Every thing that unites elegance with comfort, should be attended to, but elegance ought to give way at all times to comfort. Two or three cloths make the table look much handsomer; and it is astonishing how meagre to an eye accustomed to that style, a table with only one appears; but this may be easily obviated, if the cloth is not removed during the service, by having a stout coarse one under it, or a scarlet cloth under a fine thin damask, gives it an imperceptible glow; but, if such is used, the cloth must not be taken off, as nothing can look well in removing but linen. A scarlet cloth, fitted to the table, and laid between the table-cloths, preserves the polish, as well as adds to the appearance." * Linen should be regularly used; many housekeepers, and particularly cooking ones, in, families where there is a great quantity, instead of using it regularly through, wear out the same sets. The French, who ought to be our patterns for economy, wash even their body linen but once or twice a year; and experience proves that a large quantity of linen so treated, lasts proportionably double the time of linen in constant use. When the washing is at stated periods, the proper season is chosen, which is towards the end of March, and every thing is then got up in order. Where two washings are requisite in the year, they should be in March and the beginning of October: linen so washed will be handsomer the second, or even the third time, on table, if not stained, and carefully pressed, than those in constant wash will be at first and the bad colour contracted by such washing is generally corrected by burning substances. But should these large washings not be convenient, the sets should be used one after another; and even if not used, they should be washed once a year, otherwise they will rot. ought to be more attended to than it is, as an elegant simplicity is often more becoming in a certain style, show, or magnificence. The French generally adorn their plateaux with vases at the corners. A very elegant custom has for some time been revived with us, of which we might perhaps be little inclined to think our rude forefathers guilty. Such, however, is the truth, and there are many amongst us who may not be aware that by using two or more table-cloths, they subject themselves to the penalty annexed to a sumptuary law of Richard, forbidding more than one. To the abolition of supernumerary table-cloths, a top cloth succeeded, called an overlay, which was laid under the dishes, and was easily removed with them. Now that plateaux of weight are in fashion, to remove the cloths is a very distressing and even a perilous business, and rollers that go down the table are coming into use; something of this kind is necessary, as there is nothing that has a worse appearance than a greasy spot under a second course. The French can hardly have this, as their meats are generally, though not always, cut down. I have seen linen, apparently in high preservation, taken from upper shelves, where it had long lain unmolested, return from the wash in shreds; and should that not always be the case, it is evident it will suffer from such management. Another bad practice prevails under the head of not assorting the linen to the size of the tables; sometimes it is too large, at others hardly six inches over the table, for which there is always a ready excuse. The mistress ought to have a linen book, and those that have the charge a copy of it. In this book the linen ought to be distinctly entered and regularly classed, with the lengths and breadths, as well as the patterns, specified. The mistress would by this means soon know by her eye without any trouble, how it was managed, and give her orders determinedly. Although the tea-table is excluded from fashionable parties as an incumbrance to the more elegant amusements of turning over fine prints, and examining works of art, with which our drawing-rooms are now generally embellished. In the beginning of the last century it was not so; tea was then given as the medium of intercourse. Ladies went in their chairs in high dress, or walked wrapt up in large cloaks and calashes, with their work-bags in their hands, or carried by a servant. Aye, in day-light too, at four o'clock. I own every thing is more brilliant under the favour of the soft, lambent, and lucent wax. This pleasant mode of society, which all ranks could keep up, was quite delightful; men did not come heated with wine, nor women dressed for effect as opera dancers, as they knew they must run a very different sort of ordeal than that of the present day; and many characters might be pointed out in the recollection still of the living, that will fully bear out the truth of the assertion, that these parties were fitted to improve the mind, while those of the present day are as much fitted to destroy it. The prodigious expenditure in the mode of keeping up society at present, precludes all from enjoying it but the prodigious rich; and many, through vanity, follow it to destruction. On the Continent the pleasantest society is in the evening where they give nothing at all, where the ladies all work, and the gentlemen, if they do not play, walk about and converse with them. In France, now, the tea-table is partially introduced to accommodate the English, which serves to show off their nice cakes and bon bons, the last of which are often put on the table in a large bon bonier, divided like a Pope John counter-box. At our entertainment the mistress is generally so taken up with the tout ensemble, that it shall be conducted in a whole with that elegance that gives an eclat; she does not care that Mrs. "" who is a nervous rich dowager, or others, should complain that after she had sat through the bustle of three courses, she did not get a comfortable cup of tea to put her in spirits. From the education of the women on the Continent, brought up at the knees of their mothers, they are more knowing, more self-possessed, so that it is no trouble to them to see into every thing, as that the minutia when looked into is generally well arranged, where the whole, perhaps, has not that general eclât; but comfort is much more attended to for guests than appearance, they always making allowance for the great demand the English have on it.