An under-bred Frenchman is the
most offensive civil thing in the world: a well-bred Frenchman, quite
the reverse.--Having dined at the table of a person of fashion at _Aix_,
a pert priest, one the company, asked me many questions relative to the
customs and manners of the English nation; and among other things, I
explained to him the elegance in which the tables of people of the first
fashion were served; and told him, that when any one changed his dish,
that his plate, knife and fork, were changed also, and that they were as
perfectly bright and clean as the day they came from the silver-smith's
shop. After a little pause, and a significant sneer,--Pray Sir, (said
he) and do you not change your napkins also? I was piqued a little, and
told him we did not, but that indeed I had made a little mistake, which
I would rectify, which was, that though I had told him the plate, knife,
and fork, were so frequently changed at genteel tables in England, there
was one exception to it; for it sometimes happened that low under-bred
priests (especially on a Sunday) were necessarily admitted to the tables
of people of fashion, and that the butler sometimes left them to wipe
their knife upon their bread, as I had often seen _Lewis_ the Fifteenth
do, even after eating fish with it.
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