222 ECHOES OF OLD COUNTY LIFE. 



cences, he remarks upon the inferiority of the dinners 

 at the few clubs which were in existence at the close 

 of the Regency, how the fashionable society of the 

 day preferred dining at the Clarendon, Grillon's, or 

 Limmer's. The change which periodically takes place 

 in the manners and customs of the diner is very 

 noticeable. During the last fifty years there has been 

 a complete alteration, not only in the nature of the 

 viands served up for consumption, but in the serving 

 of them, in the table decorations, in the very furniture 

 of the dining-room. The main feature, which must 

 strike every one, is the decrease in the heavy joints, 

 dishes of fish, rich puddings, and in the old profusion 

 of vegetables, under the weight of which the tables 

 groaned, which have now been replaced by lightness and 

 elegance even in the viands, and by the delicate and 

 tasteful style in which they are now presented to the 

 guests. I might illustrate my meaning by a uienu, or, 

 as it used to be called, a "Bill of Fare," of the Olden 

 Time. I found it amongst some papers at the White 

 Hart. About twenty guests partook of this dinner, 

 which was given to Lord Blaney by the officers of the 

 Bucks Yeomanry. The chief characteristic, as it ap- 

 pears on the carte, is that each course was placed on the 

 table complete — sauces, vegetables, side dishes, or, as 

 we now call them, entrdes^ along with the joints — and 

 everything was carved upon and served from the table, 

 nothing being handed round by the waiters. The 

 manner in which the dishes are noted down on the page 

 is to direct the waiters as to where to place them on 

 the table. 



