For people who live half a Dozen Miles from the Standard in Cornhill, to invite you, or you to invite them, to a Dinner Party later than Four o’clock, or an Evening Party later than Seven, is one of the most ridiculous affectations imaginable! Courteous Reader, summon resolution enough to set a Good Example:—surely this cannot require more Courage than it does to follow a Bad Example.
“And leave the folly of Night Dinners
To Fools, and Dandies, and old Sinners.”
Desire your Coachman to give you notice a day or two before the Horses will want
SHOEING,
that you may appoint a convenient time for that purpose. See Obs. on Shoeing, in the Chapter on Horses.
If you think that you may want your Carriage earlier than your usual time of going out in the Morning, give your Coachman notice over Night; or when you send in the Morning, expect (and don’t be uselessly angry if you get) for an answer, “John is gone to the Blacksmith’s,” or “to the Coachmaker’s,” or “to the Hay Market,” or to any other Market that the person who serves Fudge for him, happens to think of first. If any such Answer be given, desire that as soon as he returns, he will come for Orders; you will then know how long he has been absent.
LENDING YOUR CARRIAGE.
As soon as you set up a Carriage, lots of Idle and Impertinent People, and all the various branches of “the Skin Flint’s,” and “the Save All’s,” are up early on the alert, setting all kinds of Traps to ride at your cost.