Dessert

Nothing more completely displays the perfection reached in the domestic arrangement of a household than the way the dessert is set out.

Fruit has from the earliest times been a popular part of all banquets and feasts, and allusions to this custom of placing fruit and sweetmeats of all kinds on the table at the end of the repast meet us at every turn, from the very dawning of civilisation to the comparatively modern times when Justice Shallow invited stout Sir John Falstaff to ‘eat a last year’s pippin of my own graffing with a dish of carraways, and so forth,’ in the arbour in his orchard. In former times the arrangement of the fruit for the banquets was the care of the ladies of the household, and many a great artist has condescended to immortalise their dainty arrangements; some, like Titian, combining the exquisite tazze, laden with grapes, figs, melons, with the portrait of the fair arranger; and few lovers of English literature but will remember Milton’s description of the first dessert prepared by Eve for her angel-guest.