the reverse.--Having dined at the table of a person of fashion at _Aix_,
a pert priest, one the company, asked me many questions relative to the
customs and manners of the English nation; and among other things, I
explained to him the elegance in which the tables of people of the first
fashion were served; and told him, that when any one changed his dish,
that his plate, knife and fork, were changed also, and that they were as
perfectly bright and clean as the day they came from the silver-smith's
shop. After a little pause, and a significant sneer,--Pray Sir, (said
he) and do you not change your napkins also? I was piqued a little, and
told him we did not, but that indeed I had made a little mistake, which
I would rectify, which was, that though I had told him the plate, knife,
and fork, were so frequently changed at genteel tables in England, there
was one exception to it; for it sometimes happened that low under-bred
priests (especially on a Sunday) were necessarily admitted to the tables
of people of fashion, and that the butler sometimes left them to wipe
their knife upon their bread, as I had often seen _Lewis_ the Fifteenth
do, even after eating fish with it.--As it was on a Sunday I had met
with this fop of divinity, at a genteel table, I thought I had been even
with him, and I believe he thought so too, for he asked me no more
questions; yet he assured me at his going out, "_he had the honour to be
my most obedient humble servant_." This over-strained civility, so
unlike good-breeding, puts me in mind of what was said of poor Sir WM.
ST. Q----N, after his death, by an arch wag at _Bath_: Sir William, you
know, was a polite old gentleman, but had the manners and breeding
rather of the late, than the present age, and though a man deservedly
esteemed for his many virtues, was by some thought too ceremonious.
Somebody at the round table at _Morgan_'s Coffee-house happened to say,
alas! poor Sir William! he is gone; but he was a good man, and is surely
gone to Heaven, and I can tell you what he said when he first entered
the holy gates! the interrogation followed of course: Why, said he,