pots and stewpans--the creaking spits--the clattering of marrowbones
and cleavers--the scolding of cooks--and all the other various kinds
of din which form an accompaniment to dressing a large dinner.

But all this toil and anxiety was more than doubled in the case of the
approaching feast at Martindale Castle, where the presiding Genius of
the festivity was scarce provided with adequate means to carry her
hospitable purpose into effect. The tyrannical conduct of husbands, in
such cases, is universal; and I scarce know one householder of my
acquaintance who has not, on some ill-omened and most inconvenient
season, announced suddenly to his innocent helpmate, that he had
invited

"Some odious Major Rock,
To drop in at six o'clock,"

to the great discomposure of the lady, and the discredit, perhaps, of
her domestic arrangements.

Peveril of the Peak was still more thoughtless; for he had directed
his lady to invite the whole honest men of the neighbourhood to make
good cheer at Martindale Castle, in honour of the blessed Restoration
of his most sacred Majesty, without precisely explaining where the
provisions were to come from. The deer-park had lain waste ever since
the siege; the dovecot could do little to furnish forth such an
entertainment; the fishponds, it is true, were well provided (which
the neighbouring Presbyterians noted as a suspicious circumstance);
and game was to be had for the shooting, upon the extensive heaths and
hills of Derbyshire. But these were but the secondary parts of a
banquet; and the house-steward and bailiff, Lady Peveril's only