GIGANTIC DINNERS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 242, 18 February 1911, Page 9

GIGANTIC DINNERS.

Recently eighteen hundred persons participated in a "farmhouse tea' at the Regent Hall, London, on the occasion of the ninth annual Devon and Cornwall festival in London. The provisions, which had been sent specially from the two western counties, incluued 201b of saffron cake, 1301b "nobbies" (saffron buns), 1501b of clotted cream, 501b of butter, 130 gallons of milk, 300 junkets, and SOO pasties. The secretary stated after the •'tea" that "comparatively nothing was left."

Feasts to which one or more local dainties give a special character, and often provide the menu, are not by any means confined to Devon and Cornwall, or to the representatives of those two fervidly patriotic counties of the West. Colchester has its oyster feast, for in-*tanc-e, given In great state every October by its corporation to mark the opening of the oyster season and to.advertise the municipal fisheries for which the town is famous. Though not so great a social event its the whitebait diiiner at Greenwich—especially in the days of its chicfest gTory, when it almost rivalled tile Lord Mayor's banquet in importance —the Colchester oyster feast always brings together a notable gathering, whilst the number of oysters consumed is always quite as noteworthy. The bloater is not generally considered to be the acme of style where a dinner is 'concerned, and as an article of diet it is generally believed to be almost exclusively used by the lower classes of society; yet Yarmouth, "the. home of the herring," has its annual herring dinner, when the whole menu, from "hors d'oeuvres" to cheese, consists of herrings and sprats—the latter, herrings in their infantile stage —served up in various ways. It must be said that some of these ways are so ingenious and wonderful that it is very difficult, and, indeed, almost hopeless, to recognise the familiar silvery fish to which Yarmouth owes much of its prosperity; yet there is no doubt that übiquitous herring, in every dished served up at its famous meal, is present in some shape or form, Thus for pnee the herring is honored in accordance with its true value, for the dinner is presided over by the mayor of thc'boiough, and is attended by all the leading men of the town. How Peterborough Fair came to be the excuse for a sausage dinner is not known, but the fact remains that the mayor and corporation, after proclaiming the fair in state, sit down to a meal the most prominent feature of which is sausage, of every size, color and composition, and in every culinary form. The fair itself runs back into ancient history, and the sausage dinner has been associated with it from time immemorial. Its proclamation seems to be a unique feature, for it takes place in two or three parts of the town, and especially by the side of river Ncn, where the fair-ground is situated.

It is a custom three hundred years old that the Bishop of Winchester shall give an annual venison dinner at Farnham. There are many theories' to account for this old custom, but the favorite one is that when the Bishop found his finest bucks disappearing he promised a buck each year if the herd should no longer be interfered with. That theory sounds a little inadequate, but it is the best of the bunch, and, whatever the reason may be, it is certain that every succeeding Bishop of Winchester is expected to provide the venison dinner.

Gorleston, a quaint little place not many miles from Yarmouth, has its fishpie dinner, given to sixty-five fishermen each winter. Why the number should be sixty-five and not sixty-six is a very mysterious question. There is another mystery about this dinner, too. The fishermen really provide their own dinner, although the vicar almost invariably presides. However, the fishermen, a singularly independent type of Englishmen, sit down together, doubtless thinking that sociability is its own reward, and do not begrudge the fact that they have asked themselves to their own dinner.