Make a puff-paste, in the proportion of a pound and a half of fresh
butter to two pounds of sifted flour. Roll it out rather thick, into
two sheets. Butter a deep dish, and line the bottom and sides of
it with paste. Fill it up with crusts of bread for the purpose of
supporting the lid while it is baking, as the oysters will be too much
done if they are cooked in the pie. Cover it with the other sheet of
paste, having first buttered the flat rim of the dish. Notch the edges
of the pie handsomely, or ornament them with leaves of paste which you
may form with tin cutters made for the purpose. Make a little slit
in the middle of the lid, and stick firmly into it a paste tulip or
other flower. Put the dish into a moderate oven, and while the paste
is baking prepare the oysters, which should be large and fresh. Put
them into a stew-pan with half their liquor thickened with yolk of
egg boiled hard and grated, enriched with pieces of butter rolled in
bread crumbs, and seasoned with mace and nutmeg. Stew the oysters five
minutes. When the paste is baked, carefully take off the lid, remove
the pieces of bread, and put in the oysters and gravy. Replace the lid,
and send the pie to table warm.