Hints for the table: or, the economy of good living / [Anon].

  • John Timbs
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hints for the table: or, the economy of good living / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    man. He detested routs, and always sat down to plain dinners. He never eat before lie went to the House of Commons; but, when any thing important was to be dis- cussed, he was in the habit of taking a glass of port wine with a tea-spoonful of bark in it. Mr. Pitt was a man of princely hospitality, and amiable nature, as appears in the following extract from a letter recently written by the Marquis Wellesley, who was an early, constant, and intimate friend of the illustrious states- man : “In all places, and at all times, his constant delight was society. There he shone with a degree of calm and steady lustre which often astonished me more than his most splendid efforts in Parliament. His manners were perfectly plain, w ithout any affectation ; not only was he without pre- sumption or arrogance, or any air of authority, but he seemed utterly unconscious of his own superiority, and much more disposed to listen than to talk. He never be- trayed any symptom or anxiety to usurp the lead or to display his own powers, but rather inclined to draw forth others, and to take merely an equal share in the general conversation: then, lie plunged heedlessly into the mirth of the hour, with no other care than to promote the general good humour and happiness of the company. His wit was quick and ready, but it was rather lively than sharp, and never envenomed with the least taint of malignity; so that, instead of exciting admiration or terror, it was an addi- tional ingredient in the common enjoyment. He was endowed, beyond any man of his time w hom I knew, with a gay and social heart. With these qualities, he was the life and soul of his own society: his appearance dispelled all care; his brow was never clouded, even in the severest public trials; and joy, and hope, and confidence, beamed from his countenance in every crisis of difficulty and dan- ger.”—Letter communicated to the Quarterly Review. Burke once said: “ Let the thunders of the pulpit descend on drunkenness, I for one stand up for gin.” Lord Byron notes: “ What a'wreck is Sheridan ! and all from bad pilotage ; for no one had ever better gales, though now and then a little squally. Poor dear Sherry ! I shall
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