Dinner consisted of a soup, fish, fricassee of chicken, cutlets, veal, hare, vegetables of all kinds, tart, melon, pineapple, grapes, peaches, nectarines with wine in proportion. Six servants wait upon us, a gentleman-inwaiting and a fat old housekeeper hovering round the door. Four hours later the door opens and in is pushed a supper of the same proportions.’ So the Countess of Granville recorded in 18 o a meal served just to her husband and herself. Food and drink were central to luxurious living and the wealthy offered guests dozens of dishes at dinner.

At a house party the company would eat an enormous late breakfast at IO or II o’clock, and an informal light luncheon would ensure their survival until dinner. In some houses, buffet meals called breakfasts were laid out at any time for guests to help themselves and wander the house and garden with plate in hand. But by 6.3o or 7 pm family and guests, now in formal dress, gathered in the drawing room to form up in order of social standing and go in procession to the dining room.

At the Table

In this dining room of about 181o, the long windows to the garden are standing open to let in the summer evening sun. At other seasons the firelight would heighten the warm gleam of the furniture — mostly mahogany — and with the candles already lit, the strands of the chandelier would sparkle, and be doubled by the large overmantel mirror in its black marble and ormolu frame.

The side tables are ready with glasses, wines, plates, ice, and port, Madeira and little rout cakes for later. The dining table itself glitters with arrays of ornately cut glass, heavy silverware and, as the meal progresses, richly decorated porcelain; plain white plates would be used for the earlier courses. Standardised dinner and dessert services were now being made with 12 place settings, or often in sets of 24 or 36, some sets amounting to over 500 pieces. Among them were pieces designed by potters for specific foods, for example custard cups and asparagus trays.

Sectional tables, introduced in the late 18th century, were clamped together to extend the table seemingly without limit. Since ordinary table legs made seating awkward, pedestal legs now replaced them and became a badge of the Regency era. Cellarets held bottles of red wine and lead-lined wine coolers filled with ice held the white wine. Most country estates now had an ice house to store ice cut during the winter. The sideboard often had urns standing on it, some of them knife boxes, some to hold water in which the servants could rinse glasses and cutlery during the meal. Often, as here, all the diners had a glass rinser set before them, holding water in which to swish the used drinking glass before the next wine was served.

For the dinner to run smoothly, at least one servant was needed for every diner, but conversation would be censored since many topics were thought unfit for servants‘ ears. A way round this was for the servants to place the desserts on a side table, then leave, letting guests serve themselves. Another solution was the ‘dumbwaiter’ (tiered shelves) on castors introduced in the mid-18th century. It held the desserts and the diners pushed it from one to another.

At the end of the meal the ladies would retire to the withdrawing room, leaving the gentlemen at table. Each group was free to gossip about special interests without censure, before the men joined the ladies.

1 Dumbwaiter and Coburg-pattern silver

2 Locked cellaret for wine from the cellar

3 Velvet-lined mahogany cutlery case and Old Sheffield plate wine cooler

4 Convex mirror in eagle-crested gilt beechwood with serpent candle-arms

5 Sideboard with green splashback curtains

6 Pedestal-leg extending dining table

7 Champagne flute and glass rinser

8 Chair with cane seat and squab cushion

9 Old Sheffield plate vegetable dish

10 Brass copies of Paul Storr silver-gilt centrepiece and candelabra

11 Green Nailsea glass table bell

12 Cut-glass and brass chandelier

13 Marble-topped rosewood and ormolu chiffonier with silk back panel

14 Black and gold lacquer pole screen

15 Worcester porcelain potpourri beside clear cut-glass lustre

16 Brass-inlaid mahogany clock

17 Hobnail-pattern, cut-glass decanters in Old Sheffield plate wagon

18 Glass goblets cut with broad fluting and diamond patterns

19 Imari-pattern Coalport porcelain plate

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