_Q_. What should a dinner consist of?

_A_. Of any wholesome food that is in season, plainly dressed.

_Q_. Should the dinner be composed of many dishes?

_A_. The most wholesome dinner is that which consists of a single dish of
meat, with a proper quantity of vegetables.

Whether the Scottish dinner was as aforesaid, we know not. Call the
evidence.

_Court Journal_.--A public dinner at a public-house (this is a court
sneer)--provided by Scotch booksellers, presided at by a Scotch baronet,
accompanied by Scotch bagpipes, and prepared for two hundred Scotch
appetites, there being four hundred of the said appetites admitted to
partake of it.

_Athenaeum_.--Nearly five hundred persons were present at a dinner ordered
for two hundred and fifty.

_Literary Gazette_.--The stewards provided for 300 guests: another hundred
coming without notice of their intention, were speedily accommodated; and
surely the exertion to accomplish this is more to be praised, than any
little partial failure or inconvenience (such as attends all large public
dinners) is to be cavilled at and blamed. The dinner and wines were of the
first order, and at least nine-tenths of those present were highly
gratified by their entertainment.

But we will first quote the _Athenaeum_ account, from its being the most