Dinner Parties
Drinking Post Dinner
In
the days – known sometimes as the good old days – a great deal more wine was
consumed after dinner than it is the custom now, and a man was hardly worthy
the name who could not put away his two bottles at least. Then, we must recollect, dinner was about
four o’clock in the afternoon, and the after hours were kept up as late as now,
so that a good deal might be reasonably expected in the time. After a dinner party the ladies would go home
alone, it being very little use to wait for their escorts. Sometimes the gentlemen would stagger back to
the drawing room, but they were anything but agreeable companions after dinner.
The
dining room chairs used all to be made to run on castors, and the valets would
come and wheel out their several masters.
It
is altogether a disgraceful account to give of the society of the day. Capt. Reeve at his house would not produce
more wine when he saw everybody was well sated, he could not help it, he said,
he did not want to be stingy, but thought it well to draw the line somewhere. He used to tell the story of some young host
who was called all sorts of hard names for not producing more wine at such a
time. He took out a dozen or more of his
best wine on to the lawn and broke the bottles saying that he did not want the
wine, but they had all had quite enough.
When
out at a party, Capt. Reeve with his common sense, would take great notice
before dinner began of the exact position of the door in case of accidents. He
has often seen unsteady forms trying in hopeless corners of the room to find
their way out.
Dinner Etiquette
We
have already hinted at the rather loose conduct of the gentleman over their
wine at the dinner parties of the olden time.
There was, however, a great deal of formality interspersed with the
joviality of the period. It was
customary, for example, for every gentleman to bow across the table to the lady
of the house, and ask for the pleasure of a glass of wine with her. Neglect of this piece of etiquette would have
been deemed an unpardonable omission. It
was rather a formidable task for the youth of that day to withstand the gaze of
the assembled party while he waited to catch the hostess’ eye.
And
the task was yet more formidable when the hostess’ eye was an ever wandering
though beaming star. Miss Thomson of
Dedham unfortunately squinted, and the gentlemen never knew when they had
caught her eye, and when they had not.
On one occasion, at her house, the gentlemen had all nervously refrained
from attempting the usual formula. This
was not to be passed unnoticed by that lady.
“There are less than seven gentlemen present”, she said, “and not one of
them has had the grace to ask me to take wine with him”.
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