To eat Humble Pie.
Mr. Editor,--Your correspondent, Mr. HAMMACK, having recorded Mr.
Pepys's love of "brave venison pasty," whilst asking the derivation of
the phrase, "eating humble pie," in reference to a bill of fare of
Pepys's age, I venture to submit that the _humble pie_ of that period
was indeed the pie named in the list quoted; and not only so, but that
it was made out of the "umbles" or entrails of the deer, a dish of the
second table, inferior of course to the venison pasty which smoked upon
the dais, and therefore not inexpressive of that humiliation which the
term "eating humble pie" now painfully describes. The "umbles" of the
deer are constantly the perquisites of the gamekeeper.