"Over and above the ordinary tea equipage the board creaked beneath the weight of a jolly round of beef, a ham of the first magnitude, and sundry towers of buttered Yorkshire cake, piled slice upon slice in most alluring order. There was also a goodly jug of well-browned clay, fashioned into the form of an old gentleman not by any means unlike the locksmith, atop of whose bald head was a fine white froth answering to his wig, indicative, beyond dispute, of sparkling home brewed ale. But better than fair home-brewed, or Yorkshire cake, or ham, or beef, or anything to eat or drink that earth or air or water can supply, there sat, presiding over all, the locksmith's rosy daughter, before whose dark eyes even beef grew insignificant, and malt became as nothing." Ah-h-h! There is not much eating in _A Tale of Two Cities_; but an intolerable amount of assorted "sack." In _Sketches by Boz_ we learn that Dickens had no great opinion of public dinners, and that oysters were, at that period, occasionally opened by the fair sex. There is a nice flavour of fowl and old Madeira about _Dombey and Son_, and the description of the dinner at Doctor Blimber's establishment for young gentlemen is worth requoting: "There was some nice soup; also roast meat, boiled meat, vegetables, pie, and cheese." [_Cheese_ at a small boys' school!] "Every young gentleman had a massive silver fork and a napkin; and all the arrangements were stately and handsome. In particular there was a butler in a blue coat and bright buttons" [surely this was a footman?] "who gave quite a winey flavour to the table beer, he poured it out so superbly." Dinner at Mrs. Jellyby's in _Bleak House_ is one of the funniest and most delightful incidents in the book, especially the attendance. "The young woman with the flannel bandage waited, and dropped everything on the table wherever it happened to go, and never moved it again until she put it on the stairs. The person I had seen in pattens (who I suppose to have been the cook) frequently came and skirmished with her at the door, and there appeared to be ill-will between them." The dinner given by Mr. Guppy at the "Slap Bang" dining house is another feature of this book--veal and ham, and French beans, summer cabbage, pots of half-and-half, marrow puddings, "three Cheshires" and "three small rums." Of the items in this list, the marrow pudding seems to be as extinct--in London, at all events--as the dodo. It appears to be a mixture of bread, pounded almonds, cream, eggs, lemon peel, sugar, nutmeg, and marrow; and sounds nice.