Coningsby or the New Generation

Sidonia was to dine at Lord Monmouth's the day after he met Lucretia, / and afterwards they were all to meet at a ball much talked of, and / to which invitations were much sought; and which was to be given that / evening by the Baroness S. de Rd.

Lord Monmouth's dinners at Paris were celebrated. It was generally / agreed that they had no rivals; yet there were others who had as skilful / cooks, others who, for such a purpose, were equally profuse in their / expenditure. What, then, was the secret spell of his success? The / simplest in the world, though no one seemed aware of it. His Lordship's / plates were always hot: whereas at Paris, in the best appointed houses, / and at dinners which, for costly materials and admirable art in their / preparation, cannot be surpassed, the effect is always considerably / lessened, and by a mode the most mortifying: by the mere circumstance / that every one at a French dinner is served on a cold plate. The reason / of a custom, or rather a necessity, which one would think a nation so / celebrated for their gastronomical taste would recoil from, is really, / it is believed, that the ordinary French porcelain is so very inferior / that it cannot endure the preparatory heat for dinner. The common white / pottery, for example, which is in general use, and always found at the / cafés, will not bear vicinage to a brisk kitchen fire for half-an-hour. / Now, if we only had that treaty of commerce with France which has been / so often on the point of completion, the fabrics of our unrivalled / potteries, in exchange for their capital wines, would be found / throughout France. The dinners of both nations would be improved: the / English would gain a delightful beverage, and the French, for the first / time in their lives, would dine off hot plates. An unanswerable instance / of the advantages of commercial reciprocity.