A Sportsman 229 



which guests are favorably lenient, well knowing that 

 only a very strong reason exists for tardiness upon an 

 occasion where promptness to fill is so well understood. 

 I remember an occasion in London of a dinner I at- 

 tended scarcely less important than the one first men- 

 tioned, when nearly all were from fifteen to thirty 

 minutes late, owing to one of those dense, suffocating, 

 sooty fogs, which sometimes in the autumn drop down 

 on the streets of London. In this instance the pasty 

 gloom of smoky moisture was so dense that my cab- 

 man had to lead his horse by the non-penetrating 

 glimmer of a lantern, constantly impeded by corre- 

 sponding vehicles travelling all sorts of ways, and, al- 

 though I started well in advance of the dinner hour, I 

 was nearly half an hour late, as were most of the guests. 

 In this instance the delay was so general, and the cause 

 so well understood, that it was the subject of general 

 pleasant remark. 



The dinner given by Sir Walter was quite simple, 

 and so considered by the Prince, who remarked as he 

 glanced over the menu, that he considered it a model 

 bill of fare, and that he should take it home to show 

 the Princess, putting the menu in his coat pocket, 

 which act I thought well to follow on my part, and, 

 withdrawing it now from a package of old papers, I 

 will give it exactly: 



(Gilbey Crest) 



Cambridge House, London, N. W. 



Dinner to the President (H. R. H. the Prince of Wales) Presi- 

 dent-elect, Past President and Council, Hackney Horse Society. 

 Tuesday, 3d March, 1891. 



Oysters. Turtle Soup. Clear Soup. 



Tweed Salmon (Carham). 

 Soles, Slips. Whitebait. 



