Part 8 (1/2)

had been banished in favour of the barely alcoholic liquor which foa Edward VII, after-dinner drinking had been exorcised by cigarettes The portentous piles of clumsy silver which had overshadowed our fathers'

tables--effigies of Peace and Plenty, Racing Cups and Prizes for fat cattle--had been banished to the plate-closets; bright china and brighter flowers reigned in their stead In short, a dinner thirty-five years ago was very like a dinner to-day It did not taketo find that (with Cardinal Grandison) ”I liked dinner-society very s which you do not hear otherwise”

I have already described the methods by which ball-society was, and perhaps is, recruited An incident which befell ht on the more obscure question of dinner-society

One day I received a large card which intimated that Mr and Mrs

Goldmore requested the honour of h I had been to balls at the Goldmores' house and had made my bow at the top of the stairs, I did not really know thereat fortunetheir way by entertaining lavishly However, it was very kind of them to askca-roouests assele face which I had ever seen before Worse than that, it was obvious that Mr and Mrs Goldmore did not know me They heard my name announced, received me quite politely, and then retired into a here their darkling undertones, enquiring glances, and heads negatively shaken,one another who on earth the last arrival was

However, their embarrassment and mine was soon relieved by the announceuests than woive me a partner; so we all swept downstairs in a pro the vital choice between _bisque_ and _conso my dinner, I revolved my plans, and decided to make a clean breast of it So, ent up into the drawing-rooht for my hostess ”I feel sure,” I said, ”that you and Mr Goldracious reply, ”I hope there was nothing in our ,” I replied, ”could have been kinder than your manner, but one has a certain social instinct which tells one when one has uess I a--Do please explain” ”Well,” said Mrs Goldmore, ”as you have found out so much, I think I had better tell you all _We were not expecting you_ We have not even now the pleasure of knoho you are We were expecting Dr Russell, the _Tientlemen have been asked to meet him” So it was not my mistake after all, and I promptly rallied my forces ”The card certainly had ht, so there was nothing to ht that everyone who knew the _Times_ Russell knew that his first name was William--he is always called 'Billy Russell'” ”Well”--and now the truth coyly eed--”the fact is that we _don't_ know hi out, and so we looked him up in the _Court Guide_, and sent the invitation I suppose we hit on your address by mistake for his” I suppose so too; and that this is the method by which newcomers build up a ”Dinner-Society” in London

One particular form of dinner deserves a special word of coone, never to return This was the ”Fish Dinner” at Greenwich or Blackwall, or even so far afield as Gravesend It was to a certain extent a picnic; without the for, and made pleasant by opportunities of fun and fresh air, in the park or on the river, before we addressed ourselves to the serious business of the evening; but that was serious indeed The ”Menu” of a dinner at the shi+p Hotel at Greenwich lies before me as I write It contains turtle soup, eleven kinds of fish, two _entrees_, a haunch of venison, poultry, harouse, leverets, five sweet dishes, and two kinds of ice Well, those were great days--we shall not look upon their like again Let a poet[28]

who knehat he riting about have the last word on Dinner

”We may live without poetry, music, and art; We may live without conscience and live without heart; We may live without friends; we may live without books; But civilized man cannot live without Cooks

”He ?

He ?

He ?

But where is the ?”

There is an exquisite truth in this lyrical cry, but it stops short of the fulness of the subject It ” is not the only forht , used to complain that nowadays life in a country house meant three dinners a day, and, if you reckoned sandwiches and poached eggs at five o'clock tea, nearly four Indeed, the only difference that I can perceive between a modern luncheon and a modern dinner is that at the former meal you don't have soup or a printed _Menu_ There have always been some houses where the luncheons were muchof a cereanization Luncheon is more of a scramble, and, in the case of a numerous and scattered family, it is the pleasantest of reunions

My uncle Lord John Russell (1792-1878) published in 1820 a book of _Essays and Sketches_, in which he speaks of ”wo down to a substantial luncheon at three or four,” and observes that men would be wise if they followed the example All contemporary evidence points to luncheon as a female meal, at which men attended, if at all, clandestinely If a h, he was regarded as indifferent to the claims of dinner, and,to do could find time for a square meal in the ed Prince Albert was notoriously fond of luncheon, and Queen Victoria humoured him They dined very late, and the luncheon at the Palace becanized hest quarters, was soon followed in Society; and, when I first knew London, luncheon was as firmly established as dinner As a rule, it was not an affair of fixed invitation; but a hostess would say, ”You will always find us at luncheon, somewhere about two”--and one took her at her word

The luncheon by invitation was a more formal, and rather terrible, affair I well remember a house where at two o'clock in June we had to sit doith curtains drawn, lights ablaze, and rose-coloured shades to the candles, because the hostess thought, rightly as regarded herself, less so as regarded her guests, that no one's co trial of midsu apart For so sustaineddemand on the nervous system, men who turned up their noses at luncheon on weekdays devoured roast beef and Yorkshi+re pudding on Sundays, and went forth, like giants refreshed, for a round of afternoon calls The Sunday Luncheon was a recognized centre of social life Where there was even a ht drop in and be sure of mayonnaise, chicken, and welcome I can recall an occasion of this kind when I saw social Presence of Mind exeht and think, on an heroic scale Luncheon was over It had not been a particularly bounteous uests had been many; the chicken had been eaten to the drue Trifle, of chro aspect, on which no one had ventured to e, when the servant entered with an anxious expression, and murmured to the hostess that Monsieur de Petitpois--a newly-arrived attache--had corasped the situation in an instant, and issued her commands with a proton could not have surpassed ”Clear everything away, but leave the Trifle Then show M de Petitpois in” Enter De Petitpois

”Delighted to see you Quite right Always at home at Sunday luncheon

Pray come and sit here and have so De Petitpois, actuated by the saal desire the husks, filled hiecake, ja rather pale If he kept a journal, he no doubt noted the English Sunday as one of ourhorror

Supper is a word of very different significances There is the Ball Supper, which I have described in a previous chapter There is the Supper after the Missionary Meeting in the country, when ”The Deputation frogs, and cocoa There is the diurnal Supper, fruitful parent of our national crudities, eaten by the social class that dines at one; and this Supper (as was disclosed at a recent inquest) ain, there is the Theatrical Supper, which, eaten in congenial company after _Patience_ or _The Whip_, is our nearest approach to the ”Nights and Suppers of the Gods” This kind of supper has a niche of its own in e when first I came to London to know Lady Burdett-Coutts, famous all over the world as a philanthropist, and also, in every tone and gesture, a survival froether Lady Burdett-Coutts was an enthusiastic devotee of the dra up, she would gently glide round the great roouest:

”I hope you need not go just yet I a to supper after the play, and I a a few friends to meet him”

As far as I know, I ahtful feasts

Dinner and luncheon and supperthe permanent facts of life; but there is, or was, one meal of which I have witnessed the unwept disappearance It had its roots in our historic past It clung to its place in our social econo and died hard It was the Breakfast-Party When I first lived in London, it was, like soorous but unpopular No one could really like going out to breakfast; but the people who gave Breakfast-Parties orthy and often agreeable people; and there were feho had the hardihood to say them Nay

The iven by Mr

Gladstone, on every Thursdayin the Session; when, while we ate broiled sal circle about the colour-sense in Homer, or the polity of the ancient Hittites Around the table were gathered Lions and Lionesses of various breeds and sizes, who, if I reet quite asas they would have liked; for, when Mr