ON ICES.
At regular set dinners ices are always served. For a party of ten or
fourteen there is generally a cream and water ice, with biscuits,
&c. The French generally serve a greater number of ices than we do.
The ices most in vogue in London are pine, lemon, orange, ginger,
strawberry, and cherry ices. In Paris, apricot, peach, chocolate,
coffee, and four fruit ices are more common than with us.
Some there are who date the use of ice at table from the time of
Alexander the Great; who, it is said, had caves in India for the
preservation of ice; but it is certain that in Alexander’s time the
Greeks cooled their wine with ice, and that the Romans were also
acquainted with this luxury. A French traveller in Turkey, writing in
1553, tells us that the Turks had their _glacières_, in which they
preserved ice for table use. Henry III. was said to be the first who
introduced ice at his table in France, and it became common enough in
the following century. The word _glacière_ is not found in the
dictionary of Monet, published in 1636. But in 1667 Boileau wrote:--
“Pour semble de dis grace
Par le chaud qu’il faisait nous n’avions point de glace,
Point de glace, bon Dieu! dans le cœur de l’été,
Au mois de Juin.”
Wenham Lake ice is now handed round during dinner to mix with wine or
water between April and August.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]