In this Edition I have enlarged the whole Work; and there is added two hundred several Figures of all sorts of Pies, Tarts, Custards, Cheesecakes, &c. more than was in the former: You will find them in Tables directed to the Folio they have relation to; there being such variety of Forms, the Artists may use which of them they please.

It is impossible for any Author to please all People, no more than the best Cook can fancy their Palats whose Mouths are always out of taste. As for those who make it their business to hide their Candle under a Bushel, to do only good to themselves, and not to others, such as will curse me for revealing the Secrets of this Art, I value the discharge of my own Conscience, in doing Good, above all their malice; protesting to the whole world, that I have not concealed any material Secret of above my fifty and five years Experience; my Father being a Cook under whom in my Child-hood I was bred up in this Art.

To conclude, the diligent Peruser of this Volume gains that in a small time (as to the Theory) which an Apprenticeship with some Masters could never have taught them. I have no more to do, but to desire of God a blessing upon these my Endeavours; and remain.

_Yours in the most ingenious ways of Friendship_, ROBERT MAY.

Sholeby in Leicestershire, Sept. 30. 1664.

A short Narrative of some Passages of the Authors Life.

For the better knowledge of the worth of this Book, though it be not usual, the Author being living, it will not be amiss to acquaint the Reader with a breif account of some passages of his Life, as also the eminent Persons (renowned for their House-keeping) whom he hath served through the whole series of his Life; for as the growth of Children argue the strength of the Parents, so doth the judgment and abilities of the Artist conduce to the making and goodness of the Work: now that such great knowledge in this commendable Art was not gained but by long experience, practise, and converse with the most able men in their times, the Reader in this breif Narrative may be informed by what steps and degrees he ascended to the same.

He was born in the year of our Lord 1588. His Father being one of the ablest Cooks in his time, and his first Tutor in the knowledge and practice of Cookery; under whom having attained to some perfection in this Art, the old Lady Dormer sent him over into France, where he continued five years, being in the Family of a noble Peer, and first President of Paris; where he gained not only the French Tongue but also bettered his Knowledge in his Cookery, and returning again into England, was bound an Apprentice in London to Mr. Arthur Hollinsworth in Newgate Market, one of the ablest Work-men in London, Cook to the Grocers Hall and Star Chamber. His Apprentiship being out, the Lady Dormer sent for him to be her Cook under Father (who then served that Honourable Lady) where were four Cooks more, such Noble Houses were then kept, the glory of that, and the shame of this present Age; then were those Golden Days wherein were practised the Triumphs and Trophies of Cookery; then was Hospitality esteemed, Neighbourhood preserved, the Poor cherished, and God honoured; then was Religion less talkt on, and more practised; then was Atheism & Schism less in fashion: then did men strive to be good, rather then to seem so. Here he continued till the Lady Dormer died, and then went again to London, and served the Lord Castlehaven, after that the Lord Lumley, that great lover and knower of Art, who wanted no knowledge in the discerning this mystery; next the Lord Montague in Sussex; and at the beginning of these wars, the Countess of Kent, then Mr. Nevel of Crissen Temple in Essex, whose Ancestors the Smiths (of whom he is descended) were the greatest maintainers of Hospitality in all those parts; nor doth the present M. Nevel degenerate from their laudable examples. Divers other Persons of like esteem and quality hath he served; as the Lord Rivers, Mr. John Ashburnam of the Bed-Chambers, Dr. Steed in Kent, Sir Thomas Stiles of Drury Lane in London, Sir Marmaduke Constable in York-shire, Sir Charles Lucas; and lastly the Right Honourable the Lady Englefield, where he now liveth.

