7 JULY 1894, Page 25

"UNRECOGNISED DAINTIES."

[To THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Garden-snails are sold under the polite and comfortable name of " Wall-fish," at 3d. or 4d. a quart, all the year round, in the Bristol whelk-shops, but they are considered at their best when discovered " moused " for the winter, shut up with all the goodness of the summer in them, and ripened by the frost. They are largely eaten by consumptive patients and all who need a strengthening diet ; but apart from their virtue, they are esteemed a very great delicacy indeed "by those who can stomach them." " I could eat a hundred now," said a friend of mine to-day, " though I have just had my dinner." The " wall-fish " is salted and boiled before it is brought to the table, but certain epicures swallow alive that odious little brown-holland-coloured slug so well known to all conscientious gardeners. This, too, has its special value ; it is advised, of all things in the world, for a sluggish liver ! Have we something akin to the" doctrine of signatures " here ? The so-called "Remawsnail" occasionally finds its way into the local market,—I am, Sir, &o.,