The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-09-06 00:00:00

A eIIINTAT, DINKEL

The following description of a Chinese dinner, from the
pen of Captain Laplace, of the French navy, will be read
with interest :

" The first course was laid out in a great number of saucers
of painted porcelain, and consisted of various relishes in a
cold state—as salted earth-worms, prepared and dried, but so
cut up that I fortunately did not know what they were until
I swallowed them ; salted or smoked fish and ham, both of
them cut into extremely small slices ; besides which there
was what they called Japan leather, a sort of darkish skin,
hard and tough, with a strong and far from agreeable taste,
which seemed to have been macerated in water for some time.
All these et ceteras, including among the number a liquor,
which I recognised to be soy, made from a Japan bean, and
long since adopted by the wine drinkers of Europe to revive
their faded appetites or tastes, were used as seasoning to a
great number of stews, which were contained in bowls, and
succeeded each other uninterruptedly. All the dishes, with-
out exception, swam in soup. On one side figured pigeons'
eggs, cooked in gravy, together with ducks and fowls, cut
very small, and immersed in a dark-coloured sauce ; on the
other, little balls made of sharks fins, eggs prepared by heat
(of which both the smell and taste seemed to us equally re-
pulsive,) immense grubs, a peculiar kind of sea fish, crabs,
and pounded shrimps.
" Seated at the right of our excellent Amphitryon, I
was the object of his whole attention, but nevertheless
found myself considerably at a loss how to use the two little
ivory sticks, tipped with silver, which, together with a knife
that had a long, narrow, and thin blade, formed the whole
of my eating apparatus. I had great difficulty in seizing
my prey in the midst of these several bowls filled with gravy ;
in vain I tried to hold, in imitation of my host, this substi-
tute for a fork between the thumb and the two first fingers
of the right hand, for the chopsticks slipped aside every
moment, leaving behind them the unhappy little morsel
which I coveted. It is true that the master of the house
came to the relief of my inexperience (by which he was
much entertained) with his two instruments, the extremities
of which a few moments before had touched a mouth whence
age and the use of snuff and tobacco had cruelly chased its
good looks. However, I contrived to eat, with tolerable
propriety, a soup prepared with the famous birds' nests, in
which the Chinese are such epicures. The substance thus
served up is reduced into very thin filaments, transparent as
isinglass, and resembling vermicelli, with little or no taste.
" At first I was much puzzled to find out how with our
chopsticks we should be able to taste of the various soups
which composed the greater part of the dinner, and had al-
ready called to mind the fable of the Fox and the Stork,
when our two Chinese entertainers dipping at once into the
bowl with the little saucer placed at the side of each guest,
showed us how to get rid of the difficulty.
" To the younger guests, naturally lively, such a crowd
of novelties presented an inexhaustible fund of pleasantry,
and though unintelligible to the worthy Hong merchant and
his brother, the jokes seemed to delight them not at all the
less. The wine, in the meantime, circulated freely, and the
toasts followed each other in rapid succession. This liquor,
which to my taste was by no means agreeable, is always
taken hot; and in this state it approaches pretty nearly to
Madeira in colour as well as a little in taste, but it is not
easy to get tipsy with it, for in spite of the necessity of fre-
quently attending to the invitations of my host, this wine did
not in the least affect my head. We drank it in little gilt
cups, having the shape of an antique vase, with two handles
of perfect workmanship, and kept constantly filled by atten-
dants holding large silver vessels like coffee-pots.
" After all these good things served one upon the other,
of which it gave me great pleasure to sec the last, succeeded
the second course, of which the object seemed to be a trial-
of the guests' appetites. Upon the edges of four bowls
arranged in a square, three others were placed, filled with
stews, and surmounted by an eighth, which thus formed the
summit of a pyramid, and the custom is to touch none of
these, although invited by the host. On the refusal of the
party the whole disappeared and the table was covered with
articles in pasty and sugar, in the midst of which was a salad
composed of the tender shoots of the bamboo, and some
watery preparations that exhaled a most disagreeable odour.
" Up to this point the relishes of which I first spoke had
been the sole accompaniment of all the successive ragouts,
they still served to season the bowls of plain rice, which the
attendants now, for the first time, placed before each of the
guests ; it must be remembered that this was a formal dinner
—rice forms a much more integral part of an every-day
meal.
" I regarded, with an air of considerable embarrassment,
the two little sticks with which, notwithstanding the' expe-
rience acquired since the commencement of the repast, it
seemed very doubtful whether I should be able to eat my
rice, grain by grain, according to the belief of Europeans
regarding the Chinese custom. I therefore waited until my
host should begin, to follow his example, foreseeing that, on
this new occasion, some fresh discovery would serve to re-
lieve us from the truly ludicrous embarrassment which we
all displayed ; in a word, our two Chinese cleverly joining
the ends of their chopsticks, plunged them into the bowls of
rice, held up to the mouth, which was opened to its full ex-
tent, and thus easily shovelled in the rice, not by grains, but
by handsfull."

