This blog post was written based on research during the ‘Interpreting Kiplin for 400’ project, a National Lottery Heritage Fund project with thanks to National Lottery players. This post is part of a collection of posts on various themes being published during December 2024.

The 18th century saw a number of lifestyle changes  – what time people ate, what they called their meals, and what they ate.  While the British reputation for food has historically not been good, one obsession permeates their eating habits – social class, involving rivalry, envy and social unease regarding our place on the social ladder. 

The early to mid-Georgian period saw the heyday of ‘supper’.  In the 1700s meals at 10am, noon or 2pm and 7pm were called dinner and supper, but by the Victorian era (1837 – 1901) had become known as luncheon and dinner.  

Suppers might be informal meals, with dishes laid on small tables around the room, and no need for servants to be on duty.  The Georgian politician Thomas Creevey was impressed by a host who not only supplies a satisfying dinner but also “a barrel of oysters and a hot pheasant” every night at 10.30pm.   

After a visit to the theatre or concert hall with guests, supper would be a smarter meal. At a ball, supper would be served at midnight or even 2 or 3am and was meant to revive the guests after an evening of dancing, cards, music etc. Served in a separate room it might include whole salmon in aspic, raised pies, lobster salads, almond cheesecakes, fruit tarts, baskets of dried fruits and nuts, jellies and ices in decorative shapes, cakes and biscuits A light soup would be the only hot dish, usually ‘white’ soup made from veal or chicken with almonds. On a cold evening, guests might be served hot port and lemon (a cocktail called negus) before their journey home. 

Supper was an important meal of the day for domestic servants – their main meal would have been eaten earlier in the day when the family were engaged in the day’s activities. After serving and washing up after the family’s dinner they might have a supper of bread and cold meat (leftovers?) or toasted cheese.  Cheese was the staple food for farm labourers, being their main source of protein. 

From the mid-17th century ‘dinner’ had been pushed back by about 8 hours as the upper classes ate later and later to distance themselves from the lower classes. The middle classes sought to emulate them and moved their own mealtimes later.  This necessitated new meals – lunch and afternoon tea – to fill the gap. 

At the start of the Georgian period, breakfast was not necessary as dinner was a morning meal – 10, 11 or noon – with supper served later in the day. But when dinner was served in the evening, supper became obsolete. However, its savoury, uncomplicated dishes were then moved overnight to the next morning and became breakfast. From the middle of the century, fashionable Georgians even began to have a special room for it – the breakfast parlour, with its round table and side tables for tea, coffee, bread and cakes to be laid out for about 2-3 hours, allowing the family and their guests to choose what hour and dishes suited them. You might rise at 8am, spend a couple of hours on letter writing or other tasks, and eat at a fashionable 10am.  Towards the latter part of the century, Jane Austen’s mother writes to describe breakfast while staying with cousins at Stoneleigh Abbey: chocolate, coffee & tea, plumb cake, pound cake, hot rolls, cold rolls, bread & butter and toast. 

There was no need for lunch when dinner was served around noon or mid-afternoon, but ‘luncheon’ began to be served when dinner was pushed back to 6pm or later. Georgians paid their morning calls up until the afternoon dinner time when refreshments might be cake or biscuits, some fruit, and a glass of wine.  A later dinner time would enable them to entertain each other at lunch and then also pay or receive calls in the afternoon before dinner (leaving the men to their sport!)  When ladies began to lunch or share afternoon tea, breakfast became thought of as a more masculine meal. While evening meals showcased French cooking – particularly where the wealthier households employed French chefs – the country house breakfast comprised ‘British’ food often from their own lands. It might include whole hams or spiced beef, bacon, sausages, eggs from their own hens, all kept in silver dishes kept warm by spirit lamps. In the shooting season game pie or cold pheasant might be on offer. In summer, fresh fruit from the hothouses – grapes, strawberries and raspberries, and in winter homemade jams and preserves from the same fruits.  

(747 words) 

(Published Dec 2024) 

Find out more about the ‘Interpreting Kiplin 400’ Project during our Open Days on 13th, 14th and 15th December 2024. BOOK HERE

Source Material: 

Volger, P. 2021. Scoff: A History of Food and Class in Britain. Atlantic Books, UK. 

Glasse, H. 1747. The Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy by A Lady.  

Woodforde, J. 1978. The Diary of a Country Parson 1758 – 1802. Ed. J. Beresford. Oxford University Press, Oxford, England. 

Raffald, E. 1769. The Experienced English Housekeeper. Published by Elizabeth Raffald, England 

Wikipedia – Service a la Francais: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_%C3%A0_la_fran%C3%A7aise