Ah! Bacon! What could be better? Nothing so nourishing, satisfying, salty and sustaining as Bacon. Before the food-fad fascists of the nanny state set loose the calorie-coppers, let me explain that I write not of that confessedly delicious pig-meat, but of Francis Bacon (1561–1626); he held high office (eventually Lord Chancellor) under the last Tudor monarch (Elizabeth I) and under the first Stuart king (James I of England). This change of dynasty occurred at one of the most pregnant junctures of history, when the modern world began to take its shape: the discovery, exploration and settlement by Europeans of unknown…