* As to the old objection of tea-table scandal, that ought now to be obsolete, as few men can free the wine-table from such an imputation, so that it is much to be feared that the cases are very generally upon a par. TEA TABLE. "Now stir the fire and close the shutters fast, The tea-table is in most families a delightful relaxation, it is afforded with no trouble and little expense, and the only time, perhaps, a father can spare to have his family once a-day collected about him, where he may see the different dispositions of his children, and draw a knowledge of the general management of his family. A kettle and lamp is far better for making tea than an urn; besides, the mistress will have it in her power to see that the water is properly boiled. The tea ought to be merely damped with about a table-spoonful of water, In recommending the economy and management of the French, let me not for moment be misunderstood, as meaning any thing farther. I have laboured only o contrast the managements of different countries, that we may benefit by it. and allowed to stand for some minutes, and the teapot then filled up. A round tea pot is the best, and a china one is preferable to silver, retaining the heat longer; but as they are in general very clumsy when large, and bad pourers, with their aptness to break, has deservedly so far brought them into disuse. It would be needless to repeat here what has been so fully given with respect to the economy and propriety of a proper choice for every thing pertaining to the table, and that things in common use should be such as may be matched, which prevents much chagrin when accidents occur. Since Sir John Sinclair gave a receipt for toast and water, it has generally and deservedly occupied a place in cookery-books, as it is our best and healthiest beverage, the making of which is still ill attended to; I must, therefore, following this good example, say something of toast, which is so material to comfort, appearance, and health, being generally served with coffee, and with hard butter. There are four kinds of toast, three of which come in their place here. Toast for coffee, hard, and soft toast. Bread should be baked expressly for the first two with eggs and milk, to which sugar may be added, and well worked, that it may have the consistency of cake, very white and fine in the grain: this bread should be baked in square tin cases, and no more dough put in than will rather under than over fill them: this shape is a great saving: the bread should not be cut for two days. To serve with coffee, let it be sliced from an half to one inch thick, according to the square that is wanted, then square it properly, and let the pieces be from three to three and a half inches long; let these be dried in the screen or oven perfectly white, and when wanted, tinge them before the fire on all sides, the edges will get darker, which looks well; serve them stalked. This bread makes also excellent hard toast, and should be toasted at a great distance from the fire, which prevents it from losing its shape, and should be thoroughly dried through. These toasts, if not used, are to be put up as rusks, and will keep as well. Soft toast, to eat cold with butter, ought to be thinner and rather more hardened than that to be eaten hot; and this should be the business of the cook, as in the pantry it is often left to careless boys, who, after toasting it, throw it down upon a table where glass and other things have been cleaned, and laying on their hand very weightily to crust it, press the hot bread together, which soddens and destroys the fine flavour imparted by the fire. The difference is that the cook slices it in her breadtray, crusts it carefully, knowing that any pressure on it would hurt it, even before toasting. There is also no loss, as, if the cook knows her business with economy, she has plenty of uses for the crusts. Toast and butter is variously made with soft toast to taste when much butter is not used; an excellent way to give it mellowness is to put the bread as it is toasted a little over the steam of boiling water, and then butter it from a fine perforated buttering pan, taking care the butter is not oiled. This way of buttering has another advantage, all the sediment and milky particles fall to the bottom. There is an excellent French bread for buttering. (See Receipts.) BREAKFAST TABLE. There is an old adage, breakfast in Scotland, dine in England, and sup in France. These distinctions are fast wearing out, and there are none of these places in which the most fastidious might not now take their chance for all the three. Scotland, in addition to the cold meats on the sideboard, has fish, ham, sausages, and pies prepared on purpose, likewise a great variety of breads, as wheat, oat, barley, and fine pea's meal in scones and cakes, with hot rolls and toast, eggs, honey dropt and in the comb, marmalades, jellies, and fruits, such as straw and raspberries, with cream, chocolate, cocoa, tea, and coffee. But what is this to the English public breakfast, which, after the tables exhibiting the full ball dress of assiettes and pieces montées, caramels in all their gem-like beauty, cold game in all its varieties, its péregueux, its salads, galantines, its chambours, its hatelats of all that is delicate and nice; its delicious fruits and wines, its pecoa, its mocha, its vanilla. But that is not all; its haunches of venison, and early chickens, every thing rare and expensive, dished in the massy plate of the rich host, and |