Tidbits of Victorian Etiquette

 
According to Judith Martin, aka “Miss Manners,” during the 1800s, “... until well into the century, lower- , middle- and rural upper-class Englishmen ate with their knives, and that until the latter part of the century, when a fork was used, it was used in the same manner as Americans use it today, switching it back and forth from right hand for eating to left hand when something was being cut.

Judith Martin, the etiquette columnist of The Washington Post, at a 1981, four-day symposium, especially on a subject as esoteric as “Dining and Drinking in the 19th Century,” noted that the Victorians kept erecting bigger and bigger hurdles in manners “so that they could sneer at those not familiar with them. There was never a period of time when the right way and the wrong way was stronger than during the Victorian era,”  she said. “Someone was always doing something wrong so it kept life interesting.” 

Some of the Victoriana she offered was that dinner guests were never assured of getting a napkin and therefore advised to use the edge of the tablecloth or a handkerchief, that until well into the century, lower- , middle- and rural upper-class Englishmen ate with their knives, and that until the latter part of the century, when a fork was used, it was used in the same manner as Americans use it today, switching it back and forth from right hand for eating to left hand when something was being cut. She looked back nostalgically at some Victorian practices, among them the professional guest, a man who was hired to come to dinner if someone dropped out unexpectedly.— The New a York Times, 1981

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia