BRIGHTER BRITISH BREAKFASTS.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—For some obscure psychological reason food in other people's houses seems to most of us better than food in our own homes. One of the most pregnant remarks made by the Prince Consort was " Food always tastes better in small houses." He was clearly confirming the general experience I have stated b2cause when he dined in other people's houses it was always in a house smaller than his own. The case of your charming correspondent, Miss Peggy O'Neill, is an exception to the rule. She does not find the food in England's house so good as the food in the house of America. Let me assure her, however, that there are visitors to England from other lands who have fallen willing victims to our stodginess and our endlessly repeated dishes at breakfast.
Take the case of Mr. Pecskai, the distinguished Hungarian violinist, who has lived here for many years. He came to England, I believe, before he was twenty, and at his first breakfast in an English hotel he was served with bacon and eggs. He had been accustomed to a small cup of coffee and a small roll at that time of day, but, anxious to conform to the customs of the country, he tackled the bacon and eggs in good earnest. The next morning at breakfast there were bacon and eggs again. And the third morning there were bacon and eggs yet again. He then summoned the waiter and said, " What do English people usually have for breakfast ? " The waiter, after profound thought, replied that a very common dish was bacon and eggs. " Do English peOple, then, always have bacon and eggs for breakfast?" asked Mr. Pecskai.
Well, sir." said the waiter, " you might say pretty nigh
always." "Then," said Mr. Pecskai, "I shall live in this country."
And he has ever since, to the satisfaction of his friends and also, I hope, to his own as a consumer of bacon and '--
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