and it will be seen
that they are for the gentry. They are mainly for youths whose
environments are portrayed in the interesting frontispiece of the work,
where they are seen in compartments,--at church, in college, in
conversation, at the fireside, in promenade, and at table. We have
already seen, from Backer's Jesuit bibliography, that Father Leonard
Perin added a chapter on "bienseance" at table; but after this there is
another chapter--a wonderful chapter--and it would be interesting to
learn whether we owe this also to Perin. This last chapter is
exquisitely epicurean, dealing with table-setting, table-service, and
the proper order of entrees, roasts, salads, and dessert. It closes--and
the book closes--with a sort of sugarplum paean, the sweets and spices
being in the end gracefully spiritualised. But this concluding passage
of Chapter XI. ("Des Services & honneurs de la Table") must be quoted:--

"Sugar-plums complete the pleasantness and enjoyment of the
dessert, and serve, as it were, to satisfy pleasure. They are
brought, while the table is still laid, in a handsome box on a
salver, like those given by the ancients to be carried home.[1]
Sometimes, also, they are handed round after the hands have been
washed in rose water, and the table covered with a Turkey cloth.

"These are riches which we possess in abundance, and your feasts
cannot terminate more agreeably in your quarters than with our
Verdun sugar-plums. Besides the exquisite delicacy of their sugar,
cinnamon and aniseed, they possess a sweet, fragrant odour like the
breeze of the Canaries,--that is to say, like our sincerest
attachment for you, of which you will also receive proof. Thus you
see, then, the courteous advice we have undertaken to give you to
serve for a profitable entertainment, If you please, then, we will
bring it to a close, in order to devote ourselves more zealously to
other duties which will contribute to your satisfaction, and prove
agreeable to all those who truly esteem good-breeding and decent
general conversation, as we ardently hope.

"Praise be to God and to the glorious Virgin!"[2]

* * * * *

[Footnote 1: This is not unknown at some of the civic banquets in
London.]

[Footnote 2: "Les dragees acheuent la douceur de la resjoueissance du
dessert & font comme l'assouuissement du plaisir. Elles so