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.

    177/188 page 161
    looking, thin soup; then a plate of ill-cut slices of ill- salted tongue; and after a dreary interval, a dish of slices of boiled beef, very cold, very fat, and very tough. The next dish promised better: it was a salmon, twisted into a circle, with his tail in his mouth, like the allegorical image of eternity. But if I were to live, as the Americans say, from J lily to eternity, I should not wish to look upon the like of such a fish again. Yet, its bones were so nicely cleaned, that the skeleton might have been placed in a museum of natural history. Next arrived a dish of sausages, which disappeared in the twinkling of an eye. Lastly, came the roast, but instead of a jolly English sirloin or haunch, the dish consisted of what they facetiously called venison—hut such venison! Yet, had the original stag been alive from which this morsel was hewn, it could not have moved off faster. To wind up all, instead of a dessert, we were presented with a soup-plate holding eleven small, dry sweet cakes, each as big as a Genevese watch- glass. The wine was scarcely drinkable, excepting, I pre- sume, one bottle of Burgundy, which the generous master of the house kept faithfully to himself, not offering even the lady by his side, a stranger, and his own invited guest, a single glass.” The etiquette of a Russian dinner is very formal. When the guests are seated, the master and mistress of the feast remain standing, it being their business to attend upon the company, and to see that the servants do their duty. Nothing can escape their observation: your plate does not remain a moment empty, nor your glass a moment either empty or full. French wines are mostly drunk; Madeira is also a favourite; and a bottle of port is set down expressly for the Englishman. At her own time, the mistress gives the signal, and all rise from the table. The Emperor and Empress of Russia dine at three o’clock, (the general hour for the upper classes in Russia,) with perfect simplicity; and towards the conclusion of the meal, their children come in to kiss them. When they rise from table, the emperor bestows upon his consort alsojsomc hearty kisses. p 2
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