross. The maiden
that opened them had clean white hands—for, boy as I was, I could not
have endured a baronet's hand to open oysters for me; for—
"The damsel's knife the gaping shell commands,
While the salt liquor streams between her hands."
Never have I eaten finer oysters than those, fresh almost within a few
hours from the placid Solent, upon which now the palace of Osborne looks
down, and calls forth the heartfelt prayer of "God bless the Queen," as
we pass beneath the grass-covered slopes, reminding every Wykehamist of
the founder's motto, "Manners maketh Men;" for Her Majesty is the tenant
of Wykeham's College, and his arms and motto are carved upon the gates
of the Queen's royal residence of Osborne.
Yes, "Manners maketh Men" no less than _Honores mutant Mores_, as the
punster told the great Sir Thomas More, when he stood so high in favour
with Henry VIII., and was just appointed Treasurer of the Exchequer. It
is not riches that make man, any more than they need change him; and if
there is any good gift of Providence more than another which teaches
equality, it will not be far from the mark to say it is the Oyster. You
cannot eat the oyster in greater perfection than at a street-stall,
because, as the capital of the owner is small, so, too, is the stock;
and, to be sure of a rapid sale, it must also be well and carefully
selected, and therefore does not need the announcement we read in many a
by-way one passes along, where "the tale of a tub" would seem to
contradict it: "Oysters fresh every day." The poor man has no need to
bid his cook, like his wealthy neighbour, buy real sea-water, or salts
for the preparation of artificial sea-water, for the preservation of his
oysters. There are thousands of hands outstretched to receive his nimble
penny, and to give him in return oysters as fine as any which can grace
the table of the wealthiest in the land. To me it is a treat to stand by
and see how rapidly oyster after oyster disappears down the capacious
throat of some stalwart son of toil, and to think that my favourite
health-giving mollusk, in every one that is swallowed, is adding
strength and muscle to those upon whom we so greatly depend for the
nation's wealth and prosperity.
People generally, however, are somewhat indifferent about the manner of
opening oysters, and the time of eating them after they are opened; yet
nothing deserves more consideration at the hands of your true
oyster-eater. The oyster should be eaten the moment it is opened, if
eaten raw, with its own liquor in the under shell, as we have already
stated on the very highest of all gastronomical authorities. It is well
worth a little practice to learn to open the oyster oneself, for a
bungling operator injures our little favourite, and baulks the expectant
appetite by his unsightly incisions. I learnt the art years ago in one
of the Midland counties, where Christmas-eve would scarce be
Christmas-eve, without an oyster supper. Let me sketch the scene. In the
centre of the table, covered with a clean white cloth up to the top
hoop, stands the barrel of oysters, a kindly remembrance from a friend,
and the more kind because oysters are not found in fresh-water streams.
Each gentleman at table finds an oyster-knife and a clean coarse towel
by the side of his plate, and he is expected to open oysters for himself
and the lady seated by his side, unless she is wise enough to open them
for herself. By the side of every plate is the _panis ostrearius_, the
oyster-loaf made and baked purposely for the occasion, and all down the
centre of the table, interspersed with vases of bright holly and
evergreens, are plates filled with pats of butter, or lemons cut in
half, and as many vinegar and pepper castors as the establishment can
furnish. As the attendance of servants at such gatherings is usually
dispensed with, bottled Bass or Guinness, or any equally unsophisticated
pale ale or porter, is liberally provided; and where the means allow,
light continental wines, such as Chablis, Sauterne, Mousseux, Marsault
or Medoc, still Champagne, Moselle, or any light Rhenish wine, and
failing any of these, Madeira or Sherry, are placed upon the table. In
this list is contained the names of such wines only as are best suited
to enhance the taste of the oyster, and to assist digestion. Of spirits,
only good English gin, genuine Schiedam, or Irish or Scotch whisky, are
admissible, as rum and brandy, taken upon oysters, will almost always be
sure to make them indigestible; and liqueurs are quite out of place.
At some of these oyster suppers, oysters roasted in the shell are
brought in "hot and hot," and dishes of fried, stewed, and scolloped
oysters follow each other in quick succession, and even oyster patties
are sometimes introduced; but I hold up both hands against an American
innovation which is creeping in, and introducing crabs and lobsters, and
mixed pickles, and other foreigners into the _carte_ on such an
occasion.
The mention of these various dishes of dressed oysters, reminds me of my
promise at starting, to give some directions as to the proper mode of
cooking them. So to begin:—
1. _The Fried Oyster._—It is the most common one, and is fried in its
own shell; but as it frequently takes the taste of lime when just fried,
it is better to make use of another shell, or a porcelain one. The beard
is taken off, the oyster loosened from its shell, and with the liquor it
still contains is put into the vessel prepared for it, with some good
butter, some Parmesan cheese, and pepper, and thus it is put into the
oven, or on the gridiron, and when it has turned a little brown some
lemon-juice is poured on it, after which it may be served up. Having no
Parmesan, good dry Cheshire, or even bread crumbs, are desirable. The
largest and finest oysters should be chosen for this purpose; and many
persons fry oysters by simply allowing them to simmer in their own
shells for a couple of minutes, when they take them out and lay them on
a cloth to drain, beard them, and then flour them, put them into boiling
fat, and fry them to a delicate brown.
2. _The Oyster roasted in its own shell._—Open the oyster carefully, so
as not to lose any of its own liquor, add a little butter and pepper,
according to taste, place it upon a gridiron over a fierce clear fire,
and serve up "hot and hot" in quick succession. Bachelors may manage to
dress oysters in this way by placing them between the bars of the grate
till done, and adding the butter and pepper as they eat them.
3. _Stewed Oysters._—Open the oysters, and put their liquor in a
stew-pan with a little beaten mace; thicken it with flour and butter;
boil it three or four minutes; put in a spoonful of cream; put in the
oysters, and shake them round in the pan, but do not let them boil.
Serve them in a small deep dish, or if for one person only in a
soup-plate.
4. _Scolloped Oysters._—Open the oysters, put them in a basin, with
their own liquor; put them into a small deep dish, or some of them, if
preferred, into scollop shells; strew over them a few crumbs of bread,
and lay a slice of butter on them; then more oysters, bread crumbs, and
a slice of butter on the top; put them into a Dutch-oven to brown, and
serve them up.
5. _Oyster Soups._—(Each of the following is calculated for one person).
(_a_). _The English Soup._—Take one pound of good lean beef, half a
pound of raw lean ham, much parsley, and carrot roots, and a few onions;
cut all in very small pieces, and burnish it into a dark-brownish colour
with spices, bay-leaves, whole pepper and butter: after having boiled
this with water for five hours, pour it through a hair sieve, and then
put to it a little brown flour, and two ounces of Sherry or Madeira, and
after having boiled again for an hour, take all the fat clean off, and
put into it the oysters with their beards and liquor, and with cayenne
pepper; all this is to be boiled up again, and then served. This soup is
to be recommended, especially in winter when it is very cold. For
invalids, the wine, spices, and pepper are omitted. This soup is
valuable for convalescents, being very strengthening and nourishing.
(_b_). _The American Soup._—Take half a pint of good fresh milk, or
cream if possible; three ounces of good butter; boil this together, beat
it up with the yolks of three eggs, and put into it six or twelve
oysters with their beards and liquor; boil this up again, and in serving
it up put into it a little cayenne pepper and a few drops of lemon
juice. This soup is delicate; but no prejudice! Everybody must try it
first. For invalids, butter, eggs, and pepper are omitted.
