Volume Ii Part 24 (2/2)
Masonic Lodges are held here; and almost innumerable Meetings, Sales, and Elections for Charities alternate with the more directly festive business of the London Tavern. Each of the departments of so vast an establishment has its special interest. We have glanced at its dining-halls, and its turtle and wine cellars.[56] To detail its kitchens and the management of its stores and supplies, and consumption, would extend beyond our limit, so that we shall end by remarking that upon no portion of our metropolis is more largely enjoyed the luxury of doing good, and the observance of the rights and duties of goodfellows.h.i.+p, than at the London Tavern.
FOOTNOTES:
[55] _Household Words_, 1852.
[56] The usual allowance at what is called a Turtle-Dinner, is 6 lb.
live weight per head. At the Spanish-Dinner, at the City of London Tavern, in 1808, four hundred guests attended, and 2500lb. of turtle were consumed.
For the Banquet at Guildhall, on Lord Mayor's Day, 250 tureens of turtle are provided.
Turtle may be enjoyed in steaks, cutlets, or fins, and as soup, clear and _puree_, at the Albion, London, and Freemasons', and other large taverns. ”The s.h.i.+p and Turtle Tavern,” Nos. 129 and 130, Leadenhall-street, is especially famous for its turtle; and from this establishment several of the West-end Club-houses are supplied.
THE CLARENDON HOTEL.
This sumptuous hotel, the reader need scarcely be informed, takes its name from its being built upon a portion of the gardens of Clarendon House gardens, between Albemarle and Bond streets, in each of which the hotel has a frontage. The house was, for a short term, let to the Earl of Chatham, for his town residence.
The Clarendon contains series of apartments, fitted for the reception of princes and their suites, and for n.o.bility. Here are likewise given official banquets on the most costly scale.
Among the records of the house is the _menu_ of the dinner given to Lord Chesterfield, on his quitting the office of Master of the Buckhounds, at the Clarendon. The party consisted of thirty; the price was six guineas a head; and the dinner was ordered by Count D'Orsay, who stood almost without a rival amongst connoisseurs in this department of art:--
”_Premier Service._
”_Potages._--Printanier: a la reine: _turtle_.
”_Poissons._--Turbot (_lobster and Dutch sauces_): saumon a la Tartare: rougets a la cardinal: friture de morue: _whitebait_.
”_Releves._--Filet de boeuf a la Napolitaine: dindon a la chipolata: timballe de macaroni: _haunch of venison_.
”_Entrees._--Croquettes de volaille: pet.i.ts pates aux huitres: cotelettes d'agneau: puree de champignons: cotelettes d'agneau aux points d'asperge: fricandeau de veau a l'oseille: ris de veau pique aux tomates: cotelettes de pigeons a la Dusselle: chartreuse de legumes aux faisans: filets de cannetons a la Bigarrade: boudins a la Richelieu: saute de volaille aux truffes: pate de mouton monte.
”_Cote._--Boeuf roti: jambon: salade.
”_Second Service._
”_Rots._--Chapons, quails, turkey poults, _green goose_.
”_Entremets._--Asperges: haricot a la Francaise: mayonnaise de homard: gelee Macedoine: aspics d'oeufs de pluvier: Charlotte Russe: gelee au Marasquin: creme marbre: corbeille de patisserie: vol-au-vent de rhubarb: tourte d'abricots: corbeille des meringues: dressed crab: salade au gelantine.--Champignons aux fines herbes.
”_Releves._--Souffle a la vanille: Nesselrode pudding: Adelaide sandwiches: fondus. Pieces montees,” etc.
The reader will not fail to observe how well the English dishes,--turtle, whitebait, and venison,--relieve the French in this dinner: and what a breadth, depth, solidity, and dignity they add to it. Green goose, also, may rank as English, the goose being held in little honour, with the exception of its liver, by the French; but we think Comte D'Orsay did quite right in inserting it. The execution is said to have been pretty nearly on a par with the conception, and the whole entertainment was crowned with the most inspiriting success. The price was not unusually large.[57]
FOOTNOTE:
[57] _The Art of Dining._ Murray, 1852.
FREEMASONS' TAVERN, GREAT QUEEN-STREET.
This well-appointed tavern, built by William Tyler, in 1786, and since considerably enlarged, in addition to the usual appointments, possesses the great advantage of Freemasons' Hall, wherein take place some of our leading public festivals and anniversary dinners, the latter mostly in May and June. Here was given the farewell dinner to John Philip Kemble, upon his retirement from the stage, in 1817; the public dinner, on his birthday, to James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, in 1832; Mollard, who has published an excellent _Art of Cookery_, was many years _Maitre d'Hotel_, and proprietor of the Freemasons' Tavern.
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