The directions were to enable a man "to make common pottages and common meats for the household, as they should be made, craftily and wholesomely;" so that this body of cookery was not prepared exclusively for the use of the royal kitchen, but for those who had not the taste or wish for what are termed, in contra-distinction, in the next sentence, "curious pottages, and meats, and subtleties."

Or to send for a cook to the Anticyrae to make Hellebore pottage, settle-brain pottage.

And he was kind, and loved to sit In the low hut or garnish'd cottage, And praise the farmer's homely wit, And share the widow's homelier pottage: At his approach complaint grew mild; And when his hand unbarr'd the shutter, The clammy lips of fever smiled The welcome, which they could not utter.

Thus we read, that Jacob made such palatable pottage, that Esau purchased a mess of it at the extravagant price of his birthright.

" Amos, with a sly twinkle of the eyes, translated the proposal to Ephraim, who stood with his huge red hands clenched, mumbling about the saltless pottage of papacy.