A Memoir of Jane Austen

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Changes of Customs
The dinners too were more homely, though not less plentiful
and savoury; and the bill of fare in one house would not be so like
that in another as it is now, for family receipts were held in high
estimation. A grandmother of culinary talent could bequeath
to her descendant fame for some particular dish, and might
influence the family dinner for many generations.
Dos est magna parentium
Virtus.°
One house would pride itself on its ham, another on its game-pie,
and a third on its superior furmity, or tansey-pudding.° Beer and
home-made wines, especially mead, were more largely consumed.
Vegetables were less plentiful and less various. Potatoes were
used, but not so abundantly as now; and there was an idea that
they were to be eaten only with roast meat. They were novelties
to a tenant’s wife who was entertained at Steventon Parsonage,
certainly less than a hundred years ago; and when Mrs. Austen
advised her to plant them in her own garden, she replied, ‘No, no;
they are very well for you gentry, but they must be terribly costly
to rear.’°
But a still greater difference would be found in the furniture of
the rooms, which would appear to us lamentably scanty. There
was a general deficiency of carpeting in sitting-rooms, bedrooms,
and passages. A pianoforte, or rather a spinnet or harpsichord,
was by no means a necessary appendage. It was to be found
only where there was a decided taste for music, not so common
then as now, or in such great houses as would probably contain a
billiard-table. There would often be but one sofa in the house,
and that a stiff, angular, uncomfortable article. There were no
deep easy-chairs, nor other appliances for lounging; for to lie
down, or even to lean back, was a luxury permitted only to old
persons or invalids. It was said of a nobleman, a personal friend of
George III. and a model gentleman of his day, that he would have
made the tour of Europe without ever touching the back of his
travelling carriage. But perhaps we should be most struck with
the total absence of those elegant little articles which now embellish
and encumber our drawing-room tables. We should miss the
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