Seven friends, named Adams, Brooks, Cater, Dobson, Edwards, Fry, and
Green, were spending fifteen days together at the seaside, and they had a
round breakfast table at the hotel all to themselves. It was agreed that
no man should ever sit down twice with the same two neighbours. As they
can be seated, under these conditions, in just fifteen ways, the plan was
quite practicable. But could the reader have prepared an arrangement for
every sitting? The hotel proprietor was asked to draw up a scheme, but he
miserably failed.