Eggsacting research
“He was alone when I first came, peeling a plover’s egg taken from the large nest of moss in the centre of his table.” With this memorable line, Evelyn Waugh reveals much about Brideshead and Sebastian — nobility, money, opulence and a sensibility of taste beyond that of the common man. Plovers’ eggs say it all.
Times have changed, and anyone now wishing to make so grand an impression will need to look elsewhere: plovers’ eggs and almost all wild birds’ eggs are off the menu.
Exceptional numbers
Though it is likely that Sebastian’s eggs would have been procured from the Brideshead estate, had they been bought they would have set the Marchmain household back a bob or two. In 1846 they were sold at market for ‘one and six’ per dozen, equivalent to £1.40 each. By 1915 they were forecast to sell at 30