(_c_). _The Holstein Soup._—Take good beef-stock, one-eighth of a pound
of Sherry or Madeira, burnt flour, and proceed as with (_a_); and then
beat it up with the yolks of two or three eggs. (The beard and the
liquor must always be made use of, as they impart the strongest flavour
of the oyster.)
6. _Oyster Sauce._—I cannot do better than copy Dr. Kitchener's valuable
recipe for making oyster sauce, which was one of the great luxuries at
the table of that celebrated gastronome:—"Choose plump and juicy natives
for this purpose; do not take them out of their shells till you put them
into the stew-pan. To make good oyster sauce for half a dozen hearty
fish-eaters, you cannot have less than three or four dozen oysters; save
their liquor, strain it, and put it and them into a stew-pan; as soon as
they boil, and the fish plump, take them off the fire, and pour the
contents of the stew-pan into a sieve over a clean basin; wash the
stew-pan out with hot water, and put into it the strained liquor, with
about an equal quantity of milk, and about two and a half ounces of
butter, with which you have well rubbed a large table-spoonful of flour;
give it a boil up, and pour it through a sieve into a basin, that the
sauce may be quite smooth, and then back again into the saucepan; now
shave the oysters, and (if you have the honour of making sauce for "a
Committee of Taste," take away the gristly part also) put in only the
soft part of the oysters; if they are very large, cut them in half, and
set them by the fire to keep hot; 'if they boil after, they will become
hard.' If you have not liquor enough, add a little melted butter, or
cream, or milk beat up with the yolk of an egg (this must not be put in
till the sauce is done). Some barbarous cooks add pepper, or mace, the
juice or peel of a lemon, horse-radish essence of anchovy, cayenne,
etc.; plain sauces are only to taste of the ingredients from which they
derive their name. It will very much heighten the flavour of this sauce
to pound the soft part of half a dozen unboiled oysters; rub it through
a hair sieve, and then stir it into the sauce. This essence of oyster,
and for some palates a few grains of cayenne, is the only addition we
recommend."
Notwithstanding Dr. Kitchener's objection to the introduction of
extraneous substances by "_barbarous cooks_," because _de Gustibus_, as
the adage of "the apple and the onion" has already reminded me, is
always a matter not to be disputed, I shall add Alexis Soyer's
"barbarous" method of preparing oyster sauce, which was introduced by
him at the Reform Club in 1852:—
"Mix three ounces of butter in a stewpan with two ounces of flour, then
blanch and beard three dozen oysters, put the oysters into another
stewpan, add beards and liquor to the flour and butter, with a pint and
a half of milk, a teaspoonful of salt, half a salt-spoonful of cayenne,
two cloves, half a blade of mace, and six peppercorns; place it over the
fire, keep stirring, and boil it ten minutes, then add a tablespoonful
of essence of anchovies, and one of Harvey sauce; pass it through a
hair-sieve over the oysters; make the whole very hot without boiling,
and serve. A less quantity may be made, using less proportions."
He also gives the following:—
"Put a pint of white sauce into a stew-pan, with the liquor and beards
of three dozen oysters (as above), six peppercorns, two cloves, and half
a blade of mace; boil it ten minutes, then add a spoonful of essence of
anchovies, a little cayenne and salt if required; pass it through a
tammy, or hair-sieve, over the oysters, as in the last."
This is somewhat similar to that given in that most useful pennyworth
"The Family Herald Economical Cookery," which is also preferred by many,
and is as follows:—
"Simmer the oysters in their own liquor till they are plump: strain off
the liquor through a sieve, wash the oysters clean, and beard them; put
them into a saucepan, and pour the liquor over them, taking care you do
not pour in any of the sediment; add a blade of mace, a quarter of a
lemon, a spoonful of anchovy liquor, and a bit of horseradish; boil it
up gently, then take out the horseradish, the mace, and the lemon, the
juice of which must be squeezed into the sauce. Now add some thick
melted butter, toss it together, and boil it up."
I am bound to admit that my own opinion coincides with that of Dr.
Kitchener, and would only add that no trouble is too great to render the
sauce perfectly smooth, and that no niggard hand should have the
supplying it for the table.
6. _Large Oysters Broiled._—Take the largest and finest oysters you can
get, such as you find in the West of England and in America; clean the
gridiron as if a fairy had done the work for Cinderella in her sleep;
rub the bars with _fresh_ butter, and set it over a clear fire, quite
free from smoke; then place the oysters upon it, being careful not to
let them burn, and when done on one side, turn them quickly on the other
with a fork. Put some fresh butter in the bottom of a hot dish, and lay
the oysters upon it, sprinkling them slightly with pepper. They must be
served quite hot with fried parsley.
7. _Oyster Pie._—Having buttered the inside of a deep dish, spread a
rich paste over the sides and round the edge, but not at the bottom. The
oysters should be as large and fine as possible, and when opened drain
off part of the liquor from them. Put them into a pan, and season them
with pepper, salt, and spice, and stir them well with the seasoning.
Pour the oysters with their liquor into the dish, and strew over them
the yolks of eggs chopped fine and grated bread. Roll out the lid of the
pie, and put it on, crimping the edges handsomely. Take a small sheet of
paste, cut it into a square, and roll it up. Cut it with a sharp knife
into the form of a double tulip. Make a slit in the centre of the upper
crust, and stick the tulip in it. Cut out some large leaves of paste,
and lay them on the lid, and bake the pie in a quick oven.
Another way of preparing this favourite French dish is this,
communicated to me by a lady of some experience in matters
gastronomical:—
"Having buttered the inside of a deep dish, line it with puff-paste
rolled out rather thick, and prepare another sheet of paste for the lid.
Put a clean towel into the dish (folded so as to support the lid) and
then put on the lid; set it into the oven, and bake the paste well. When
done, remove the lid, and take out the folded towel. While the paste is
baking, prepare the oysters. Having picked off carefully any bits of
shell that may be found about them, lay them in a sieve and drain off
the liquor into a pan. Put the oysters into a skillet or stew-pan, with
barely enough of the liquor to keep them from burning. Season them with
whole pepper, blades of mace, some grated nutmeg, and some grated
lemon-peel, (the yellow rind only,) and a little finely minced celery.
Then add a large portion of fresh butter, divided into bits, and very
slightly dredged with flour. Let the oysters simmer over the fire, but
do not allow them to come to a boil, as that will shrivel them. Next
beat the yolks only, of three, four, or five eggs, (in proportion to the
size of the pie,) and stir the beaten egg into the stew a few minutes
before you take it from the fire. Keep it warm till the paste is baked.
Then carefully remove the lid of the pie; and replace it, after you have
filled the dish with the oysters and gravy.
"The lid of the pie may be ornamented with a wreath of leaves cut out of
paste, and put on before baking. In the centre, place a paste-knot or
flower.
"Oyster pies are generally eaten warm; but they are very good cold."
8. _Oyster Toast._—Cut four slices of bread, pare off the crusts, and
toast them. Butter the toast on both sides. Then select a dozen of fine
fat and plump oysters, and mince them; place them thickly between the
slices of toast, seasoning them with cayenne pepper. Beat the yolks of
four eggs, and mix them with half-a-pint of cream, adding, if thought
necessary, a few blades of mace. Put the whole into a saucepan, and set
it over the fire to simmer till thick; but do not allow it to boil, and
stir it well, lest it should curdle. When it is _near_ boiling heat,
take it off and pour it over the toast.
