A Splendid Supper

Whether the entertainment consisted of quiet conversation, an elegant party, an impromptu dance, or a formal ball, private evening entertainments sometimes included supper, and supper often included tea. Jane once wrote to Cassandra describing the evening party their teenaged niece had attended: "Anna...had a delightful Evening with the Miss Middletons - Syllabub, Tea, Coffee, Singing, Dancing, a Hot Supper, eleven o'clock, everything that can be imagined agreeable."

By Jan Austen's time, hot suppers such as her niece had enjoyed were becoming less common. In Jane's youth, the early dinner times left people hungry by the middle of the evening; understandably, they favored large, sit-down suppers. As dinner times drifted later, following one full meal with another only three hours or so afterward seemed unnecessary. Suppers moved from the formal, cloth-covered table to the sideboard, where people generally served themselves. The new style of informal supper ranged from a few tidbits or sandwiches and wine set out on a tray for the family, to elegant repasts suitable for a party.

In Emma, Mr. Woodhouse (never a man to take up modern practices) loves to serve sit-down suppers to his guests "because it had been the fashion of his youth." Supper dishes at the Woodhouses' home include baked apples, biscuits, "a delicate fricassee of sweetbread and some asparagus," boiled eggs, minced chicken, scalloped oysters, and apple tarts, though the guests don't always get the chance to eat the food. Mr. Woodhouse, who limits himself to gruel for supper and who assumes everyone's digestion must be as delicate as his own, often disappoints his guest by sending dishes away because he fears the rich foods will harm their health.