Desserts have grown smaller by degrees and beautifully less ; therefore it is amusing to come upon a description of what they used to be long years ago. I read of a table described in the year 1709. " The whole, when ranged in its proper order, looked like a very beautiful winter-piece. There were several pyramids of candied sweetmeats that hung like icicles, with fruits scattered up and down, hidden in an artificial kind of frost. At the same time there were great quantities of cream beaten up into a snow, and near them, little plates of sugar-plums disposed like so many heaps of hailstones, with a multitude of congelations in jellies of various kinds." At desserts up to date the fruit is seldom put on the table ; just a couple of dishes, with the fruits in season, handed round, or arrayed in mixed fashion; but all the year round one dish should be either grapes or pine- apple. The arrangement and floral decoration of the table are great features, and pretty glass, china, napery, and cutlery are now moderate in price and within the com- pass of nearly every one's purse, so that there is no excuse for a badly appointed table service. There are persons who consider beauty is obtained by the use of odd pieces of china and glass ; but I do not quite agree, though I rather like to see different plates for each course. I remember that at one house where I dined the soup plates were of Worcester ware; the fish, hexagon-shaped, cream colour, with the crest on ; the third course all comic hunting subjects ; the next old Chelsea ; then crown Derby ; after that a series of hand- painted animals, and finishing with groups of subjects in red Autotype Company's colourings, and so on ; but I cannot recollect all. This fashion may be to a certain extent an economy, as it would be needless to buy a whole service, when a grand smash takes place. The dinner glass should always match, with the exception of the Hock glasses, which are generally old gold or pale 68 THE housewife's KEFBKEE yellow, and quite a different shape to the rest. The greenish Nuremburg hock glasses are very much to the fore just now ; but though the shapes are lovely, I do not quite care for their sombre tints. For sorbet glasses the colouring is perfect. Salviati's Venetian glass, which is fashioned in all sorts of quaint shapes, has been very much used ; but I think it is less so now, except for sweetmeat dishes. Champagne glasses of crackled gold glass are among the novelties, but they will not take in the best society; exquisite jewelled glass is very much in vogue, also glass with gold monogram and crest on it. The old-fashioned, double-diamond, cut glass now used is a worthy rival of the old specimens one meets with now and again; but it is impossible to go on describing the fads and fashions of the present moment, as they are changed as often as ladies' dress fashions. To my own taste there is nothing better than very thin glass of classical shape, with just the crest or monogram, or else the old-fashioned, diamond, cut glass — those just mentioned in the quaint old shapes of a hundred years ago. The great thing at the present time is variety; at most houses where there is much entertaining change is the order of the day, and, coming after the stereotyped table decorations of yore, it is really a great charm.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Desserts have grown smaller by degrees and beautifully less ; therefore it is amusing to come upon a description of what they used to be long years ago. I read of a table described in the year 1709. " The whole, when ranged in its proper order, looked like a very beautiful winter-piece. There were several pyramids of candied sweetmeats that hung like icicles, with fruits scattered up and down, hidden in an artificial kind of frost. At the same time there were great quantities of cream beaten up into a snow, and near them, little plates of sugar-plums disposed like so many heaps of hailstones, with a multitude of congelations in jellies of various kinds." At desserts up to date the fruit is seldom put on the table ; just a couple of dishes, with the fruits in season, handed round, or arrayed in mixed fashion; but all the year round one dish should be either grapes or pineapple. The arrangement and floral decoration of the table are great features, and pretty glass, china, napery, and cutlery are now moderate in price and within the compass of nearly every one's purse, so that there is no excuse for a badly appointed table service. There are persons who consider beauty is obtained by the use of odd pieces of china and glass ; but I do not quite agree, though I rather like to see different plates for each course. I remember that at one house where I dined the soup plates were of Worcester ware; the fish, hexagon-shaped, cream colour, with the crest on ; the third course all comic hunting subjects ; the next old Chelsea ; then crown Derby ; after that a series of handpainted animals, and finishing with groups of subjects in red Autotype Company's colourings, and so on ; but I cannot recollect all. This fashion may be to a certain extent an economy, as it would be needless to buy a whole service, when a grand smash takes place. The dinner glass should always match, with the exception of the Hock glasses, which are generally old gold or pale THE HOUSEWIFE'S REFEREE yellow, and quite a different shape to the rest. The greenish Nuremburg hock glasses are very much to the fore just now ; but though the shapes are lovely, I do not quite care for their sombre tints. For sorbet glasses the colouring is perfect. Salviati's Venetian glass, which is fashioned in all sorts of quaint shapes, has been very much used ; but I think it is less so now, except for sweetmeat dishes. Champagne glasses of crackled gold glass are among the novelties, but they will not take in the best society; exquisite jewelled glass is very much in vogue, also glass with gold monogram and crest on it. The old-fashioned, double-diamond, cut glass now used is a worthy rival of the old specimens one meets with now and again; but it is impossible to go on describing the fads and fashions of the present moment, as they are changed as often as ladies' dress fashions. To my own taste there is nothing better than very thin glass of classical shape, with just the crest or monogram, or else the old-fashioned, diamond, cut glass — those just mentioned in the quaint old shapes of a hundred years ago. The great thing at the present time is variety; at most houses where there is much entertaining change is the order of the day, and, coming after the stereotyped table decorations of yore, it is really a great charm.

The housewife's referee