9. _Oyster Patties._—"Roll out puff-paste a quarter of an inch thick,"
says Dr. Kitchener, "cut it into squares with a knife, sheet eight or
ten patty pans, put upon each a bit of bread the size of half a walnut;
roll out another layer of paste of the same thickness, cut it as above,
wet the edge of the bottom paste, and put on the top, pare them round to
the pan, and notch them about a dozen times with the back of the knife,
rub them lightly with yolk of egg, bake them in a hot oven about a
quarter of an hour: when done, take a thin slice off the top, then, with
a small knife or spoon, take out the bread and the inside paste, leaving
the outside quite entire: then parboil two dozen of large oysters,
strain them from their liquor, wash, beard, and cut them into four, put
them into a stew-pan with an ounce of butter rolled in flour, half a
gill of good cream, a little grated lemon-peel, the oyster liquor free
from sediment, reduced by boiling to one half, some cayenne pepper,
salt, and a tea-spoonful of lemon-juice; stir it over a fire five
minutes, and fill the patties."
10. _Oyster Powder._—Open the oysters carefully, so as not to cut them,
except in dividing the gristle which attaches the shells; put them into
a mortar, and when you have got as many as you can conveniently pound at
once, add about two drachms of salt to a dozen oysters; pound them and
rub them through the back of a hair sieve, and put them into the mortar
again, with as much flour (which has been previously thoroughly dried)
as will make them into a paste; roll the paste out several times, and
lastly, flour it, and roll it out the thickness of a half-crown, and
divide it into pieces about one inch square; lay them in a Dutch oven,
where they will dry so gently as not to get burned; turn them every half
hour, and when they begin to dry, crumble them. They will take about
four hours to dry; then pound them fine, sift them, and put them into
dry bottles and seal them. Three dozens of natives require seven ounces
and a half of flour to make them into a paste weighing eleven ounces, or
when dried and powdered, six and a half ounces. To make half a pint of
sauce, put one ounce of butter into a stew-pan with three drachms of
oyster powder, and six table-spoonfuls of milk; set it on a slow fire,
stir it till it boils, and season it with salt. This makes an excellent
sauce for fish, fowls, or rump steaks. Sprinkled on bread and butter, it
makes a good sandwich. But only use plump juicy natives in the
preparation.
11. _Pickled Oysters_ are mostly used for salads when no fresh oysters
can be got. Take good wine, or Tarragon vinegar, some onions cut in
pieces, some slices of lemon, some spices, whole pepper, bay leaves, and
salt. Boil this together, and whilst boiling put the oysters into it,
and let the whole boil up once more. Put the result into bottles with a
little good oil, and, tied over with bladder, it will keep for a long
time.
However, pickled oysters also appear as a supper dish, when they are
thus prepared:—
Take two dozen oysters; strain the liquor; add three blades of mace, six
peppercorns, a little grated lemon peel, and one or two bay leaves; boil
the liquor, and, when boiling, add the oysters for two minutes. When
cold, strain off the liquor; place the oysters in a small dish, and
garnish with parsley. According to this rate of ingredients the dish may
be made to suit the number of guests likely to partake of it.
12. _Oyster Loaves._—Make an oval hole in the top of some rasped French
rolls, and scrape out all the crumb: then put the oysters into a
stew-pan, with their liquor, and the crumbs that came out of the rolls,
and a good lump of butter; stew them together five or six minutes: then
put in a spoonful of good cream; fill the skeleton rolls with the
compound, and lay the bit of crust carefully on the top again, setting
them in the oven to crisp. Three form a side dish.
13. _Oyster Omelet._—Having strained the liquor from three dozen plump
native oysters, mince them small; omitting the hard part, or gristle. If
you cannot get large oysters, you should have forty or fifty small ones.
Break into a shallow pan six, seven, or eight eggs, according to the
quantity of minced oysters. Omit half the whites, and (having beaten the
eggs till very light, thick, and smooth,) mix the oysters gradually into
them, adding a little cayenne pepper, and some powdered nutmeg. Put
three ounces or more of the best fresh butter into a small frying-pan,
if you have no pan especially for omelets. Place it over a clear fire,
and when the butter (which should be previously cut up) has come to a
boil, put in the omelet-mixture; stir it till it begins to set; and fry
it a light brown, lifting the edge several times by slipping a knife
under it, and taking care not to cook it too much or it will shrivel and
become tough. When done, clap a large hot plate or dish on the top of
the omelet, and turn it quickly and carefully out of the pan. Fold it
over, and serve it up immediately. This quantity will make one large or
two small omelets. The omelet pan should be smaller than a common
frying-pan, and lined with tin. In a large pan the omelet will spread
too much, and become thin like a pancake. Never turn an omelet while
frying, as that will make it heavy and tough. When done, brown it by
holding a red-hot salamander close above the top.
Having given a baker's dozen of the most approved receipts for dressing
oysters, I have only to add that the oyster, as an accessory, enters
into many dishes, particularly into fricassees, is served with
sweetbreads, fowl, and veal, and, as we all know from "Tom and Jerry,"
"gentlemen" eat oysters as sauce to rump steak; which, by the way, I,
for one, regard as the ruin of both oyster and steak. I cannot refrain
from adding the following, both little known in this country, yet both
equally good:—
14. _Cabbage with Oysters and Fried Larks._—When the cabbage has been
cooked with a little Rhenish wine, Chablis, or Champagne, some good
butter is melted, in which the oysters are put with their beards and
liquor, and having been fried a little with the butter, they are put
with the cabbage and cooked again together, and then served up with the
larks.
15.—_Fried Hind Legs of Frogs with Oysters._—The hind legs of frogs are
fried in the usual manner; when they are nearly done, some oysters with
Parmesan cheese and a little pepper are added to them, and when done
they are served up. This dish is undeniable, and is as much relished
abroad as whitebait with us.
In closing this chapter, let me remind all cooks that the success in
preparing the above-mentioned dishes depends on the goodness and
freshness of the oysters used for this purpose. Very erroneous is the
opinion that oysters which are not fresh are yet good enough to be fried
and to be used for sauces. The greatest delicacy is a fresh oyster, but
a stale one is a source of the greatest disgust, and only fit to regale
the ghost of that Royal George who, when living, never relished a raw
oyster unless the shell was self-opened on the dish.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE OYSTER AND THE DOCTOR.
Oyster-eating in Prussia; Disgusting Wagers; Oysters better than Pills;
A Universal Remedy; Professional Opinions; When Ladies should eat them;
Repugnance overcome; Oysters as an external application; Chemical
Analysis; How to tell if dead before opening.
When in Prussia, I once asked a person who did a large retail business
in oysters, what class of persons he found to be his best customers, and
what was the number of oysters daily consumed by each individual?
"The morning scarcely begins to dawn," he replied, "ere ladies and
gentlemen, boys and girls, and servants, both male and female, make
their appearance, not only from my immediate neighbourhood, but also
from the most remote parts of the city, when, on an average, every one
buys from half a dozen up to a dozen, in addition to their purchases for
the several families, and in accordance with their requirements."
And those who do likewise in Great Britain and Ireland will soon find
out the benefit of this nutritive food taken thus early on an empty
stomach. I once heard of an individual who made a bet that he would eat
twelve dozen oysters, washed down by twelve glasses of Champagne, while
the cathedral clock of the city which he inhabited was striking twelve.
