Let them each be fresh and green.
With small beer, good ale, and wine,
O ye gods! how I shall dine!"
Canon Barham, no less than Sydney Smith, wielded a valiant spoon, and to the unpunctual at dinner he has delivered one of his most forcible sermons in "The Lay of St. Cuthbert":
"When asked out to dine by a Person of Quality,
Mind and observe the most strict punctuality!
For should you come late, and make dinner wait,
And the victuals get cold, you'll incur, sure as fate,
The Master's displeasure, the Mistress's hate.