Part 29 (1/2)
For the details of ”Breakfast-table Arrangements and Serving Breakfast,”
see the work ent.i.tled ”Waiting at Table.”
The guests usually leave as soon as breakfast is over, unless the ladies are invited by the hostess to accompany her to the drawing-room, or the gentlemen are invited by the host to smoke a cigarette or cigar previous to their departure.
=House Party Breakfasts.=--In the country the breakfast hour varies from 9 to 10.30, and in some country houses it is an understood thing that the guests are at liberty to come down to breakfast at any time between nine and half-past ten. In not a few country houses the hostess and the ladies breakfast in their own rooms, and the gentlemen of the party breakfast with the host in the breakfast-room.
The breakfast gong is a signal for a.s.sembling in the breakfast-room or dining-room, but it is not the custom to wait for any one beyond five or ten minutes.
The host and hostess at once take their places at the breakfast-table.
When the house-party is a large one, and s.p.a.ce permits, a number of small tables should be arranged in the breakfast-room, in addition to a long breakfast-table.
The servants should remain in attendance during breakfast to wait upon the guests.
There is no general move made from the breakfast-table as in the case of luncheon or dinner; the hostess generally remains until the whole of the guests have at least commenced breakfast, save in the case of very late comers, for whom she would not be expected to remain at the head of the breakfast-table.
The guests leave the breakfast-table as soon as they have finished breakfast, without waiting for any intimation from the hostess to do so.
CHAPTER XXVIII
PICNICS AND WATER-PARTIES
Many things contribute to draw people into the country and away from town in the month of September; therefore there is a far larger number in each and every neighbourhood inclined for a picnic or a water-party than in the three previous months, June, July, and August.
Picnic parties are sometimes invitation parties, and on other occasions contribution parties, or parties which partake in a measure of the character of both.
=Picnics by Motor-Car and Picnics by Rail.=--Almost every county has its show place, or its ruins, its ruined abbey or its castle, its romantic scenery, and its fine views, its hills or its dales, its waterfalls or its glens. The southern and western counties are as rich in these respects as the eastern counties are barren.
When a picnic party is to proceed to its destination by rail, a saloon carriage is engaged beforehand, and arrangement is made at the nearest hotel to supply the party with luncheon at from 5_s._ to 10_s._ per head, according to the style of luncheon required; or hampers of provisions are taken under the charge of one or two men-servants.
If the picnic party proceeds by road, a coach is the favourite mode of conveyance, whether driven by the owner or hired for the occasion. This is a more sociable way of going to a picnic than dividing the party into detachments and conveying them in separate carriages. This is sometimes unavoidable, and if the party is a.s.sembled for a start, it occasions no little discussion as to how the party should be divided and conveyed in the various carriages, and it takes no little tact to arrange this in a satisfactory manner--to overrule objections, and to make things work smoothly. Again, the members of a picnic party occasionally find their way to the place of rendezvous independently of each other; but, although this plan saves trouble, it does not promote sociability, and parties of four or six are apt to clique together during the day, instead of making themselves generally agreeable. The provision question is a very important one, and the heads of a picnic party should arrange in concert what each is to bring in the way of fish, flesh, fowl, fruit, and wine.
The services of one or two men-servants at a large picnic party are generally required to arrange the table, to open the wine, and last, but not least, to collect and repack the articles used in the way of plate, china, or gla.s.s.
=A picnic luncheon in September= is not always the _al fresco_ spread under the greenwood tree that it is in July, and oftener than not is held in the best parlour of a rustic inn, or, by permission, in a barn or shed, when the weather is not favourable for camping out.
Usually, when a large picnic party is arranged and got up by some three or four ladies and gentlemen, they divide the expenses of the entertainment between themselves, and determine how many shall be invited, each having the privilege of inviting a certain number. Other picnics are got up on a different system, each person contributing a share towards the general expenses; but these gatherings are not so sociable as are the invitation picnics.
Invitation picnics where everything is done _en prince_ are extremely enjoyable and friendly affairs; they are big luncheons, given out-of-doors instead of indoors, at a distance instead of at home. But even these are not more pleasant than those well-arranged little picnics given by officers in country quarters, when the regimental coach conveys a favoured few to some favourite spot.
=Water-Parties.=--There are many ways of arranging a water-party at yachting stations and at all riverside places. At yachting stations, for instance, a sailing yacht is hired to convey a party of from eighteen to twenty-five to some point of interest on the coast, in which case luncheon and tea are provided at an hotel in the vicinity of the place where the party have landed, and the expenses are equally divided. Not unfrequently, on the return journey, the yacht is becalmed, and does not reach its destination until between two and three the following morning.
If it happens to be a fine moonlight night, this prolongation of a water-party is an additional source of enjoyment; but if there is no moon as well as no wind, and the calm betokens a storm, it is the reverse of pleasant. But these little _contretemps_, when they do occur, rather lend a zest to the day's pleasure, and are something to talk about afterwards.