THROUGH SWEDEN. 
67 
purpole of indulging in epicurean extravagance, but from the foie 
motive of enjoying one another’s company. . The Swedifh dinner 
parties are expenfive arrangements of fhew and formality. It will 
often happen that out of forty or fifty people, who appear in con- 
fequence of an invitation fent with all poffible ceremony, and 
perhaps a week or a fortnight before the appointed day, fcarcely 
three or four know one another fufficiently to make the meeting 
agreeable. A foreigner may ftill fare worfe, and have the misfor¬ 
tune of being feated near a perlon totally unacquainted with any 
language but his own. Before the company fit down to dinner, 
they firfi pay their refpedls to a fide table, laden with bread, but¬ 
ter, cheefe, pickled falmon, and liqueur , or brandy; and by the 
tailing of thefe previous to their repaid, endeavour to give an edge 
to their appetite, and to flimulate the flomach to perform its of¬ 
fice. After this prelude, the guefls arrange themfelves about the 
dinner table, where every one finds at his place three kinds of 
bread, flat and coarfe rye bread, white bread, and brown bread. 
The firfi fort of bread is what the peafants eat; it is crifp and dry: 
the fecond fort is common bread ; but the brown, lafl mentioned, 
has a fweet tafle, being made with the water with which the 
veffels in the fugar-houfes are wafhed, and is the nafliefl thing 
poffible. All the difhes are at once put upon the table, but no 
one is allowed to afk for what he likes befl, the difhes being 
handed round in regular fucceffion ; and an Englifliman has often 
occafion for all his patience to wait till the one is put in motion 
on which he has fixed his choice. The Swedes are more know- 
K 2 
mg 
