table-decorum

Updated: May 14, 2025

The soup, of course, on this occasion, was turtle, of which, in accordance with immemorial custom, each guest was allowed two platefuls, in spite of the otherwise immitigable law of table-decorum. Indeed, judging from the proceedings of the gentlemen near me, I surmised that there was no practical limit, except the appetite of the guests and the capacity of the soup-tureens.

Nathaniel Hawthorne - Our Old Home: A Series of English Sketches: A Series of English Sketches