The order of the house is (for in describing one I describe all,) to breakfast in summer at eight, dine at two, and take tea at six. The breakfast table is furnished with tea, coffee, and chocolate, besides viands of various kinds, both hot and cold, and also with fish and fruit when in season. Dinner presents nothing remarkable; the table is supplied with much about the same fare as with us, only with a little more attention to variety. Tea is the last repast, and a massive one it is. Besides tea and coffee, and a second edition of the substantial cold fare that figured at the breakfast table, there are sweetmeats and preserves in every variety, with a countless display of cakes, the very naming of which would appear upon paper like a confectioner’s catalogue; while melons, or pine apples, when in season, bring up the rear. After this, what more is required? Being accustomed to take supper in Europe we fancied we required it here, and were accommodated, but as we found we were the only party who partook of that meal, we felt somewhat uncomfortable, and learned in course of time to adopt the custom of our neighbours, which we found by experience, in this respect to be preferable to our own.
The quality of the fare provided is usually of the very best. I have often thought that the Americans, as a nation, sacrifice the pleasures of intellectual taste to mere animal gratification; and notwithstanding the variety displayed at their repasts, I found it difficult to make a selection of food safficiently plain for myself and my children. They rally us on our partiality for the pleasures of the table, and we receive it with hearty good nature; but really the national joke of the roast beef of old England comes with a very bad grace from transatlantic epicures. Like all other establishments, boarding houses are various in character. They differ very little from each other in the fare they provide, but the description of the house, and the terms, are considered a just criterion of the circumstances and quality of the company they entertain. The terms are of every variety, from three dollars per week, to--I know not what sum. My husband and myself paid a hundred dollars per month; in this sum I have not included any thing connected with the children. Perhaps, some may think the mention of this an unnecessary display of personal parade. My reason for it is this. I have so often heard individuals who have written on America, charged with associating with the _canaile_ of the nation, and their testimony, on this assumption, has been rejected by numbers, that in order to rebut this anticipated charge I have furnished the reader with an acknowledged standard in order to assist him in the formation of his judgement.