FRENCH COUNTRY LIFE.
"The dinner-hour in the country," said a relation of the writer, who spends a great deal of time in France, "is generally two o'clock, even when company are invited to partake of the dinner; in which case, the whole party has quitted the house by six or seven in the evening,—a custom which ill accords with English ideas of sociability. Three table-cloths are usually laid upon the table, the first and second of which are, or may be, removed during the repast; but the third is never drawn off, except to be changed for a clean one. In England, we pride ourselves upon the fine mahogany of which our dinner-tables are made; we endeavour to obtain, in the first instance, an excellent piece of wood, and to improve it by assiduous rubbing and polishing. In France, it matters not of what material the table is framed; a cloth is always upon it; and I have seen the hospitable board of many families of rank literally formed of deal."