He won his bet by placing a dozen fresh oysters in twelve wine glasses,
and having swallowed the oysters, he washed down each dozen with a glass
of Champagne. I should not have mentioned this disgusting feat, but to
add that he felt no evil effects from the oysters, proving incontestably
the digestive and sanitary properties of this mollusk.
There is a similar tale showing equally the effects of oysters on the
human digestion. Four persons met one Saturday night at an hotel, and
made the following bet: each person was to call for whatever he might
fancy, either to eat or to drink, and he who kept longest awake was to
have no share in the liquidation of the bill. This settled, one of the
party made a private arrangement with one of the waiters, promising him
a reward if, in case of his evincing the slightest drowsiness, he would
bring him forthwith twenty-five oysters.
This was accordingly done; but the waiters had to be constantly relieved
until 11 o'clock on the following Monday morning, when, observing his
three companions quietly asleep, our oyster-eating friend called for the
landlord, and declared himself triumphantly the winner, attributing his
good fortune entirely to the oyster.
Wise people eat oysters and eschew pills; take lumps of delight, instead
of lumps of nausea; uphold the Sweetings, Pims, and Lynns, and have
nothing to do with the Holloways, Morisons, and "Old Parrs."
When suffering from almost incurable indigestion, by taking oysters
daily, they very soon find the most agreeable effects on the human
kitchen and laboratory; its functions become regular, without the use of
strong medicines, always dangerous. Depression of spirits and other
disagreeable feelings consequent on impaired digestion soon cease to
affect them; they become cheerful and happy, and are enabled again to
see clearly through the misty atmosphere which has hitherto enclosed
them in a kind of living shroud; physical powers return, headaches
disappear, and the heretofore dyspeptic, sour, unhappy tempered man
becomes a pleasant and joyous companion, full of life himself, and
inspiriting to those around him.
I have lived a good deal abroad, and am induced to ascribe much of the
vivacity of the French to their intense love of oysters. During a long
residence in France, I never met with a Frenchman or Frenchwoman who
said nay to a dish of good fresh oysters; in fact, they have a craving
for the "breedy creatures," which in many persons almost amounts to
gluttony, and then, and then only, does this craving lead to mischief.
Physicians of old recommended the oyster as a general remedy, and
employed it on all occasions with success. It has been proved beyond
dispute that it possesses a remarkable vivifying influence in all cases
where the nervous organs are affected, more than any other food. Oysters
taken before mid-day with a glass of wine produce a most salutary
effect. The nerves and muscles regain their strength, and the body its
mental and physical powers, bringing cheerfulness and energy to compete
with the duties of the day. If not a cure, at all events, an oyster
diet, under medical supervision, brings unquestionable relief to those
who are suffering from pulmonary complaints, indigestion, or nervous
affections.
Dr. Leroy was in the habit of swallowing, every morning before
breakfast, two dozen oysters, and used always to say to his friends,
presenting them with the shells: "There, behold the fountain of my
youthful strength!"
Percy relates having seen a large number of wounded persons, exhausted
by the loss of blood and bad treatment, who were entirely kept up by
eating oysters; and Dr. Lenac considered them the most nourishing food
in existence.
Oysters are strongly recommended to all persons suffering from weak
digestion; and Dr. Pasquier adds, that "they may be given with great
advantage to persons of intemperate habits, who, by inefficacious
medical treatment have fallen into debility and lowness of spirits." He
also recommends oysters to all who are suffering from the gout. I myself
knew a person last winter, who was suffering from influenza, which, from
his being an aged man, threatened the most serious consequences, who was
entirely cured by eating oysters.
Oysters increase the blood without heating the system, and hence when a
wound has caused much loss of blood, the eating of oysters not only
prevents fever, but replaces the loss which no other remedy can effect.
The great Boerhaave affirms to have known a tall, strong man, who had
fallen into a decline, and who, after all other remedies had proved
useless, by the use of oysters rapidly recovered, became strong, and
died ninety-three years old.
But to ladies, particularly, do I recommend oysters as the best of all
light meals between breakfast and dinner. At the period of a lady's
married life, when nausea is prevalent, a few fresh oysters, taken raw
in their own liquor, with no addition but a little pepper, and a fairy
slice of French roll or other light bread, stops the feeling of
sickness, and keeps up the stamina unimpaired. During the time, too,
when a young child most requires maternal care and attention, the
mother's diet of oysters will impart strength to the infant, and tend
much to alleviate the pains of its first teething.
I am well aware that some persons have a repugnance to the eating of
oysters, and that it may be difficult to overcome the dislike. However,
as a proof that oysters in general are nice to the taste, let me mention
that children under two years of age eat them with great appetite; and
it is only after having discontinued eating any for some time that they
take a dislike to them.
I have often had the opportunity of overcoming this dislike, and the
result was always satisfactory. The method is very simple. Take a French
roll (or a piece of milk-bread) thinly buttered, and put on it the
oyster deprived of its beard, squeezing a few drops of lemon and
peppering it. "Well, after all, the taste of the oyster is really fine!"
is the usual exclamation, and after that the person has eaten them in
their natural state with gusto.
When eaten for health, an oyster is best swallowed in its own liquor the
moment the shell is opened; or if too cold for the stomach, a sprinkling
of pepper will remedy the evil. Vinegar counteracts the effect of the
oyster enriching the blood; so when the oyster is eaten medicinally it
must be excluded. Dr. Evans, in No. 834 of the "Family Herald" says,
that when too many oysters or other shell-fish has been taken, the
unpleasant sensation excited by such excess may be removed by drinking
half a pint of hot milk. Persons of delicate constitutions will do well
always to take hot milk after oysters.
But the oyster was also formerly used externally as a remedy no less
than taken internally for its medicinal properties. Its very abundance
is a clear proof of the bounty and goodness of Providence, furnishing
us, at one and the same time, with such delicious food, and so universal
a remedy for the ills which man is heir to. Ambrois Paré, physician to
Charles IX., and the only Protestant whom the king sought to save from
the terrible massacre of St. Bartholomew, by shutting him up in his own
closet, recommends oysters smashed in their shells as an excellent
poultice. "This animal, so used," says he, "diminishes pain, and removes
all heat and inflammation in a remarkable manner." As the opinion of
one, of whom the king himself declared that "a man so useful to all the
world ought not to perish like a dog," it may be admitted to a place in
my little book, more particularly as it is borne out by Paul Egona, who
also recommends oysters being smashed and saturated with their own
liquor as the very best of all poultices for sores or boils.
Let me, as a close to this chapter, add a few words on the chemical
analysis of the oyster. The animal itself contains a great proportion of
phosphate of iron and lime, a considerable quantity of osmozone, and a
certain amount of gluten and isinglass, being of a peculiar nature,
which phosphorus penetrates like an element. It also contains a great
quantity of particles of salt, the same as that of the sea-water in
which it lives.
The oyster-liquor, or, as I have said, more properly speaking, its
life's blood, contains a great amount of hydroidum, kali, sulphur of
lime, sulphur of magnesia, some organic matter, osmazone, and a very
little salt. The shell is composed of a very intimate mixture of salt,
carbonic lime, and animal mucus. It exhibits, also, phosphate of lime
and magnesia in small quantities, as also sulphuretted hydrogen.
