68 
TRAVELS 
ing in this refpedt, and, like the French, eat of every thing that 
comes before them : and although the different difhes do not feem 
to harmonize together, yet fuch is the force of habit, that the 
guests apparently find no inconvenience from the raoft oppofite 
mixtures. Anchovies, herrings, onions, eggs, paftry, often meet 
together on the fame plate, and are fwallowed promifcuoufly.- 
The fweet is affociated with the four, muflard with fugar, con¬ 
fectionaries with fait meat or fait f fh; in fhort, eatables are in¬ 
termingled with a poetical licence, that fets the precept of Ho¬ 
race at defiance— 
Sed non ut placidis coeant immitia. 
An Italian is not very much at a lofs at thefe feaffs; but an Eng- 
lifhman finds himfelf quite uncomfortable and out of his element: 
he fees no wine drank either with the ladies or the gentlemen 
during dinner; but muff take it himfelf in a folitary manner: he is 
often obliged to wait for hours before he can help himfelf to wdiat 
he prefers to eat, and when the meat arrives, he generally thinks 
it not dreffed plain enough, but difagreeable from the quantity of 
fpices with which it is feafoned. After dinner the ladies do not 
leave him to his bottle ; he is expelled to adjourn immediately with 
them to the drawdng-room, where the company, after thanking 
the mafler and miftrefs of the houfe with a polite or rather cere¬ 
monious bow for their good cheer, are regaled with tea and coffee. 
I have not entered into a circumffantial defeription of thefe long 
dinners, but only given the general outline, that I might not in- 
fiiCt upon my readers that ennui, which I confefs I have myfelf 
fometimes 
