Page:Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management.djvu/1876

1682 pickles, butter, sifted sugar, water carafes, sauces, etc., is determined by the number of dishes and the space available.

PICNICS

Provided care has been taken in choosing congenial guests, and that in a mixed party one sex does not preponderate, a well arranged picnic is one of the pleasantest forms of entertainment.

Watch carefully not to provide too much of one thing and too little of another; avoid serving plenty of salad and no dressing; two or three legs of lamb and no mint sauce; an abundance of wine and no corkscrew; and such like little mistakes. Given a happy party of young people, bent on enjoyment, these are trifles light as air, which serve rather to increase the fun than diminish it. But, on the other hand, the party may not all be young and merry; it may be very distasteful to some to have to suffer these inconveniences.

The easiest way to arrange that there should be nothing wanting, is to make out a menu, adding all the little etceteras. It is advisable to estimate quantities extravagantly, for nothing is more annoying than to find everything exhausted and guests hungry. Following is a list of articles that should be provided in addition to the repast:

Wines, bottled beer, soda-water, lemonade. Plates, knives, forks, spoons, glasses, tumblers, tablecloth, serviettes, glass cloths, pepper, cayenne, salt, mustard, oil, vinegar, castor sugar, corkscrews and champagne-opener. A chafing dish and accessories are very useful accompaniments to a picnic.

DINNER

Dinner, from Dine; O. Fr. disner, Fr. dîner; Low Lat. disnare, probfrom decoenare; L. de, intensive, and coeno, to dine; or, Fr. dîner, contr. of dėjeuner; from Lat. dis, and Low Lat. jejuno, to fast; Lat. jejunus, a fast.

Dinners in Ancient Times.—It is well known that the dinner-party, or symposium, was a not unimportant, and not unpoetical, feature in the life of the sociable, talkative, tasteful Greeks; their social and religious polity gave them many chances of being merry and making others merry by good eating and drinking. Any public or even domestic sacrifice to one of the gods was sure to be followed by a feast, the remains of the slaughtered "offering" being served up on the occasion as a pious pièce de resistance; and as the different gods, goddesses and demigods worshipped by the community in general, or by individuals, were very numerous indeed, and some very religious people never let a day pass without offering up something or other, the dinner-parties were countless. A birthday, too, furnished an excuse for a dinner—a birthday, that is, of any person long dead and buried, as well as of a living person, being a member of the family or otherwise esteemed. Dinners were of course eaten on all