WOMAN'S WORLD

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 76, 24 December 1918, Page 3

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Continued from page 2.) FAMOUS PLUM PUDDINGS AND THEIR ADVENTURES. "The eccentric 'Romeo' Coates, n celebrity during- the Regency period, on one 'occasion wagered that lie would drive a specially-constructed conveyance, .bearing a gigantic plum pudding, from Piccadilly to Mile End, says an exchange. At first, save for frequent stoppages and the good natured banter of the crowd that lined the route, all went well, but no sooner were tlie fashionable quarters of the town passed than the pudding, which was fully oxposed to view, excited the uncontrollable appetite of the populace, who, closing in upon the vehicle, brought it to a standstill. The situation was serious, and inntters might have gone badly with Coates had not a company of soldiers opportunely appeared. They forced their way through the crush aiid extricated /the luckless Jehu, from whom, as reward, they exacted the tasly freight, which they bore off in triumph to their quarters.

For fourteen days, in the year 1718, was a plum pudding, weighing' upwards of 10001b., boiling in a copper at the Red Lion Inn, at Southwark. Made to the, order of the landlord, James Austin, tjiis mammoth dainty was, when it had been judged sumNjutly' cooked, conveyed to the Swan Tavern, on Fish Street lill, on a vehicle drawn by six donkeys 7 and under the escort of a band playing upon gargantuan instruments—the drum alone is recorded to 'have been ISft. in length and Ift. in diameter—a tune well known at the time, and entitled "Whnt Lumps of Pudding My Mother Gave Me!" From the Swan Tavern the strange procession made its way by slow stages in the direction of St. George's Fields,, -where it was the intention of Host Austin to divide the gigantic pudding among his many friends and customers. It was never, however, fated to reach its destination, for tho crowd, which the apnetising si-rht and odour had—as could only have boen expected-demoralised, broke through all restraint and made a precipitate and determined rush for the huge confection. A sharp conflict ensued, but the marauders, after sustaining more than one repulse, finally routed the escort, and possessed them'selves of the pudding, to which they did immediate and ample justice. Twelve years previously this same Austin had wagered .£IOO that he would bake a plum pudding beneath the surface of the Thames. He won his bet at Rotherhithe, where, having enclosed the pudding in a tin easing, ]io placed it in a sack of lime, and sank the whole in thp river to a denth of 10ft. After some three hours immersion the pudding was taken up and proved excellent eating.

To celebrate the jubilee of George 111 the landlord of, the Cock, in Tothill Street, mide a plum pudding weighing SOOlh. —101b. for every year of the King's reiign-and put up as a prize to be eaten £«r by teams representative of the various callings in Westminster, each team to be comnnsed of six members. Trine was the fond provided for the competitors on which to display their process with a knife and fork, and victory ultimately rested with a team of watenyen, who, on their being {presented bv ia spectator with six guineas, generously relinquished their nrize, which, after having been placed on exhibition for some dsys, was cut up and distributed among the poor of the neighbonrhocd.