Twice round the clock; or, The hours of the day and night in LondonSala, George Augustus
General
Twice round the clock; or, The hours of the day and night in London
Sala, George Augustus
London (England) -- Social life and customs -- 19th century
Supper is now the great cry, and the abundant eating and drinking
resources of the Haymarket are forthwith called into requisition.
Bless us all! there must be something very dusty and exhaustive in the
British drama to make this Haymarket audience so clamorous for supper.
By the ravenous hunger and thirst displayed by the late patrons of the
theatre, you would imagine that they had gone without dinner for a week.
You may sup in the Haymarket as your taste would lead, or as the state
of your finances would counsel—if people followed such counsel—you to
sup. You may cut your coat according to your cloth. Are you rich—there
is Dubourg’s, the Hôtel de Paris, and the upstairs department of the
Café de l’Europe. There is no lack of cunning cooks there, I warrant,
to send you up pheasants and partridges _en papillotte_; _filets_, with
mushrooms or truffles, culinary gewgaws that shall cost five shillings
the dish. Yea, and cellarers will not be wanting to convey to you the
Roederer’s Champagne, the fragrant Clos Vougeot, the refreshing Lafitte,
and the enlivening Chambertin with yellow seal; smooth waiters to attend
to your minutest wishes, and bring you the handsome reckoning on an
electro-silver plateau, and, with many bows, return you what odd change
there may be out of a five-pound note. I do not say that the Haymarket
contains such gorgeous supper-houses as the Maison Dorée, the Café de
Paris, the Café Anglais, or Vachette’s; but I have seen some notable
_parties fines_ within its precincts. The Haymarket never was virtuous;
so there is never any question about the cakes and ale, and the ginger
that is hot in the mouth, to be found therein.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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