Cookery and housekeeping

table-maids, have been drilled to lay a table, to equip a sideboard, to bring up dishes without spilling the gravy or shifting the centre of gravity, to hand round the proper combinations in the proper order, guests will be dissatisfied and hosts humiliated. Carving requires a sharp knife, a firm hand, and a certain knowledge of anatomy. The number of helpings and guests should be a previous calculation of the housekeeper; but an unexpected accession of guests will suggest to the carver that each guest must receive a smaller helping of fish, or that if each regular guest receives a whole snipe, the unforeseen guest will get none, and he will carve his dish in less liberal portions. French asparagus, though handed round in its dish, is generally distributed by the servant, three or four heads to a guest being the allowance. The same rule is observed in the case of forced strawberries at dessert. CHAPTER VIII. DECORATION AND ARRANGEMENT OF THE DINNER TABLE. The table may be round, oval, or rectangular, broad or narrow ; it must be capable of being enlarged, so as to give room for the maximum number of guests, and when only four persons sit at meat, its size must not be in excess of their requirements. Lighting may be the result of candles or lamps placed on the table, or of chandeliers and lamps suspended over the table ; these are points to be settled when the general fittings-up of the dining-room are being arranged, according to the tastes and habits of each family. The important point is that the equipments and decorations should be adapted to the size and shape of the table ; that the glass, china, and plate should be chosen with taste, and arranged with an eye to the general effect ; that the cut flowers, flowering or foliage plants should have fitting receptacles, not merely be ' put in water ' or dropped into * cache-pots,' but that their disposal should show that care as well as cost have been at work. The table must be covered by a fair linen cloth of good design, with no marks of crease or fold, large enough to hang well over the sides of the table, not so large as to become entangled in the legs of the guests. The table napkins are to be of the same pattern as the cloth, and large enough to cover the knees and hang down a little way. The margin of the table is occupied by the knives and forks, wine-glasses, tumblers, water-bottles, saltcellars, stands for broken ice in summer, and the little stands for pepper and mustard. Wine-glass coolers are now seldom used. They take up too much room. But there should be three glasses, for sherry, claret, and champagne. It is usual to put a roll or piece of bread in the napkin, which is neatly or curiously folded. The result of this arrangement, however, is that the guest takes up the napkin without noticing the presence of the roll, which disappears under the table, and has to be replaced by a fresh one at an inconvenient moment for the service. Placing the roll in front or by the side of the ' couvert ' is a better plan.