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Lord Hatherton eat turtle many times at the banquets and dinners he described in his journal. It was clearly quite a delicacy
at that time. Here is a more unusual account of the turtle as food.
"Received a present of a turtle this morning from the Rev. Mr. Collis of Cank. It was exceedingly lively on its arrival.
Six hours after its head had been taken off and the body completely severed into two parts and all the inside taken out -
the whole being suspended from a hook - its fins moved about quickly and strongly if you touched it.
Staffordshire Yeomanry Dinner, Lichfield, 5th October 1837
I never saw a man eat such a dinner as Sir Robert Peel did today. He said he liked English cookery and he proved it with
a vengeance. He ate turtle, then of a pike, 34 lb in weight, twice of boiled turkey and ham, game and immoderately of a pudding
which appeared all down the tables in numerous large dishes. He also swallowed cheese full of maggots. On my pointing out
which on my own plate to Lord Lichfield, Peel pushed his away in a good humoured jest.
Lord Hatherton in Liverpool, September 2nd, 1847
After dining on turtle at the Adelphi Hotel we visited the landlord's establishment of live turtles. He said he had full
50 of them. He kept them in water but had never found that salt water was more favourable than soft. He sold them alive at
two shillings a pound.
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