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WOODCOCK PIE (to be eaten cold)

Line the edges of a dish with good puff-paste. Put at the bottom a slice of lean veal well seasoned with pepper, salt, and pounded mace, and on this place a slice of thin lean ham. Pluck four woodcocks carefully, so as not to injure the tender flesh. Do not open them, but season with pepper, salt, and mace, and cover them with layers of bacon. Pack them closely into the dish, and fill up the empty spaces with hard-boiled plovers' or hens' eggs. Pour over all a pint of strong beef gravy, so strong that it will jelly when cold, and cover the dish with pastry. Brush it over with egg, ornament it, and place in the centre two or three of the feet nicely cleaned. Bake the pie in a well-heated oven, until the pastry is done enough. A woodcock pie is considered a rare delicacy, though it is rather an expensive one. Time to bake the pie, an hour or more. Probable cost, uncertain,