"Her cook was not skilful in our cookery, but did her best. I remember distinctly who was present on this occasion with this respected publisher. It was a luncheon with meats. I ate at the same table, and it may very easily have escaped his notice that a different dish was handed to me.
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"I have several times sat at this friend's table with a large number of guests. I remember once counting that seventeen dishes were handed to me. I dined on my own food to the great marvel of those near me….
"I have always maintained that the main reason for proclaiming any rule of diet is, that the outsiders may be afforded facts to aid their own judgment; and that our engagement has no other element of obligation than that we shall not vitiate the materials of such judgment.
"Therefore also I have advocated several grades—for instance, an engagement allowing of fish as food (which many will take who will not go our length), and another in which absence from home (where one cannot arrange the cookery) is an exemption. I rejoice also in the Daniclete rule. Provided that it is KNOWN what is the diet, we give valuable information."
"14th Oct., 1883.
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"I knew that the publisher to whom you referred could only be Mr. Kegan Paul, who met me some few years back at luncheon in the house of my friends the Miss Swanwicks: that until you told me his name, I thought it better not to write to him. But thereupon I wrote and explained to him that my friend Miss Anna Swanwick knew perfectly that I could not accept their hospitality (as I have habitually done for a week or more at a time) if they expected me to partake of any food inconsistent with the rules of our Society. I long ago furnished her with some of our recipes, and she showed her cook always to make a special dish for me. At one of their dinner parties I remember the amazement of guests at my passing all the dishes, as at first it seemed, until my own little dish came. I told Mr. Kegan Paul that he must have mistaken what was in my plate (perhaps crumb omelette browned over—which I remember the cook was apt to give me) for some fish of which he and others were partaking. I have no doubt that this was the whole matter….
"I am sincerely yours,
"F. W. Newman."