r in Germany except when
the dinner celebrated a betrothal, a wedding, or some equally
important and unusual event. But it has become the fashion in Berlin
lately to dress for large dinners and evening entertainments. No rule
can be laid down for the guidance of English visitors to Germany,
because what you wear must depend partly on the dinner hour and partly
on the ways of your hosts and their friends. Last year when I was in
Berlin I accepted a formal invitation sent a fortnight beforehand to a
dinner given on a Sunday at five o'clock. As the host was a
distinguished scientific man who had just returned from a journey
round the world, it promised to be an interesting entertainment; and
there were, in fact, some of the most celebrated members of the
University present. They were all in morning dress, and their
womenfolk wore what we should call Sunday frocks. The dinner was
beautifully cooked and served, and was not oppressively long. Soup
began it of course, roast veal with various vegetables followed, fish
came next, lovely little grey-blue fish better to look at than to eat,
then chicken, ice pudding, and dessert. There were flowers on the
table, but not as many as we should have with the same opportunities,
for the house was set in an immense garden; and all down the long
narrow table there were bottles of wine and mineral water. When the
champagne came, and that is served at a later stage in Germany than it
is with us, speeches of congratulation were made to the host on his
safe return, and every guest in reach clinked their glasses with his.
After dinner men and women rose together in the German way, and drank
coffee in the drawing-room. The men lighted cigars. A little later in
the evening slender glasses of beer and lemonade were brought round,
and just before everyone left at nine o'clock there was tea and a
variety of little cakes and sandwiches, not our double sandwiches, but
tiny single slices of buttered roll, each with its scrap of caviare or
smoked salmon.

A ball supper or a Christmas supper in Germany consists of three or
four courses served separately, and all hot except the sweet, which is
usually _Gefrorenes_. Salmon, roast beef or veal, venison or chicken,
and then ice would be an ordinary menu, and every course would be
divided into portions and handed round on long narrow dishes. In most
German towns you are often asked to supper, and very seldom to dinner.
You never know beforehand what sort o