Three generations

LIGHT FARE 81
reasonably free from extravagance. Dinner-parties
were comparatively rare, and the guests were mostly
confined to men, when sherry and port were the only
wines drunk, and that very moderately. With cheese
and dessert there was Edinburgh strong ale or porter.
If excess followed it was in the shape of whisky toddy.
The prevailing form of gaiety was what was styled
" tea and supper," the invitation to which often included
the words "in an easy way." The company did not
often exceed five or six couples. The gentlemen not
infrequently omitted the first part of the programme,
but they came in time for the amusement provided —
whist at sixpenny points. If any young people drifted
in to what was essentially a party for married couples,
they had a separate table with round games of cards.
The supper was modest enough, limited to such dishes
as are now banished from our tables, or only figure as
breakfast-dishes or dinner entrees — such were tripe,
kidneys, " minced collops " (the Scotch dish was made
from fresh meat, not rechauffe from meat already
cooked), crab-pies served in the crab-shells, etc. On
this light fare the merriment and the wit, which repre-
sented the feast of reason and the flow of soul, played
freely : more freely than at the more formal and more
substantial dinners — banquets which, when women
were present, marked " house-heatings," marriages, etc.
Such rivalry as existed was chiefly in connection
with the menu furnished by the presiding matron, as
it was an affair for which the mistress of the house
did not disdain to hold herself accountable. Even if
she relegated the dinner to her cook, she was under-
stood to be in possession of sufficient superior know-
ledge to qualify her in guiding and superintending
the cook. ... It was the same on more ceremonious
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