Note 35 — EXCURSION II.
Reading edition
This product is carefully collected, and preserved in stacks by the inhabitants, for the purpose of fuel. It is worthy of remark that the nature of the fuel employed in a country always imparts a character to its cookery, hence the striking difference between that of Paris and London; so in Cornwall, the convenience afforded by the furze in the process of Baking, has given origin to the general use of pies. Every article of food is dressed in a pie, whence it has become a proverb, that "the Devil will not come into Cornwall, for fear of being put into a pie." In a season of scarcity the Attorneys of the county having at the Quarter Sessions very properly resolved to abstain from every kind of pastry, an allusion to the above proverb was very happily introduced into an Epigram, extemporaneously delivered on the occasion, and which, from its point and humour, deserves to be recorded—
"If the proverb be true, that the fame of our pies Prevents us from falling to Satan a prey, It is clear that his friends—the Attorneys,—are wise In moving such obstacles out of the way."