Archdeacon Denison, on the occasion of his twenty-first harvest-home, made
the other day a speech on the food-and-drink question. There were some odd things at this festival—a loaf of ninety-four pounds and a cheese weighing ninety, for example —but nothing quite so odd as what the Archdeacon himself said to the Somerset folk. He fiercely fell foul of the potato, and rated it as if it were no better than a Low-Church Bishop. He had made up his mind not to plant another potato as long as he lived.
To do so was simply to waste the seed and poison the ground, and the more they planted that tuber, the more would they poison the ground, until it stank in their nostrils." People ought to plant, instead of potatoes, peas, beans, and beetroot, which were not subject to disease. He did not go with Cobbett in praising beer, which made people's faces red, but he recommended, as a substitute for cider, "a delightful beverage, consisting of oat- meal and water, flavoured with a little acid." We do not mind his praising this " delightful beverage," which will be sure to bo appreciated as it deserves ; but it is a little too bad in the Arch. deacon, in responding for the Clergy, to go over, horse and foot, to the side of the Colorado beetle.
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