Servants occasionally wait at table

Servants occasionally wait at table in clam

invite gloves: there are few things more dis-agreeable than the thumb of a

clumsy waiter in your plate.        .

 The

custom, however, of servants waiting at table in gloves, has never been adopted

in the mansions of people of distinction. A white damask napkin, in which his

thumb is enveloped, is given to each servant, and this effectually precludes

its contact with your plate.

Glass wine-coolers, half filled ‘with

water, should be placed next each person at table. „

Finger glasses, filled with warm water,

come on with the dessert. Wet a corner of your napkin, and wipe your mouth,

then rinse your fingers; but do not practise the filthy custom of gargling your

mouth at table, albeit the   usage

prevails amongst a few, who think that, because it is a foreign habit, it

cannot be disgusting.

The custom of drinking toasts, and of

forcing people to drink bumper after bumper of wine, until drunkenness results,

is quite banished from gentlemanly society to its proper place — the tavern. It

arises from a mistaken idea of making visitors welcome; the Amplitron of the

feast overlooking the fact of its being much more hospitable to allow his

guests to do as they please, and to take only as much wine as they may feel

convenient or agreeable. It is but a miserable boast, that a man has sufficient

^strength of stomach to sit his companions “under the table.

Never pare an apple or a pear for a lady

Never pare an apple or a pear for a lady

unless she desire you, and then be careful to use your fork to hold it; you may

sometimes offer to divide a very large pear with or for a person.              .

At some of the best houses, coffee is brought into the dining-room before the gentlemen quit the table a very good custom, as it gently prevents excess, the guests retiring to the ladies immediately afterwards; it also allows those who have other engagements to take coffee before they quit the house. Coffee should be brought in at an hour previously appointed, without the hell being rung for it, but a sufficient interval must, be allowed, lest the seem chary of his wine. For instance, nine o’clock is a good hour if the dinner were at six; or ten o’clock for one which commenced at seven.

At present, coffee is not brought into the

dining-room in fashionable houses, except when a small party, intending to go

to a theatre, are pressed for time — it is always served in the drawing-room.

Nevertheless, the former is a very excellent arrangement in country houses, for

very obvious reasons.