At the moment in which natural death ensues, all animal matter begins to
show its chemical affinities by separating again into the elements of
which it consists; and as at such times it is always more or less of a
poisonous nature, it is well to study the method by which it may be
known whether an oyster was living or dead when its shell is opened.
This can be seen at a glance. If the muscle appears sunk, it is a proof
that the animal was living; but if it appears higher and above the
oyster, it was dead before it was opened, and the animal is,
consequently, unwholesome and unfit for food.
CHAPTER IX.
THE OYSTER ABROAD.
British Oysters in Ostend Quarters; the Whitstable in a Slow Coach;
Holstein, Schleswig, and Heligoland Natives; Norwegian and Bremer
Oysters; American Oysters; French Oysters; Dutch Oysters; Mediterranean
Oysters, and Classical Judges.
I am not writing a book for the man of science. I could not if I would.
It is for those who love oysters for the eating that I have turned
author; and all the facts which are strung together in the last chapters
were put there for their delectation, and not for the sake of raising
the smile which I saw just now pass over the face of my friend Sawbones
when I mentioned oyster-poultices. Just because I am not scientific, but
only practical, I shall not trouble myself to notice any of the many
species of oysters, both at home and abroad, which, though pretty in
themselves, never find their way to the table, which is the sole field
of my discoveries.
I shall therefore begin my list of foreign oysters with the best of them
all, the next of kin to our Native, and next to it the best oyster in
the world.
1. _The Ostend Oyster_ is nothing more than the real British oyster,
cleaned and fattened in the Ostend oyster-beds. It has a fine, thin,
transparent but deep shell, the upper shell being quite flat; it is very
full, white, and fat, has a very small beard, and is very digestible.
During a south-west wind, which brings to these beds the microscopic
spores of sea vegetation and animalcules upon which it delights to feed,
from the channel, its beard is of a green colour. The Ostend oyster is
much prized in Berlin, which it reaches the quickest of any from the
sea, (in thirty-six to forty hours,) and consequently lives there
several days, remains the longest fresh, and can be sent farthest. Last
winter Ostend oysters were sent to Moscow and Odessa, where they arrived
still good and tasty. The former were seventeen days, and the latter
eleven days on their way. Scarcely any other kind of oysters could be
sent to such a distance. In the autumn of 1847, after the opening of the
Cologne-Minden Railway, the first trial was made of sending these
oysters to Berlin, via Cologne. The result was most satisfactory; they
sold for 1-1/2 thalers the hundred. This caused no little sensation,
especially among the old oyster dealers, who were accustomed to receive
from five to six, even from eight to nine thalers per hundred. The good
folks of Berlin are now supplied with abundant fresh and fine oysters.
The Ostend natives may be obtained from the owner of the oyster beds in
Ostend. I speak of Berlin, as the Germans are great oyster-eaters, and
the North, in a great measure, is supplied from thence.
In Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, Bruges, and Lille, Ostend oysters are eaten
with slices of home-baked bread, and butter. They are served up in their
shells, open, and not broken apart. They have a tender, fragrant, and
melting flesh, and are only half the size of ordinary oysters; but they
gain in thickness what they lose in size. In Flanders and the
Netherlands they are known under the name of "English oysters," but are
called in Paris after the name of the beds where they are reared. They
are in reality Edinburgh "Natives," cleaned and fattened in the Ostend
oyster-beds, and hence called Belgian or Ostend oysters.
The oyster of Ostend cannot be too much recommended to gourmets. It is
to the common oyster what a chicken is to an old hen. It is a draught of
bitter ale to a thirsty palate. It is a known fact, that after having
abstained from food for a long time, the first oyster one eats produces
a kind of unusual rictus (or opening of the mouth), the reason of which
physiologists have never been able to explain. This same sensation is
produced in eating an Ostend oyster, but it is much sweeter, more
lasting, and much more delightful. If the Romans had ever known them
they would have sung their praises both in verse and prose, and would by
far have preferred them to their sadly over-praised oysters from the
Lucrine Sea.
The only oysters which can be brought into competition with those of
Ostend in the same markets are the Whitstable oysters, which have only
recently become an article of trade on the Continent. These are also
"natives" from the Channel, generally larger than the former, but
unequal, not being sorted, very fat and full, but much more tender, and
do not keep fresh so long. The cause of this may be that they are first
taken from Whitstable to London, where they are packed up and sent by
sea and rail to Hamburgh and Berlin, which takes always from six to
seven days. They have a fine flavour, and are by some people preferred
to the Ostend oysters: although the latter, generally speaking, occupy
the first rank. These two species, and that of Holstein, are the best
oysters to be met with in the north of Europe.
2. _Channel Oysters._—The oysters which, more particularly in the north
of Germany, are an article of trade, come from the Bay of St. Brieux and
the Rock of Cancale, on the British Channel, between the castle of that
name, Mount St. Michael, and St. Malo, and from the Channel between
Calais and its extreme point near Falmouth. The bottom of this sea is
flat and firm, and its stream near the bottom not very strong, both
favourable circumstances for the propagation of oysters. This
propagation must be very considerable, and the banks where the oysters
breed very extensive, since, in spite of the continual dredging, they
produce a sufficient quantity without any apparent decrease, to guard
against which, the new beds of St. Brieux, mentioned in the first
chapter, are carefully supplied. The dredging lasts generally from the
middle of September till the end of May; during the other months the
fishing should properly be discontinued, because the spawning, which
then takes place, would be disturbed, and because during that time the
oyster is generally not fit for food.
3. _Holstein Oysters_ are very good and fine, but the sea-banks do not
afford enough for the present consumption, so that it is necessary to
have good connexions in order to obtain real and good Holstein oysters.
They are easily distinguished from all the other oysters by their size,
the thin, greenish-blue shells, especially the lower shell. The upper
shell is always concave, by which they are the more easily distinguished
from the Heligolanders, which have always a strong convex upper shell.
As to the little animal itself, it is very fat, white, thick, and
tender, and therefore very digestible. It has only a small beard, by
which it is distinguished from the Norwegian and Scottish oyster, which,
by the appearance of the shell, might be mistaken for the Holstein
oyster by novices in gastronomy. These delicate favourites are to be
obtained from the lessees of the Royal Oyster-banks on the western coast
of Holstein in Flensburg, in the kingdom of Denmark.
4. _The Schleswick Oyster of Husum and Silt_ is very like the
former—almost undistinguishable. It is very excellent, but seldom
exported, and consumed for the most part in Kiel. The two last-named
oysters are often taken to St. Petersburg by sailors, when making the
passage to and fro.
5. _The Heligolanders_ are very large; have thick shells, which renders
the duty and carriage very high, but are not at all fine, and generally
sold in all the innocence of ignorance by dealers as Holstein oysters.
Have nothing to do with _Norwegian oysters_; I only mention them here as
things to be shunned. _Bremer oysters_, the _Neuwerkers_, and the
_Wangerogers_, however, deserve a better fate.
6. _The Oyster of the Bay of Biscay_ is of the same size as that of
Holstein, with a very large beard, like those caught in the south of
England. The beard, like the oyster itself, is quite grass green—a
quality which is to be found generally only with oysters from Dieppe,
Cancale, and the Marennes. Its flavour is very fine and good, but great
care must be taken, in opening the shell and detaching the oyster, not
to break the double shell, which they mostly possess, for this contains
sulphuretted hydrogen, which gives a bad smell and flavour to the
oyster, and poisons the stomach of the consumer.