When Maurice Margarot was tried at Edinburgh for sedi-
tion, Lord Justice Clerk Braxfield, who always talked broad
Scotch upon the bench, said " Hae ye ony counsel, mon ?"
" No." " D'ye want to hae ony appointit ?" " No." I
only want an interpreter to make me understand what your
lordship says."
HOUSEHOLD SERVICE OF A Doc.—" I say, stranger,"
said a cottage urchin to a Yankee pedlar, " don't whistle
that ere dog away." " Why he aint no use no how, he's
too ugly." "0, but he saves heaps of work." " How ?"
Why, he licks the plates and the dishes clean, so that they
never want washing, and mammy says she wouldn't part
with him no how, for our dog haint got used to mustard
yet."—Montreal Paper.
GIPSIES.—One of the most remarkable features in the
history of the gipsies is the striking similarity of their pur-
suits in every region of the globe to which they have pene-
trated. They are not merely alike in limb and in feature, in
the cast and expression of the eye, in the colour of the hair,
in their walk and gait, but everywhere they seem to exhibit
the same tendencies, and to hunt for their bread by the same
means, as if they were not of the human, but of the animal
species, and in lieu of reason were endowed with a kind of
instinct which assists them to a very limited extent and no
further. In no part of the world are they found engaged in
the cultivation of the carth or in the service of a regular
master ; but in all lands they are jockeys, or thieves, or
cheats ; and if ever they devote themselves to any toil or
trade, it is assuredly in every material point one and the
same. We have found them in the heart of a wild mountain,
hammering iron, and manufacturing from it instruments
either for their own use or that of the neighbourinc, towns
and villages.. They may be seen employed in a similar man-
ner in the plains of Russia, or in the bosom of its eternal
forests ; and whoever inspects the site where a horde of gip-
sies have encamped in the grassy lanes beneath the hazel
bushes of merry England, is generally sure to find relics of
tin and other metal, avouching that they there have been
exercising the arts of the tinker or the smith. Perhaps no-
thing speaks more forcibly for the antiquity of this set or
caste than the tenacity with which they have uniformly pre-
served their peculiar customs since the period of their be-
coming generally known ; for, unless their habits had become
a part of their nature, which could only have been effected
by a strict devotion to them through a long succession of
generations, it is not to be supposed that, after their arrival
in civilised Europe, they could have sustained and cherished
them, precisely in the same manner, in the various countries
where they have found an asylum.—Borrad's Gipsies.
ENpLISH SURNAMES, &c.—Sirname differed originally
from Surname. Mac-Allan, Fitz- Hardzng ,Ap Tudor, and
Stephenson, arc properly Sir-, or Sire-names, and are equi-
valent to the son of Allan, of Harding, of Tudor, of Stephen.
Of Surnames, Du Cange says, they were at first written
" not in a direct line after the Christian name, but above
it, between the lines;" and hence they were called in latin
Supranomina, in Italian Supranome, and in French Sur-
norns, from which, I suppose, the English terms is derived.
A Sur-name is, therefore, a name superadded to the first or
Christian name, to indicate to which the individual bearing
it belongs, as Edmund Spencer, John Milton, Alexander
Pope. Hence it is evident that, although every sirname
is a surname, every surname is not a sirname ; a distinction
which is now scarcely recognised, and the two words are used
indiscriminately by our best writers. The termination ward
indicates some office, and is equivalent to keeper or custos—
thus Alilward is the keeper of a mill (probably some manorial
or monastic mill ;) Kenward, the dog-keeper ; Aytward, the
ale-keeper ; Durward, the porter or door-keeper ; Hayward,
the keeper of a common herd of cattle belonging to some
town ; and Woodward, a forest-keeper, " an officer that
walks with a forest-bill, and takes cognizance of all offences
committed, at the nevt swain-mote or court of attachments."
Howard certainly belongs to this family of names, but anti-
quaries are not agreed as to the meaning of the first syllable.
Camden makes it the high-warden; Spellman, the hall-
keeper ; Verstegan, the keeper of a stronghold ; and Skinner,
a keeper of hospitality- The family of Oakes bear acorns,
(very natural that they should !) the Butlers, of Ireland, bear
three covered cups, (very proper again !) the Lambs, three
lambs; the Bacons, a boar; the Pines, a fir-tree or pine; the
Parkers, a stag's head; the Calls, three trumpets ; and the
Fsatherstones, three feathers. Sometimes the crest cants
when the arms do not ; this is the case in the family of
Beevor, a beaver; Ashburnham, ash-tree, &c &c.

STATIONS OF THE BRITISH ARMY,
ON THE IST OP SEPTEMBER, 1842.

