The
dining-room not being long enough to accommodate us all at tea, the
table was placed diagonally across the room, and it was surprising to
see Mrs. Longworth pouring out tea and coffee for the whole party as
vigorously as if she were eighteen years old, her age being seventy-two.
She is remarkably pretty, with a fair complexion, and a very attractive
and gentle manner and face.
We had quails and Cincinnati hams, also oysters served in three
different ways--stewed, fried in butter, and in their natural state, but
taken out of their shells and served _en masse_ in a large dish. Our
friends were astonished that we did not like these famous oysters of
theirs in any form, which we did not, they being very huge in size and
strong in flavour. We said, too, we did not like making two bites of an
oyster; they pitied our want of taste, and lamented over our miserably
small ones in England. After tea we saw some sea-weed and autumnal
leaves beautifully dried and preserved by Mrs. Flagg, and we also
looked over an illustrated poem on the subject of Mr. and Mrs.
Longworth's golden wedding, the poem being the composition of Mr. Flagg.
Towards ten o'clock a table was laid out in the drawing-room with their
Catawba champagne, which was handed round in tumblers, followed by piles
of Vanilla ice a foot and a half high.
Pages:
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197