7. _American Oysters_, though, to my taste, by no means so delicate as
others I have mentioned, are nevertheless superior for cooking. For my
own part, although I have stated that pepper, vinegar, lemon juice, and
other stimulating ingredients, are commonly made use of when eating the
oyster, I offer, in all courtesy, the decided opinion, that the taste
must be vitiated that can swallow such in preference to the delicate,
fresh, luscious, charming little morsel, saturated merely, or perhaps
the word ought to be merely bedewed, like the rose on a summer morning,
by its own liquid life's blood. Americans, themselves, generally prefer
their large oysters even to our British Natives.
8. _French Oysters._—The French oysters are chiefly taken from beds in
the Bays of Cancale and St. Brieux, from Marennes, from Havre and
Dieppe, from Dunkirk, and from the Bay of Biscay. The three first are
very fine, but the distance to Paris is too great; they are therefore
dear in that capital. Those from Dunkirk are similar to those of Ostend,
but not quite so fine; and those from the Bay of Biscay are quite green,
and highly esteemed in the south of France, especially at Bordeaux.
9. _Dutch Oysters_ are both good and dear. The four sorts I recommend
are Seelanders, Vliessingers, Middleburgers, and Vieringers. The latter
are almost the finest and best, but uncommonly dear, and are mostly
consumed in Holland.
10. _Mediterranean Oysters._—I have already referred to classical
authorities for the character the ancients gave those of Circe and the
Lucrine Sea; and the old rule, "_de mortius nil_," forbids me to say in
what rank I place Horace the inimitable, Seneca the wise, and Pliny the
naturalist, as judges of what an oyster should be. Where ignorance is
bliss, people can be very happy. Till the Turk, by an accidental fire,
had become acquainted with the taste of roast pork, there were many less
fires in Stamboul than now. Till the Romans found the Rutupians, the
Lucrine flourished; so did Circe.
CHAPTER X.
"THE TREASURE OF AN OYSTER."
Sweet names given to Pearls; Barry Cornwall Proctor's lines; Component
parts of Pearls; Mother-of-pearl; How Pearls are formed, Sorrows into
Gems; Their nucleus; Sir Everard Home and Sir David Brewster; Curious
shapes and fancy Jewellery; Pearl Fisheries: Bahrein Island and Bay of
Candalchy; Miseries of the Divers; Pearls as Physic; Immense value of
recorded Pearls.
Of all beautiful things in the world the pearl is the rarest and most
beautiful. Nothing can exceed it, nothing can equal it, although they
try very hard in "French" and "Roman" ways, in glassy globules which
continually crack, or in round spots of wax, which, instead of adorning,
adhere to the neck of beauty, and when old age comes upon it, turn
yellow and wrinkled like the skin of a dowager. Nay, nothing can well
imitate it, although art has gone somewhat near it. But to a knowing eye
one might as well seek to imitate truth, or palm away upon the unwary a
copy of true virgin innocence as to imitate a pearl. We know all the
answers that the dowagers can make; we know that the imitations are "so
cheap," so pretty; we know that certain dowagers—witness Margaret,
Duchess Dowager of Lancaster—sell their real pearls and wear cunning
imitations; we know that they in vain try to persuade themselves that
the false are as good as the true ones; but only look hard at the
ornaments, and the duchess is abashed. To test false pearls, one has
only to put a true one by them, and the "difference," as advertisers
say, "will be at once perceived."
Let us devote this last portion of our book to the history of the pearl.
Its very names are pretty. _Looloo_, _Mootoo_, _Mootie_, _Margaritæ_,
_Perles_, _Perlii_, _Perlas_, _Pearls_, all sweet, pretty,
mouth-rounding names, but worthy to be applied to the lustrous and
beautiful spheres which we call pearls. _Principium culmenque omnium,
rerum pretii tenent_: "Of all things, pearls," said Pliny, two thousand
years ago, "kept the very top, highest, best, and first price." What was
true then is true now. There are few things so immortal as good taste.
Let us pay something "on account" of our debt to the oyster. Having
regarded that placid creditor as an article of food, I now propose to
treat him as an assistant to the toilet. And, looking at him in that
point of view, here is not a bad instalment of the aforesaid debt,
contributed by Barry Cornwall.
"Within the midnight of her hair,
Half-hidden in its deepest deeps,
A single peerless, priceless pearl
(All filmy-eyed) for ever sleeps.
Without the diamond's sparkling eyes,
The ruby's blushes—there it lies,
Modest as the tender dawn,
When her purple veil's withdrawn—
The flower of gems, a lily cold and pale.
Yet, what doth all avail?—
All its beauty, all its grace?
All the honours of its place?
He who pluck'd it from its bed,
In the far blue Indian Ocean,
Lieth, without life or motion,
In his earthy dwelling—dead!
All his children, one by one,
When they look up to the sun,
Curse the toil by which he drew
The treasure from its bed of blue."
Costly as pearls are, they are merely the calcareous production of
Mollusks. Diamonds have elsewhere been shown to be merely charcoal; the
pearl is little else but concentric layers of membrane and carbonate of
lime. All Mollusks are instances of that beneficent law of nature, that
the hard parts accommodate themselves to the soft. The common naked
snail, the mussel, cockle, oyster, garden helix, strombus, and nautilus,
elegant or rough, rare or common, each illustrate this grand law. The
body of a soft consistence is enclosed in an elastic skin. From this
skin calcareous matter is continually exuded. This protects the animal,
and forms the shell. Where the waves are rough, and rocks superabundant,
then the shell is rough, hard, stony, fit to weather anything; where
only smooth water and halcyon days are to be looked for, Nature, which
never works in vain, provides but paper sides and an egg-shell boat,
such as the little nautilus navigates and tacks and steers in.
Besides forming the rough outside, the calcareous exuvium, the mucus of
the oyster, and other mollusks, form that beautiful substance, so smooth
and polished, and dyed with rainbow tints and a glorious opalescence,
which, be it as common as luxury has made it, still charms the eye. This
is the lining of the shell, the mother-of-pearl, nacre. "The inside of
the shell," said old Dampier—that old sailor with a poet's mind—"is more
glorious even than the pearl itself."
It is glorious; it has the look of the morning, and the tint of the
evening sky; the colours of the prism chastened, softened, retained, and
made perpetual in it: this is mother-o'-pearl.
To render its bed always soft and cosy, to lie warm, packed as one might
at Malvern in wet sheets, seems to be the oyster's pleasure. This
singular exuvium, this mucus, not only creates pleasure, but alleviates
pain. Some irritating substance, some internal worry and annoyance, it
may be a dead embryo, or a grain of sand insinuates itself, and, lo! the
creature covers it with this substance to ease off its unkind tooth, and
converts it into a pearl.
That is the way they are made, these wondrous gems! And very beautiful
is the thought that the most highly prized of gems should be but the
effect of a creature to ease off a sorrow. Every one knows Shakspeare's
wondrously fine reflection upon the uses of sorrow and adversity, which,
"Like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Bears yet a precious jewel in its head."
