The St. Johns herald., 1893-01-05
ESTHETIC SANDWICHES.
A Toothsome Dainty Favored
 with the Odors of Flowers.
They Were Invented and Prepared by the Ladies of Quiet English Homestead as Novelty for the Even-
 ing Meal.

sounds almost as unexpected and para doxical as to speak of an esthetic saus- age; and yet in England the gentle women serve, at afternoon tea. sand wiches so ambrosial that they fully jus tify the paradox.
 These dainty delights, so diaphanous that they are almost ethereal, tasted for the first time at Elmswood house, in Devon, says s. T. Sherman in Table Talk.
 Elmswood house enjoys the distinc- tion of having the best-appointed five o'clock tea table i1 all England, which is no modest distinction in a country where afternoon tea is such an indis- pensable adjunct to everyday life.
 The esthetic sandwich was invented by the ladies Of Elmswood house, as novelty to accompany the tea, one re- cent summer; but it proved so popular that it remained feature Of their table all the ensuing winter, and finally be- came staple, appearing with the urn summer and winter, year in, year out.
 Such a perfect beverage must needs have a perfect accompaniment; so, to meet this demand, the esthetic sandwich was invented, and ever since fashion able England has been eating violets and roses, cowslips and orange bloS- sons with her daily bread. The petals of these blossoms are not plucked and laid between the buttered slices; no such crude method could obtain at Elmswood house. Yet their favOrs are present as distinctly as if the petals themselves were there, and for long time the manner of procuring this effect was kept a secret by their patrician in- ventors, so that the sandwiches added to their material deliciousnesS the fur ther zest of mystery. But the secret finally waited abroad, as such secrets subtly will, and at the time of my Films wood visit it had become such an open one that I was freely taken into the cold stone dairy, where Miss Winnifred and little Gladys unvailed the mystery to me. On one of the marble shelves little pat of butter, wrapped in thinnest dairy cloth, rested on a bed of clover blossoms in the bottom of a china tureen, and Betty, the maid, was lining the sides of the dish with the same fragrant blossoms and heaping them on top of the pat. When the tureen would not hold another blossom, the lid was crushed down upon them and the yes seI was carried to the huge, cool, gothic cellar to await ''the ornamental meal, ," as Mir. Oliphant terms the five o'clock cup.
 Here the butter busted itself absorb ing fragrance. like a bee in the clover, while beside it in stone jar was the golden-crusted loaf of bread, also wrapped in a film of dairy cloth and packed snugly in nest of clover blos- soms. Here it kept cool and moist while it bode it's time. When that time came it was cut with a keen blade in slices so thin that they were lacy and diaphanous and had to be buttered on the loaf. They came to the senses like the breath of calves and the scent of new-mown hay at dewfall. With such an adjunct the wonder ceases that hot afternoon tea in summer can seem so delightful to the English for all through green June it is drank with clover sandwiches one day, or rose the next. violet the next, and anon honey locust blended with orange blossom and tasting like some exquisite idealized honey. Earlier in the season there have been cherry blossom and apple blossom buffers, and cowslip and naS- turtium, the two latter being the most pungent and piquant of all, and, as they are very appetizing, they are great favorites with the gentlemen. No flowers are used with these buffers ex- cept the edible flowers; clover, locust and orange blossoms that the bees have taught us to relish in honey; roses and violets that confectioners have taught us to relish in glaces; the cowslip, which Goldsmith and the Howitts have taught us to relish in the homemade wine of old time fiction; and the nasturtium, which, pungent and peppery in pickles, becomes most unctious in the esthetic sandwich. This last flavor was the favorite, par excellence, with all the hearty and ruddy young athletes who would drop in hungry and thirsty after cricket, or Rugby, or tennis, for sip of Elmswood house souchong and generous dozen of the diaphanous nasturtium dominoes; for the shape of this delicate sandwich is a small oblong. And under these ''dominoes" such dis tinct f1owery flavors turk in such com plete disguise that the little feast might be called the ''Masque of Flowers" l have seen the uninitiated pick the sim pie things to pieces to find the source of the aroma. and then stare in bafiled per plexity, like the king did at the apple dumpling, when he was moved to cry his historic query: But how, how got the apple in?'
 It was one of the pretty conceits of the Elmswood house tea table to have the various chamois leather tea coseys embroidered with the different flowers used as flavorings, and on clover day to use the one with clover spray upon it, on cowslip day the cowslip cosey, on locust day the locust ccsey, and so Qn