ts, they are ever on the
watch to distribute themselves the dainties which it is the peculiar
part of the master and mistress to serve out, and is to them the most
pleasant part of the business of the banquet: the pleasure of helping
their friends is the gratification, which is their reward for the
trouble they have had in preparing the feast. Such gentry are the terror
of all good housewives: to obtain their favourite cut they will so
unmercifully mangle your joints, that a dainty dog would hardly get a
meal from them after; which, managed by the considerative hands of an
old housekeeper, would furnish a decent dinner for a large
family."--Vide "_Almanach des Gourmands_."

I once heard a gentle hint on this subject, given to a _blue-mould
fancier_, who by looking too long at a Stilton cheese, was at last
completely overcome, by his eye exciting his appetite, till it became
quite ungovernable; and unconscious of every thing but the _mity_ object
of his contemplation, he began to pick out, in no small portions, the
primest parts his eye could select from the centre of the cheese.

The good-natured founder of the feast, highly amused at the ecstasies
each morsel created in its passage over the palate of the enraptured
_gourmand_, thus encouraged the perseverance of his guest--"Cut away, my
dear sir, cut away, use no ceremony, I pray: I hope you will pick out
all the best of my cheese. _Don't you think_ that THE RIND _and the_
ROTTEN _will do very well for my wife and family!!_" There is another
set of terribly _free and easy_ folks, who are "fond of taking
possession of the throne of domestic comfort," and then, with all the
impudence imaginable, simper out to the ousted master of the family,
"Dear me, I am afraid I have taken your place!"

_Half the trouble of_ WAITING AT TABLE _may be saved_ by giving each
guest two plates, two knives and forks, two pieces of bread, a spoon, a
wine-glass, and a tumbler, and placing the wines and sauces, and the
MAGAZINE OF TASTE, (No. 462,) &c. as a _dormant_, in the centre of the
table; one neighbour may then help another.

Dinner-tables are seldom sufficiently lighted, or attended. An active
waiter will have enough to do to attend upon half a dozen active eaters.
There should be about half as many candles as there are guests, and
their flame be about eighteen inches above the table. Our foolish
modern pompous candelabras seem intended to illuminate the ceiling,
rather than to give