(From (he flailed Service Journal.)
[Where two places are mentione the last-named is that at which
the DePot of the Regement is stationed.]
Ist the Guards—Hyde Park 40th Foot—Bombay; Chatham
24 Ditto—Windsor - 41st—Madras; Chatham
Royal H. Guards—Regent's Park 4231—Cephalonia ; Stirling
Ist Dragn Gds.—Canada; York 434—Canada; Enniskillen
2nd—Nottingham 44th—Bengal; Chatham
3d—Birmingham 45th—Dublin
4th—Dublin • 46th—Barbadoes ; Templemore
sth—Dublin •-- 47th—Berbiee ; Castlebar
6th—Glasgow 48th—Gibraltar ; Guernsey
7th—Cahir 49th—China; Chatham
Ist Dragoons—Manchester 50th—Bengal; Chatham
241—Exeter 51st—N. South Wales; Chatham
331—Bengal; Maidstone 52d—New Brunswick ; Athlone
4th—Canterbury 53d—Edinburgh
6th—Piershill 54th—Belfast
7th Hussars—Canada, York 55th—China; Chatham
804—Hounslow 56th—Cork
9th Lancers—Bengal ; Maidst. 57th—Madras ; Chatham
10th Hussars—Ballincollig 58th—Manchester
11th Light Dragoons, York sgth—Trinidad ; Jersey
12th Lancers—Dublin 60th(1st hattalon.)— Manchester
13th Light Dragoons—lpswich (24 batt.)—Jamaica; Dublin
14th—Bombay; Maidstone 61st—Newcastle - on -Tyne
15th Ilussars—Madras; M'stone 6231—Bengal ; Chatham
16th Lancers—Bengal; M'stone 63d—Madras ; Chatham
17th Lancers—Leeds 64th—America; Nenugh
Grenadier Guards (Ist batt.) 65th—Winchester
Portman-street 11211raeks 66th—Glasgow
(2d batt.)—Canada 67th—Canada ; Youghall
(3d batt.)—Manchester 68th—Canada ; Chester
Coldstream Guards—(lst batt.) 69th—New Brunswick; Fermoy.
St. John's Wood. 70th—Cauada ; Waterford
Scotch Fusileer Grds—(lstbatt) 71st—Canada; Isle of Wight
St. George's Barracks 72d—Blackburn
(24 batt.)—Tower 7331—Leeds
Ist Foot (Ist batt.)—Gibraltar 74th—Canada; Cashel
(2d batt.)—Canada; Charles F. 75th—C. of G. Hope; Chatham
231 Foot—Bombay; Chatham 76th—Halifax , Newry
3d—Bengal; Chatham 77th—Corfu; Sheerness
4th—Madras; Chatham 78th—Bombay; Chatham
sth—Gibraltar; Kilkenny 7901—Gibraltar; Aberdeen
6th—Gosport 80th—N. S. Wales; Chatham
7th—Gibraltar; Dover 81st—Antigua; Athlone
Bth—Dublin
, 82d—Jamaica; Boyle
'
Bth—Bengal; Chatham 8331—Canada; Armagh
84th—Madras; Chatham
10th—Bengal; Chatham
11th—Newport 85th—Canada; Limerick
86th—Bombay; Chatham
12th—Mauritius; Weedon 87th—Mauritius; Hull
13th—Bengal; Chatham
88th—Malta.; Longford
14th—Canada; Londonderry
89th—Canada; Naas
15th—Windsor 90th—Ceylon,; Drogheda
16th—Portsmouth
17th—Aden ;Chatham 91st—Cape 8z St.flelena ; LW.
9241—Barbadoes ; Dundee
18th—China ; Chatham gad—Canada;; PaiAley
19th—Malta; Brighton
20th—Bermuda ; Isle of Wight 95th-Ceylon;
• ,
, Chatham
Chatham
21st—Bengal; Chatham
96th-14•3• Wales ; Chatham
224—Bombay; Chatham
2331—Canada; Isle of Wight 9—. China; Brecon
24th—Devenport ._.
_,-Chatham
Good Hor- : Chatham '
_.99tn— - „ ,

25th—C. Goo, dope; - ,iiitie Brigade (Ist batt)—Malta
26th—China; Chathamr (9d Batt.;—Haiifax, N.S.
27th—C. Good Hope ; Mullinga
Colonial Corps
28th—N. S. Wales; Chatham
Ist W. Ind. Regt.—Demerara, &e
29th—Bombay ; Chatham 2n Jamaica
30th—Halifax ; Galway ' id—Sierra Leone
31st—llengal; Chatham Ceylon Rifles—Ceylon
32d—Leeds Cape Mounted Riflemen—Co.pe
33d—St. Vincent; Waterford " of Good Hope.
34th—Weedon R. Canadian Rifle Reg.—CanadaCompany
35th—Mauritius; Clonmel
3Gth—Linaerick .. ~ , . ' Royal Newfd. Veteran
—Newfoundland
nth—Dublin Royal Malta Feneibles—Malta
Seth—Corfu;' Hull St. Helena Regt,—St. llelena.
39th—Madras ; Chatham