Brit Manners According to Frenchman

It is not etiquette to blow one’s nose, to spit, to sneeze. What is one to do? Is it etiquette to have a cold?  –Public domain image of Jules Lecompte, French author and wit from the min 19th century.

English Etiquette

Jules Lecompte, a French wit, gives this description of English etiquette: 

• It is not etiquette to blow one's nose, to spit, to sneeze. What is one to do? Is it etiquette to have a cold? 
• It is not etiquette to talk loud, even in Parliament; 
• to walk in the middle of the street; 
• to run to get out of the way of a carriage. You must let yourself be ran over. 
• It is not etiquette to close a letter with a wafer, for then people say that you send them your spittle; or to write without an envelope. 
• Neither is it etiquette to go to the opera with the smallest flower or stripe upon your waistcoat or cravat; 
• or to eat soup twice; 
• or bow first to a lady; 
• or to ride in an omnibus; 
• or to go to an evening party before ten or eleven o'clock, 
• or to a ball before midnight; 
• or to drink beer at dinner without immediately returning the glass to the servant. 
• It is not etiquette not to shave every day, (the majority of Frenchmen, it must be remembered, never wash their face but when they shave, and shave, if at all, but every second day,) 
• or to be hungry, 
• or to offer to drink to a person of high rank, 
• or to be surprised when the ladies leave the table at the dessert. 
• To wear black in the morning or colored clothes in the evening is not etiquette. 
• To address a lady without adding her christian name, 
• to speak to a person to whom you have not been introduced, 
• to knock gently at a door, 
• to have a splash of mud on your boots, no matter how bad the weather, 
• to have copper (penny) in your pocket, 
• to wear your hair cut short, 
• or a grey hat, 
• a silk handkerchief, decoration, a great beard, or even a little one - all this is quite contrary to etiquette. – From the Shasta Courier, 1853

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