Note 18 — ORIGINAL LETTERS OF KING JAMES II.
Reading edition
The ingenuity of ancient cooks in raising pastry fortifications has been already noticed. In the text we have not only fortresses of paste, but castles made of custards, furnished with eatable artillery, on a triumph-day, that is one of the greatest festivities at the Mansion-house. Another similar device of march-pane is mentioned in "Witts and Fancies"—1595, 4to.: "At a nobleman's banquet a ship of march-pane stuff was set upon the board, wherein was all manner of fishes of the like stuff."
At a banquet given by Cardinal Birague to Henry III. King of France, his queen, and mother, "A collation was there served upon two long tables, consisting of between eleven and twelve hundred dishes composed of confectionary and dried sweetmeats of various kinds, constructed in the form of castles, pyramids, and other elegant figures."—Wraxall's "History of France," vol. II. 449.