A Famous Toasting Faux Pas

“To take a glass of wine during dinner without previously dedicating it to the health of someone was a breach of etiquette that few would care to be found guilty of...” — 

Above, Charles Montagu-Scott, 4th Duke of Buccleuch 

— Public domain image

Without “Your Health”

To take a glass of wine during dinner, without previously dedicating it to the health of someone, was a breach of etiquette that few would care to be found guilty of, and anyone so offending would have been thought either eccentric or exclusive. In 1803, when the then Duke of Buccleuch, dining at the table of the Lord Advocate (Charles Hope) drank a glass of sherry without the conventional preliminary address, the act was for years after pointed to as an instance of deucal contempt. — History of Toasting, French, 1881

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