Thus have I given you a breif account of his Life, I shall next tell you in what high esteem this noble Art was with the Ancient Romans: Plutarch reports, that Lucullus his ordinary diet was fine dainty dishes, with works of pastry, banketting dishes, and fruit curiously wrought and prepared; that, his Table might be furnished with choice of varieties, (as the noble Lord Lumley did) that he kept and nourished all manner of Fowl all the year long. To this purpose he telleth us a story how Pompey being sick, the Physitians willed him to eat a Thrush, and it being said there was none to be had; because it was then Summer; it was answered they might have them at Lucullus's house who kept both Thrushes and all manner of Fowl, all the year long. This Lucullus was for his Hospitality so esteemed in Rome, that there was no talk, but of his Noble House-keeping. The said Plutarch reports how Cicero and Pompey inviting themselves to sup with him, they would not let him speak with his men to provide any thing more then ordinary; but he telling them he would sup in Apollo, (a Chamber so named, and every Chamber proportioned their expences) he by this wile beguil'd them, and a supper was made ready estimated at fifty thousand pence, every Roman penny being seven pence half penny English money; a vast sum for that Age, before the Indies had overflowed Europe. But I have too far digressed from the Author of whom I might speak much more as in relation to his Person and abilities, but who will cry out the Sun shines? this already said is enough to satisfie any but the malicious, who are the greatest enemies to all honest endeavours. Homer had his Zoilus, and Virgil his Bavius; the best Wits have had their detractors, and the greatest Artists have been maligned; the best on't is, such Works as these outlive their Authors with an honurable respect of Posterity, whilst envious Criticks never survive their own happiness, their Lives going out like the snuff of a Candle.

W. W.

_Triumphs and Trophies in Cookery, to be used at Festival Times, as Twelfth-day, &c._

Make the likeness of a Ship in Paste-board, with Flags and Streamers, the Guns belonging to it of Kickses, bind them about with packthread, and cover them with close paste proportionable to the fashion of a Cannon with Carriages, lay them in places convenient as you see them in Ships of war, with such holes and trains of powder that they may all take Fire; Place your Ship firm in the great Charger; then make a salt round about it, and stick therein egg-shells full of sweet water, you may by a great Pin take all the meat out of the egg by blowing, and then fill it up with the rose-water, then in another Charger have the proportion of a Stag made of course paste, with a broad Arrow in the side of him, and his body filled up with claret-wine; in another Charger at the end of the Stag have the proportion of a Castle with Battlements, Portcullices, Gates and Draw-Bridges made of Past-board, the Guns and Kickses, and covered with course paste as the former; place it at a distance from the ship to fire at each other. The Stag being placed betwixt them with egg shells full of sweet water (as before) placed in salt. At each side of the Charger wherein is the Stag, place a Pye made of course paste, in one of which let there be some live Frogs, in each other some live Birds; make these Pyes of course Paste filled with bran, and yellowed over with saffron or the yolks of eggs, guild them over in spots, as also the Stag, the Ship, and Castle; bake them, and place them with guilt bay-leaves on turrets and tunnels of the Castle and Pyes; being baked, make a hole in the bottom of your pyes, take out the bran, put in your Frogs, and Birds, and close up the holes with the same course paste, then cut the Lids neatly up; To be taken off the Tunnels; being all placed in order upon the Table, before you fire the trains of powder, order it so that some of the Ladies may be perswaded to pluck the Arrow out of the Stag, then will the Claret-wine follow, as blood that runneth out of a wound. This being done with admiration to the beholders, after some short pause, fire the train of the Castle, that the pieces all of one side may go off, then fire the Trains, of one side of the Ship as in a battel; next turn the Chargers; and by degrees fire the trains of each other side as before. This done to sweeten the stink of powder, let the Ladies take the egg-shells full of sweet waters and throw them at each other. All dangers being seemingly over, by this time you may suppose they will desire to see what is in the pyes; where lifting first the lid off one pye, out skip some Frogs, which make the Ladies to skip and shreek; next after the other pye, whence come out the Birds, who by a natural instinct flying in the light, will put out the Candles; so that what with the flying Birds and skipping Frogs, the one above, the other beneath, will cause much delight and pleasure to the whole company: at length the Candles are lighted, and a banquet brought in, the Musick sounds, and every one with much delight and content rehearses their actions in the former passages. These were formerly the delight of the Nobility, before good House-keeping had left England, and the Sword really acted that which was only counterfeited in such honest and laudable Exercises as these.