Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ENGLISH CUSTOMS. 27 English fashion, on one cheek—and where the stranger receives the serious and affectionate salutations of the family. A door opens, and all the servants, frequently seven or eight in number, enter one after the other, and in silence. When all are assembled, prayers are read, or else, in some sects, a chapter of the Bible is read. These religious customs may astonish a stranger; but in England, where the difference of ranks is so marked, there is something touching in this admission of the servants to the bosom of the family, that all may perform in common what is regarded as a duty toward the Deity. When prayers are over, the family collect round the table, and drink tea or coffee. After breakfast, while the master is generally engaged with his studies or business, the visitor has to occupy his hours agreeably—a large library, scientific collections, green-houses embellished with rare plants, and the gardens surrounding the house. At one o'clock there is lunch, or what we call in Trance the second breakfast. In the afternoon, the family drive out to pay visits, explore the neighbourhood, or keep up with the farms and cottages those kindly relations which, to a certain point, fill up the difference of condition and persons in English society. At six o'clock comes dinner: the ladies have changed their dress, and the gentlemen are in evening costume. The conversation, less animated and sparkling than inFrance, generally turns on serious subjects. One of the peculiarities of an English dinner is, that after dessert the ladies rise and leave the dining-room, while the gentlemen seat themselves again, and drink a few glasses of port and sherry. There is no hob-nobbing; but the master of the house who wishes to do honour to his guest, invites him to fill his glass;...