John Timbs

“ BANBURY CAKES AND BANBURY CROSS.
That the ancient town of Banbury, lying on the northern verge of the county of Oxford, has been, from time immemorial, famed for its rich cakes, should not excite our special wonder; seeing that the district has some of the richest pasture-land in the kingdom; a single cow being here known to produce upwards of 200 pounds of butter in a year! Butter, we need scarcely add, is the prime ingredient of the Banbury cake, giving it the richness and lightness of the finest puff paste ”

“ By some unlucky turn of time, cakes, which were much valued by the classical ancients, and were given away as presents, in the Middle Ages, instead of bread, were looked upon as a superstitious relic by the Puritans, who thereupon abolished the practice. They formed so predominant a party at Banbury, in the reign of Elizabeth, that they pulled down Banbury Cross, celebrated in our nursery rhymes. In the face of this historical fact, however, the reputed “zeal” of the Banburians has been attributed to an accidental circumstance, in modern phrase, “an error of the press.” ”

“ Who swam to’s tomb in’s people’s eyes.
In the “Tatler,” No. 220, in describing his “Ecclesiastical Thermometer,” to indicate the changes and revolutions in the Church, the Essayist writes, “that facetious divine, Dr. ”