elegance. In the boxes of the first tier might have been seen the daughters
of the Duchess of Argyle, four of England's beauties; in the next box
were the equally lovely Marchioness of Stafford and her daughter, Lady
Elizabeth Gore, now the Duchess of Norfolk: not less remarkable was
Lady Harrowby and her daughters Lady Susan and Lady Mary Ryder. The
peculiar type of female beauty which these ladies so attractively exemplified,
is such as can be met with only in the British Isles: the full, round,
soul-inspired eye of Italy, and the dark hair of the sunny south, often
combined with that exquisitely pearly complexion which seems to be concomitant
with humidity and fog. You could scarcely gaze upon the peculiar beauty
to which I refer without being as much charmed with its kindly expression
as with its physical loveliness.


DINING AND COOKERY IN ENGLAND FIFTY YEARS AGO


England can boast of a Spenser, Shakspeare, Milton, and many other illustrious
poets, clearly indicating that the national character of Britons is
not deficient in imagination; but we have not had one single masculine
inventive genius of the kitchen. It is the probable result of our national
antipathy to mysterious culinary compounds, that none of the bright
minds of England have ventured into the region of scientific cookery.
Even in the best houses, when I was a young man, the dinners were wonderfully
solid, hot and stimulating. The menu of a grand dinner was thus composed:
- Mulligatawny and turtle soups were the first dishes placed before
you; a little lower, the eye met with the familiar salmon at one end
of the table, and the turbot, surrounded by smelts, at the other. The
first course was sure to be followed by a saddle of mutton or a piece
of roast beef; and then you could take your oath that fowls, tongue,