have seen it taken up with the fingers, but as cheese is apt to smell rather strongly it is better to avoid touching it.

A safe rule with sweets.

With regard to sweets, it is a safe rule to use the fork only when it suffices for the work in hand. With tarts, as a rule, both spoon and fork are necessary, especially when there is syrup. Cold tart can often be comfortably eaten with a fork. Jellies and creams are eaten with a fork only; ice-pudding with an ice- spoon, or, failing that, a teaspoon.

Placing the dessert knife and fork.

D’oyley and finger-glass.

From the moment one has unfolded one’s napkin and placed the bread it contained at one’s left, there is nothing more to do that concerns the “cover,” as the preparation for each diner’s convenience is called, until the dessert-plate, with its d’oyley, finger-glass, silver knife and fork—and perhaps ice-plate and spoon in addition—is set down before one. Before the ices or dessert are handed round, one must place the dessert-knife and fork at right and left, respectively, of one’s plate, and, taking up the finger-glass carefully in one hand, with the other place the d’oyley on the cloth to the left of one’s plate, then setting the finger-glass down upon it. I say “carefully,” because these glasses are often of the lightest possible kind, and are occasionally of a costly description. Besides, rough handling might tend to spill the water they contain.

Dessert.

Grapes.

Expelling skin and seeds.

Bananas.

Oranges.

Apples and pears, &c.

With regard to the dessert fruits, &c., there are a few puzzles to be found among them for the inexperienced. Grapes present one of these. They are taken up singly, and afterwards the skin and seeds have to be expelled as unobtrusively as possible. It is a matter of great difficulty to accomplish this by any other method than using the hand, therefore this is the accepted custom. The forefinger is curved above the mouth in a manner which serves to conceal the ejectment, and the skin and seeds are in this way conveyed to the plate, the fingers being afterwards wiped with the napkin. Bananas are peeled with the knife and fork, and the pieces are conveyed to the mouth by means of the fork. Oranges are cut in two, then in four, and with the aid of knife and fork the contents of each section are extracted in two or more parts, and carried to the lips on the fork. Apples and pears are peeled with the knife and fork; peaches, apricots, and nectarines in the same way.

Straw berries.

Strawberries are taken by the stem, dipped in sugar and cream, and carried to the lips with the fingers. If the fruit has been picked free of husks and stem, it may be bruised on the plate with sugar and cream, and eaten with a spoon. Preserved ginger is eaten with the knife and fork.

Pines and melons.