A gentleman should do the same with his serviette and bread, placing
the one across his knees, and the other at his right or left hand.

When a lady is some little time taking off her gloves, she should remove
her serviette before doing so: otherwise a servant would offer her soup
before she had made room for the soup-plate by removing the serviette,
and she should decide quickly as to which of the two soups handed to her
she will take, so as not to keep the servant waiting; and so on through
every course throughout the dinner as regards fish, meat, etc.

* * * * *

=The guests should consult the menu= on first sitting down to dinner.
Eating soup comes first under notice. In olden days it was customary to
drink it out of a basin. In these days no one "drinks" soup, it is
"eaten"; whether it be mock turtle or the clearest julienne, it is eaten
out of a soup-plate at dinner, and with a table-spoon.

There is a reason for this choice of spoons; soup is nothing if it is
not hot, and as it is the custom to give only about half a ladleful to
each person, it is eaten quicker, and therefore hotter, with a large
spoon than with a small one.

There is also a good and sufficient reason for small quantities of soup
being given in lieu of large ones, viz. the extent of the menu; and when
a plateful of soup is handed to a guest accustomed to the regulation
supply, he fears that he is expected to dine off it, and that there is
nothing much to follow.

Again, small helpings require a smaller quantity of soup to be provided,
and a servant is less likely to spill plates containing a little soup
than plates that are half full.

At ball suppers, when soup is served in soup-plates, it is also eaten
with a table-spoon, but not when served in small cups.

Many years ago it was fashionable to eat fish with a fork and a crust of
bread; previous to this a table-knife and fork were considered the
proper things to use for this purpose. It was then discovered that a
steel knife gave an unpalatable flavour to the fish, and a crust of
bread was substituted for the knife. This fashion lasted a considerable
time, in spite of the fingers being thus brought unpleasantly near to
the plate, and to this day old-fashioned people have a predilection for
that crust of bread. One evening a well-known diner-out discarded his
crust of bread, and ate his fish with two silver forks; this notion
found such general favour that s