The precious jewel of the toad, which some critics and commentators have
endeavoured to prove its glittering eye, has long been exploded. Our old
alchemists believed in the toadstone; we do not. The fable remains in
its pristine beauty; but here is one truth equally beautiful, that the
adversity of the oyster turns to a jewel so costly and glorious, that
monarchs reckon it amongst the records of their houses and conquered
provinces. May we ever turn our sorrows and troubles to as good an
account; may we ever continue to do so, for assuredly some men do. The
best of men are those who are tried by affliction and trouble, or those
who have some deep and secret care, which they hide in their hearts, and
which makes them wiser and better. Shelley has a theory that poets are
made somewhat after the fashion of pearls, or that, at any rate, their
poetry is so produced. He sings—
"Most wretched men
Are cradled into poetry by wrong;
They learn in suffering, what they teach in song."
We have very little doubt but that the true poetry from which the world
learns anything worth learning is so produced.
There have been other theories as to the production of the pearl, some
holding that the interior formation which we state to be a grain of
sand, is a dead ovum which the fish attempts to exude. This theory, too,
has its supporters.
"If," said Sir Everard Home, "if I can prove that this, the richest
jewel in a monarch's crown, which cannot be imitated by any art of man"
(he is rather wrong there; it can be imitated, and wonderfully imitated
too,) "either in beauty of form or brilliancy of lustre, is the abortive
egg of an oyster enveloped in its own nacre, who will not be struck with
wonder and astonishment?" Wonder and astonishment are words which
scarcely exist now. Science has shown so many wonders that we are hardly
astonished at anything; but Sir Everard's assertion admits of proof. A
pearl cut in two exhibits the concentric layers like an onion, as may be
seen through a strong lens; and in the centre is a round hole, very
minute it may be, but wherein the ovum has been deposited.
Sometimes the ovum, or sand, or enclosed substance has attached itself
to the shell, and has then been covered with mucus, forming a pearl
which cannot be separated from the shell. There are several specimens of
such pearls in the British Museum.
The great beauty in pearls is their opalescence, and a lustre which, as
we have before observed, however clever the imitation, has never yet
been given to artificial pearls. Sir Everard Home supposes that this
lustre arises from the highly polished coat of the centre shell, the
pearl itself being diaphanous. Sir David Brewster accounts for it by the
pearl and mother-of-pearl having a grooved substance on its surface
resembling the minute corrugations often seen on substances covered with
oil, paint, or varnish. Philosophers are sometimes not very explanatory.
Sir David means to say that beneath the immediate polish of the pearl
there are certain wavelets and dimples from which the light is
reflected. "The direction of the grooves," again to quote Sir David, "is
in every case at right angles to the line joining the coloured image;
hence, in irregularly formed mother-of-pearl, where the grooves are
often circular, and have every possible direction, the coloured images
appear irregularly scattered round the ordinary image."
In the regular pearl these are crowded, from its spherical form, into a
small space; hence its marvellous appearance of white unformed light,
and hence its beauty and value.
To prove the translucency of the pearl, we have only to hold one which
is split to a candle, where, by interposing coloured substance or light,
we shall have the colour transmitted through the pearl. Curious as is
the formation of the pearl, we have yet a cognate substance to it. What
we call _bezoar_, and the Hindoos _faduj_, is a concretion of a deepish
olive-green colour found in the stomach of goats, dogs, cows, or other
animals: the hog bezoar, the bovine bezoar, and the camel bezoar; this
last the Hindoos turn into a yellow paint; but the harder substances the
Hindoo jewellers polish and thread and use as jewels; so that from the
stomach of the lower animals, and from the secretions of a shell-fish,
the still grasping, prying, worrying, proud, vain-glorious, busy man
gets him an ornament for her whom he most loves, for him whom he most
honours.
The question of obtaining pearls and of slaying divers, of feeding
sharks with human limbs, of the eye-balls starting and the tympanum of
the ear bursting, of the pains, perils, and penalties of the pearl
divers, must be touched incidentally in any true account of this
precious gem.
Vanity demands the aid of Cruelty, and for her gratification human
sacrifices are still made.
In the Persian Gulf, at Ceylon, and in the Red Sea, the early sources of
the Greeks and Romans, we yet find our supply. Pearls are also found in
the Indian Ocean along the Coromandel coast and elsewhere; as also in
the Gulf of California; but the two grand headquarters are in Bahrein
Island, in the Persian Gulf, and in the Bay of Condalchy, in the Gulf of
Manaar, off the Island of Ceylon.
The fishery at Ceylon is a monopoly of the British Government, but, like
many Government monopolies, it is said to cost a great deal more than it
produces. In 1804 Government leased it for £120,000 per annum; in 1828
it only yielded £28,000.[5] It is a desert and barren spot; no one can
fall in love with it; sands and coral reefs are not picturesque; yet, in
its season, it attracts more to its shores than one of our best
watering-places. Divers, merchants, Arab-hawkers, drillers, jewellers,
and talkers; fish-sellers, butchers, boat-caulkers, and Hindoo Robinsons
and Walkers are all found there. The period is limited to six weeks, or
two months at most, from February to April; and whilst they are making
money these people are rather eager, look you. But the fishers
themselves, victims of cruelty as they are, are also victims to their
own superstition and ignorance. A Hindoo or Parsee blesses the water to
drive away the sharks; a diver may be frightened or ill, and the
holidays are so numerous, that the actual work-days amount only to
thirty in the season.
The boats assembled sail at ten at night, a signal gun being then let
off. They then set sail, reach the banks before daybreak, and at sunrise
the divers begin to take their "headers." They continue at this work
till noon, when a breeze starting up, they return. The cargoes are taken
out before the night sets in, and the divers are refreshed.
Each boat carries twenty men—ten rowers and ten divers—besides a chief,
or pilot. The divers work five at a time alternately, leaving the others
time to recruit. To go down quickly they use a large stone of red
granite, which they catch hold of with their foot. Each diver holds a
net-work bag in his right hand, closes his nostrils with his left, or
with a piece of bent horn, and descends to the bottom. There he darts
about him as quickly as he can, picking up with toes and fingers, and
putting the oysters into his net-work bag. When this is full, or he is
exhausted, he pulls the rope, and is drawn, leaving the stone to be
pulled up after him. When the oysters are very plentiful, the diver may
bring up one hundred and fifty at a dip.
After this violent exertion, blood flows from nose, ears, and eyes. The
divers cannot exceed generally one minute's immersion. One and a half,
and even two, have been reached by extraordinary efforts. Those who can
endure four and five minutes are spoken of. One also we are told of—an
apocryphal fellow, we should think—who coming in 1797 from Arjango,
stayed under water six minutes.
The divers live not to a great age. Heart diseases, surfeits, sores,
blood-shot eyes, staggering limbs, and bent backs—these are part of
their wages. Sometimes they die on reaching the surface, suddenly, as if
struck by a shot.
At Bahrein, the annual amount produced by the pearl fishery may be
reckoned at from £200,000 to £240,000; add to this purchases made by the
merchants of Abootabee, and we have £360,000 to include the whole pearl
trade of the Gulf, since, through their agents at Bahrein, merchants
from Constantinople, Bagdad, Alexandria, Timbuctoo, New York, Calcutta,
Paris, St. Petersburg, Holy Moscowa, or London, make their purchases.
"But," says our credible informant, "I have not put down the sum at
_one-sixth_ of that told me by the native merchants." But even then an
enormous amount is that, to be used in mere ornament, and in one article
only.
