About two o’clock the lunch-table is spread, when some of the gentlemen find time to be present, and more good things are partaken of. Pepper punch is brewed for “the lords of the creation;” Hock and Seltzer water introduced, and the delicious lemonade, made from the limes that moment gathered; and sparkling water from the peculiar porous jars, which keep it as cool as if drawn from the bottom of some gelid grot. The flies are very troublesome in Antigua, particularly at those moments when meals are going forward, flying into the plates and dishes, and almost upon the very portions of food you are conveying to your mouth; indeed, in one instance, I observed one of these intruding little insects actually fly into a gentleman’s mouth upon his opening it to utter some witty saying. To guard against these disagreeable associates in your repast, it is customary to have a black boy stand behind your chair, with a large green bough in his hand, with which he brushes backwards and forwards, in order to drive the intruders away. If the bough made use of be gathered from any aromatic shrub, it is particularly agreeable, as it throws a pleasing fragrance around, at the same time it raises a gentle breeze. After lunch, your former amusements are resumed, until the sun loses a little of its intensity, when bonnets and shawls are called into requisition, and you stroll to the “boiling-house” to see the preparation of sugar-boiling going on, and taste the “sling,” (the name given to the sugar when in its liquid state,) canter over the short turf on the back of some “Bucephalus,” or wander through scenes of sylvan beauty, until the time arrives when it is necessary to repair to the house to dress for dinner. Seven o’clock is the usual time appointed for “this momentous meal,” a time better fitted for this warm climate than an earlier hour. The dinner generally consists of fish and soup, with the accompanying Champagne, followed by flesh and fowl, and concluded by pastry, game, (when in season,) butter, cheese, and shell-fish. Madeira and Sauterne are the wines generally used at dinner; and port, claret, cherry-brandy, and other liqueurs, with luscious Malmsey, are introduced with the dessert, which of course embraces the choicest of the West Indian fruits. Most of the higher families possess a good stock of silver and glass, and the table linen would please the most fastidious. The gentlemen do not sit long at their wine, but join the ladies in the drawing-room, where tea and coffee soon make their appearance, and the evening is spent in music and conversation until the ornamental clock points to a late hour, when, family prayers over, you retire to your chamber, and under cover of a single sheet, repose in quietness, unless disturbed by an officious mosquito, which, _sans ceremonie_, has entered by a peep-hole in the “net” which surrounds the bed.