Note 589 — Chapter III · FOOD OF HOMERIC TIMES—MEAT, FISH, ETC.

Our readers will probably remember the good old Italian marchioness, who having, perhaps, been cajoled, by the blarney of some Hibernian peripatetic, into the purchase of a pair of strong-odoured soles, recommended to our magistrates the adoption of an ordinance passed, as she affirmed, by his grace of Tuscany. In that prince’s territories, she assured their worships, the man who has fish to sell, must transact business standing on one leg in a bucket of hot water, a practice undoubtedly calculated to induce despatch and prevent haggling. This Tuscan enactment might evidently have been adopted with great advantage at Athens, where, however, legislation proceeded on exactly the same principles, and attained in this point an almost equal degree of perfection.