Well, not exactly ornament. "In Eastern lands," says Mr. Thomas Moore,
"they talk in flowers." Very flowery certainly is their talk. They also,
good easy people, take pearls for physic—not for dentifrice—Easterns
always having white teeth, apparently, so far as I have been able to
judge, without the trouble of cleaning them—but as a regular dose. They
call it _majoon_; it is an electuary, and myriads of small seed pearls
are ground to impalpable powder to make it. As for the adulteration in
this article, doubtless to be found, I say nothing. The simple lime from
the inside of the shell would be just as white and just as good. Common
magnesia would have the same effect; but, good sirs, if an old Emir, or
rich Bonze, wishes to pay an enormous price for something to swallow to
comfort his good old inside, why not? Do not let us brag too much: from
the time of old Gower, doctor of physic, to Dr. Cheyne, we have, sir,
swallowed everything, from toads' brains to the filings of a murderer's
irons, as very proper physic.
The Bahrein fishery-boats amount to 1500, and the trade is in the hands
of merchants who possess much capital. This they lend out at cent. per
cent.; they buy up, and they beat down; they juggle, cheat, rig the
market, rob in a legal way a whole boat's crew, grow enormously rich,
and preach morality.
Nor do they forget superstition. In the chief boat, when they fish, sits
a jolly old cheat, a magician, called the binder of sharks, who waves
about his skinny hands, jumps, howls, incants, and otherwise exerts his
cabalistic powers, and will not allow the divers, nor are they willing,
to descend till he declares the moment propitious. To add some weight to
their devotions, they debar themselves of food or drink during this
_Mumbo-Jumbo_ play, but afterwards a species of toddy makes them like
"Roger the Monk,"—"excessively drunk."
The true shape of the pearl should be a perfect sphere. In India, and
elsewhere, those of the largest size find the readiest sale, and realize
immense prices. The very finest pearls are sent to Europe, and of these
the very finest of the fine are sent to London and Paris. Thence the
great people of the land procure their choice specimens. The late
Emperor of Russia used to purchase for his wife—of whom he was
exceedingly fond, and who has lately joined him in that bourne from
which neither traveller, emperor, king, nor beggar ever returns—the very
finest pearl he could procure: a virgin pearl and a perfect sphere was
what he sought, for he would not have any that had been worn by others.
After five-and-twenty years' search, he presented to the Empress such a
necklace as had never been seen before.
Immense prices have been given and are still given for pearls. Julius
Cæsar, in love with the mother of Marcus Brutus, is said to have
presented her with a pearl worth £48,417 10_s._, which we can believe or
not, according to our natures. Cleopatra, as all the world has read,
drank, dissolved in vinegar, a pearl which cost £80,729 of our money,
and, as we know from Shakspeare, Marc Antony sent to her "a treasure of
an oyster" of wondrous beauty. Clodius, the glutton (surely a gourmet,
not a gourmand), swallowed one worth £8072 18_s._ One of the modern
pearls was bought by Tavernier at Catifa, and sold by him to the Shah of
Persia for £110,000; another was obtained by Philip II. of Spain, off
the Columbian coast, which weighed 250 carats, and was valued at 14,400
ducats, which is equal to about £13,996.
Pliny, the naturalist, tells us of a pearl which was valued at £80,000
sterling. That which Philip II. had was nearly as large as a pigeon's
egg. Pliny's was somewhat smaller. But size is not alone the test of
value. Shape and form must be taken into consideration. Some pearls are
very curiously misshapen, and of so large a size that it would seem a
wonder how the fish could exist with them in the shell. These misshapen
pearls are generally of an uneven surface and lustre, and are prized by
the Eastern jewellers very much, and were also sought after by the
fanciful goldsmiths and enamellers of the _cinque-cento_ period, when
they were set into sword-hilts, or formed into toys or gems, just as the
fancy and shape might suggest. We have seen one large long pearl mounted
by a Spanish jeweller into the order of the golden fleece, the legs and
head of the sheep being of gold, the body formed by the pearl. Amongst
the loot taken at Lucknow was a set of miniature animals and birds, all
formed of large but misshapen pearls, the tails, heads, eyes, &c., of
the creatures being of gold set with diamonds. Any one who has seen much
mediæval work in the precious metals, or the illuminated pages of early
printed books on vellum, of Italian execution, will be able to recall
many curious instances of this quaint kind of _vertu_.
The largest pearl of which we have heard was one spoken of by Böethius,
the size of a muscadine pear. It was named the _Incomparable_, and
weighed thirty carats or five pennyweights. Tavernier's pearl would, if
engraved, well illustrate the rocky, eccentric, and oft-times triangular
shapes in which these gems are found. They often adhere to the shell,
and cannot be removed without the saw. After such an operation they
would merely rank as half pearls, which, by the way, are those generally
mounted in jewellery and rings.
Did our scope allow of a description of the manufacture from fish scales
of the substitute for the real pearl, the marvellously clever imitation
which is worn, wittingly, by many a gracious lady, and unwittingly by
many another, we should have another interesting story to tell. But
these imitations may be considered as frauds upon our placid creditor
the oyster—or, shall we say, compositions with him, and beneath the
notice of, debtors who are trying to behave honestly to a bivalve.
Properly speaking, however, the Pearl oyster (_Avicula margaritacea_),
from which the greater number of pearls, and the largest quantity of
mother-of-pearl is obtained, is not an oyster strictly so called, but
belongs to an allied genus. The pearl oyster is an oval-pointed
recurved-edged mussel; the lower shell with a hood-shaped hollow point,
the upper one like a cover, leafy and pearly, of a rosy purple-white
colour. The common oyster (_Ostrea edulis_), on the contrary, has a
round-oval mussel-shell, thin towards the edges, with tiled leaves
adhering to one another, the upper shell quite flat. Some variety exists
in these, some having elongated edges, owing to the difference of age.
* * * * *
Gentle reader! when Queen Mary, whom men call "Bloody Mary," died, and
Queen Elizabeth, Protestant Elizabeth, came to the throne, Osorius, the
good Bishop of Arcoburge, a staunch bishop of the Church of Rome, sent
her a sugared pill, which he hoped would at once convert the queen, and
drive out the "obnoxious heresy" from the land. That all might read it,
he himself wrote it in Latin: "_Epistola ad Clarissimam Principam
Elizabetham_;" had it translated into French, which honest old Strype
says "gave great offence," as "_une bien longue_ _et docte Epistre à
Madame Elizabeth, Royne d' Angleterre_;" and to gild the nasty thing,
called it, in English, "A Perle for a Prince;" but all the ingenuity of
quackery could not disguise the drastic pill, and neither the queen nor
her lieges would swallow it. I have seen all three books in the
Grenville Library in the British Museum, and at once pronounce them
nothing but "mock" pearls. Now, I have extracted for your delectation a
real pearl out of the Oyster, in the shape of this little book. It is
Christmas-tide. Cherish it for those best of pearls, kindly thoughts and
loving remembrances, which the Oyster calls into being when the Holly
and the Mistletoe deck our walls.
-----
Footnote 5:
The pearl fishery at Ceylon, however, has been very profitable during
the present year, the yield being sometimes worth from 10,000 dollars
to 30,000 dollars per day. An attempt is being made to re-establish
the pearl fishery in the Gulf of California. Some very fine pearls
were found there nearly a century ago.
LONDON: WILLIAM STEVENS, PRINTER, BELL YARD, TEMPLE BAR.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOOTNOTES:
Transcriber's Note
The original spelling and punctuation has been retained.
Variations in hyphenation and compound words have been preserved.
Italicized words and phrases in the text version are presented by
surrounding the text with underscores.
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