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CHEAP FARE FOR TRAVELLER?.
167
supper, bed, and breakfast for twopence farthing
surpasses all. Once in Italy I had a supper of maccaroni,
stewed rabbit, salad, bread, cheese, and wine, and this
with my night’s lodging cost fourpence halfpenny: the
lodging cost two soldi, or three farthings, the wine three
farthings more, and the banquet threepence. There
was abundance, and the charges were made on the most
equitable principle ; for the meat, the bread, and the
cheese were weighed in their dishes before they were
put on the table, and weighed afterwards; the loss of
weight being charged to the consumer: a clean cloth
o <t> o
was laid, and a neatly folded napkin provided.
I may mention, for the information of refined and
fastidious people who regard the unshaven beard as a
coarse institution, that I have observed that the practice
of using table napkins among the poorer classes is
exclusively confined to countries where the beard or
moustache is worn. The table napkin is parent to many
other refinements: for example, the method before
alluded to of cleaning knives and spoons by sucking
them is less likely to be popular where napkins are at
hand and abundant; neither is the hostess or the
servant so strongly tempted to wipe plates, &c., with the
corner of a dirty apron, or, failing that, with the skirt
of a dress or petticoat: practices by 110 means unknown
to the British Isles. As may be supposed, this Italian
hotel was not commonly frequented by English tourists.
It was on the way between Genoa and La Spezzia. I
had wandered from the main road, to keep along the
ridge of the mountains that slope down to the Mediter-
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