Angelo, London’s most renowned fencing master, was an original Pic Nic. His in Reminiscences of Henry Angelo (1830) is among the few first-hand depictions of the society.
Angel explains that “the plan [for the Pic Nics] was derived from a friendly custom prevalent among our gay neighbours, the French, who formed little societies wherein the feasts were supplied by a general subscription of viands, pastry, fruit, wines, and liqueurs—each contributing according to the dictates of their own liberality.”
“Liberality” needs to be understood as an understatement. A better word is “required” for Pic Nics were required to pay hefty subscription dues and to bring six bottles of wine and a portion of food, the kind of which was determined by a lottery drawing from a hat. Even so, there were deficits that needed to be covered by some of the affluent principal backers. The lottery was unfair in the sense that it did not distinguish simple from elaborate costly foods. Henry chortles, recalling that “Nothing could exceed the amusement which this lottery gastronomic produced; for that hoodwinked duchess, Fortune, played her tricks with her wonted ill-nature. Those who had the least to spare were the first to draw the most expensive lots; and those, on the contrary, to who the money was of little import, drew the cheapest. Some luckless fair, whose beauty was her sole dowry, drew a Perigord pie, [pie made of game and flavored with truffles] value three guineas at least, whilst her rich neighbor drew a pound cake, value half a crown. half a crown. Then some needy sprig of fashion a younger brother, drew his lot of misery in a ticket for a dozen of champagne; and a wealthy nabob, another half a dozen China oranges.”
Featured Image: George Cruikshank’s Frontice for Angelo’s Pic Nic (1934)
See Angelo, Henry. Reminiscences of Henry Angelo. London: H. Colburn and R. Bentley, 1830. London, 1830), and Angelo’s Pic Nic, or Table Talk (London, 1834).
* Maria Eliza Rendell’s A New System of Domestic Cookery: Formed Upon Principles of Economy and Adapted to the Use of Private Families (London, 1824) begins, “Perigord Pie. Make forcemeat chiefly of green truffles, a small quantity of basil, thyme, parsley, knotted marjoram, the liver of any kind of game