The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-01-10
LUNCHEON.
Britain's Characteristic Meal-1ts ETY..
mology, Etiquette and Development

| Britain's Characteristic Meal-1ts Ety.
mology, Etiquette and Development.
| The terms lunch" and luncheon"
! then, are old ones, and we have pressed
the first into service as an intranstive
verb; but 1t Is sometimes forgotten how
very recent is luncheon as an institu-
ton. Eighty years ago the house OF
Longman published a little volume enti-
tied Essays and Sketches Of Life and
Character. by One Who Has Left His
Lodgings" Dropping into this upon an
idle morning in friends library /
found the papers so much better than
their promise that I gave some trouble
to the publishers in tracing out the au-
thor. This turned out to be none other
than Lord John Russell, who, it may
be assumed, understood the society he
undertook to criticise, and whose state
ments about its habits must be consid-
cred above cavil He grumbled about
the excessive lateness Of the dinner hour
in London, even in the reign of George
III, and advocates the establishment of
luncheon at three or four Give o'clock
tea ching, of course, an unknown luxu-
ry). He said:
1.-THE first inconvenience of London
life is the late hour of dinner. To pass
the day impransus, and then to sit
down to a great dinner at eight o'clock,
Is entirely against the first dictates Of
common sense and--common stomach.
Women, however are not so irrational
as men in London, and generally sit
down TO substantial luncheon at
three or four. If men would do the
same the meal at eight might be light
ened of many of it's weighty dishes, and
conversation would be no loser; for 1t is
not to be concealed that conversation
suffers great interruption from the
manner in which English dinners are
managed. First the host and hostess
Cor her unfortunate coadjutor) are en-
ployed during three parts of dinner in
doing the work of servants-helping
fish or carving large pieces of venison
to twenty hungry souls. If
guest wishes for glass of wine he
must peep through the Apollos and
Cupids of the plateau in order to find
some one to drink with him, otherwise
he must wait till some one asks him,
which will probably happen in rapid |
succession, SO that after having had no
wine for half an hour he will have to
dring five glasses in five minutes
Well, Lord John Russell lived to see |
the tresome custom of taking wine |
with other guests given up; he wit |
messed, also host and hostess relieved |
from the labors of carving by the intro |
duction of diner a la Russo; lastly, |
luncheon became firmly established |
among our services of obigation--so
firmly that it may be backed to outlast
Reveral other British institutions that I
might be named. Two o'clock luncheon, I
and the etiquette under which ladies'
leave the dinner table before the men,
now constitute the most salient differ
ances between English and continental
domestic habits. Attempts have been
made in this country by those who ap-
precate the magnificent occasion either
for dawdling or business afforded by the
Interval between the early coffee or
chocolate and the midday dejeuner la
Fourchette to acclimatize that arrange
nent of hours and digestion. 1t has
much to commend it, and one can but