Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-12-26
THE DINNER HOUR
GROWS LATER AS NATIONS AD-
VANCE IN CIVILIZATION.
Society Does Not Go to Rest With the
Lamb and Rise With the
Lark.
From the Pail Man Gazette.

From the Pail Mall Gazette.
| Conceding Charles Lambs dictum thai
| civilization came in with the candle, the
| late hours now in vogue are proof positive
were proof needed-that the century OF
this generation is the twentieth. A man, a
nation and an age are known by the hours
| they keep. The later the hour the higher
the status. We have travelled far from the
| natural order Of lying down with the lamb
| and rising up with the lark. AS to eating
when We are hungry we are both hungrier
and eat twice as often as our forefathers.
This is the age Of four meals per diem,
even as the nineteenth century distinguish
| ed itself by eating thrice every twenty
four hours.
Not to peer too far into the misty saw
ageries> of the past, we may start from the
proverbial practice Of the fifteenth CEN
fury. A verse Of worldly wisdom then de-
creed:
Rise at five.
Dine at nine,
At five in the evening thou mayst sup.
And thou shalt live to ninety-and-nne.
Meals at Strange Hours.
Even these times were an hour later than
the century before. When man rose at
dawn the toll Of the curfew at pm. was
ears deaf in slumber even in the king S
palace. What is stranger is the fact that
there were only two meals a day-dinner
at the outrageous hour Of am, and sup
per at or N the afternoon. The break
FAST indeed, which is now the first article
In the British constitution, is a modern in
novation. The Oxford Dictionary gives
breakfast" Up to century ago it was
trifing meal, a mere snack Of bread
washed down by a draught of ale or wine;
actually simple break in the fast since
supper, and not a solid preparation for the
days work in the way Of bacon and eggs,
fish, chop and toast.
In the Northumberland House Book for
1912 1t Is set forth that the Percy family
rose at am, had its morning draught at
7, dtned at 10, and supped at in the after
noon. The gates were shut at and no
further ingress or egress permitted. The
advance in civilization was marked by an
other full circle Of the minute hand round
the clock. Elizabeth and her court rose at
T., drank their morning ale at and dined
at II. The theaters opened at 1 pm, and
the performance was over in time for sup
per between 5 and 6. Curiously enough, the
workers kept later hours than the rich.
artisans and husbandmen waited for sup
per until or o'clock, when their days
work was done. At Oxford and Cambridge
the students dined at II.
Cromwell's Dinner.
Puritanism did not arrest the onward
movement. Cromwell surpassed all pre-
vious rulers Of England by dining after
noon, at 1:3O. But hours were still primi-
lively early. according to modern IDEAS
even in the luxurious age of Charles II.
Merchants were at their desks by or Z,
for Pepys was not alone in getting down
to his office by 4 or O'Clock Neither easy
nor comfortable could 1t have been to set
to work at that cold, soulless hour on no
better basis than the half-pint Of Rhensh
wine or dram of strong liquors which was
Pepys' habtual morning refreshment The
no-breakfast practitioners of modernity
are mere copyists Of primitive customs
Dinner was at 1 o'clock, and it was then
that gentlemen settled themselves seriously
to the wine, beginning and ending their
debauches in full daylight. The house of
commons met at 8, and its business was
over soon after noon The theaters opened
at and sent their audiences away to sup
per at Z.
Under Anne the fashionable world did not
bestir itself before 8, from which hour to
Ii great men held their levees. Dinner was
at o'clock, and the gentlemen tarried at
the table until 6. whence they went to the
play. The day was growing rapidly older
Five o'clock was the fashionable hour for
dinner in 1850, though the king remained
faithful to his practice Of dining at 2. Hor-
ace Walpole disliked such late hours, and
complained of not being able to begin the
evening until o'clock. So pronounced was
the onward sweep of the clock that in 1852
even Oxford University advanced the din
ner hour from noon to 1 pm Tea was now
served In the drawing room at and supper
at IL.
Beginning Of Breakfast.
The postponement of dinner until well
after noon brought breakfast into promi-