Bayeu’s Picnic in the Country [aka Merienda en el Campo] is a study of a proposed tapestry destined for the royal palaces of the Spanish monarchy now exhibited in the Prado’s Salon de Consejos. The picnickers have gathered around awhile cloth set on the ground in the yard of a working farm. The aristocrats eat […] read more

Samuel Foote’s  play The Nabob, first produced in 1772, now obscure, is the first mention of the compound word “nick-nack.” Foote used it in the sense of dining en piquenique, which suggests familiarity with the Parisian dining custom. The alliterative corruption is meant to be humorous, and Foote was known for his quick wit. and […] read more

Among Clermont’s recommendations for traveling is a cold Perigord pie. It’s an expensive food ordinary folks might not afford, but a favorite of the posh Pic Nic Club of London. clermont’s text is a translation of Menon’s 1755 Soupers de la cour. Pâté de (Perigueux), A cold loaf for traveling. Take a farce with partridge […] read more

Oeil-de-boeuf is Touchard-Lafosse’s pseudonym used to sign off on his gossip reports about Louis XIV’s court and Parisian society Oeil-de-boeuf is a circular window, often indoors, above a doorway. As a metaphor, it suggests gossip that is sexually tinged or embarrassing. Americans may celebrate 1776 as the year of their nation’s birth. Still, Georges Touchard-Lafosse […] read more

Rousseau and Abbé Etienne Condillac dined en piquenique sometime in 1745 or 1747. The date is uncertain because Rousseau is careless with dates related to the incident twenty years after in Confessions. Hard up and living in Paris in the rue Saint-Denis, Rousseau sometimes shared the expense of dining. He writes that when Condillac came […] read more

When political rivals attacked, Robespierre replied: “If someone reproaches me, I wait for him here. It is here that he must accuse me, and not in picnics, in particular societies. Is there anyone? Let him get up.” No one stood, but he was eventually forced to resign as public prosecutor, tried, and guillotined. *si quelqu’un […] read more

Lima was a thriving major colonial town now grown into Chile’s capital and largest city with a population of 10 million. Two centuries ago, an unidentified artist of the Lima School painted A Merry Company on the Banks of the Rímac, a happy picnic in which elegant aristocrats engaged in courtship and lovemaking. The pastoral […] read more

Les Rêvieries du Promeneur Solitaire or Reveries of a Solitary Walker was written in 1776-78, left unfinished, and published posthumously in 1782. It’s composed of ten “walks” or personal essays; the fourth includes the episode about dining in Madame Vacossin’s restaurant, where he shared the cost of the meal en maniére de pic-nic. French readers, […] read more

Montagu “ate a cold loaf,” which suggests a synonym for picnicking, a term that has not survived. She wrote the word in her diary for 1752 while visiting a ruined 12th Century priory in Berkshire being remolded as her residence. Emily J. Climenson, editor of Montagu’s life and letters, matter-of-factly says that “ate a cold […] read more

Goldsmith’s “Retaliation” left unfinished at his death, alludes to dining “en piquenique” with mentioning the word. Motivated for being slighted by his friends, Goldsmith decided to get even at the dinner table. Attempting to get even with slights endured from erstwhile friends, Goldsmith invites them to a dinner party to which each brings a contribution […] read more

This view of Bath from the southeast by Samuel and Nathaniel Buck shows the distant city from the hills above the River Avon. Beneath the view is a brief history of the city to 1734. Though the Bucks did not have the word picnic, they embellished with shepherds and sightseers to the foreground, a lively […] read more

Rowlandson’s Richmond Bridge, Surrey documents a picnic party at low tide on the Thames’s sandy shore opposite Hampton Court. It was common for Londoners to hire a water taxi to transport picnicker out of the city and into the country for an afternoon of eating and conversation.  The party over, a carriage was hired to […] read more

Zoffany’s The Garden of Hampton House, with Mr and Mrs David Garrick Taking Tea is a conversation portrait of the Garricks on their lawn in Twickenham. The occasion is a tea party. The group includes Garrick, gesturing towards his brother David, with the fishing rod, Eva Marie Garrick, the butler, and a friend, Col. George […] read more

Merienda a orillas del Manzanares [Picnic At the Edge of the Manzanares River] is a painting for a tapestry intended for the dining room of the Prince and Princess of Asturias in the San Lorenzo Palace in Madrid. Goya described the subject as a merienda, a snack, or a light meal, and the Museo del […] read more

Among his many adventures traipsing about England, John Byng was proud of picnicking on the far side of High Force though the experience left him miserably wet. After spending an uncomfortable night in an inn, Byng hired a guide and, stuffing his pockets with eatable, set out to ford the River Tees at the base […] read more

Samuel Foote’s comedyThe Nabob, now obscure, is the first linkage of picnic with the euphemism “nick-nack.” He used in the sense of dining en piquenique, which suggests familiarity. The alliterative corruption is meant to be humorous for those in the know of the trendy Parisian custom: Janus Time enough. —You had no particular commands, master […] read more

Lima was a thriving major colonial town now grown into Chile’s capital and largest city with 10 million. Two centuries ago, an unidentified artist of the Lima School painted A Merry Company on the Banks of the Rímac, a happy picnic in which elegant aristocrats engaged in courtship and lovemaking. The pastoral landscape is a […] read more

Even if George Lambert knew the French word pique-nique, he would not describe an outing on the grass because it was not used in this context. By French custom, it was an indoor meal. Moreover, there is no evidence the English used pique-nique in writing or vocabulary in 1733. So when Lambert embellished A View […] read more

Because the scene is obviously a picnic, the National Gallery of Art’s title, The Picnic after the Hunt, is apt. But Lancret, whose language was French, would not have used pique-nique because it refers to an indoor dinner. More likely, he would have titled un repas de chasse, as he did for a painting in the Louvre […] read more

Goldsmith does not use the word picnic, but two such episodes in The Vicar of Wakefield exist. They are so obvious that in English Picnics, Georgina Battiscombe credits with the first “picnics” in English literature. If only he had used the word! Goldsmith was fluent in French, and in “Retaliation” (1774), he includes a definition […] read more

Rowlandson’s 1790 catalog of everyday life among the Brits includes a picnic scene. People looking at it would recognize an alfresco luncheon, but they would not have a name for it. What we call a picnic was unknown in English. Even if Brits knew the French word pique-nique, it would denote indoor dining at home, […] read more

Philip Dormer Stanhope, Lord Chesterfield, is the second person to use picnic in English and spell it in a modern way. His son Philip, living in Leipzig, wrote that he attended a picnic gathering at Madame Valentin’s salon, but this 1748 letter is lost. Chesterfield was familiar with the salon assembly but not a picnic. […] read more

As usual among the French, a halt on the hunt is never referred to as a picnic, although that’s what it is. Van Loo’s Halte de chasse is a narrative of a stop during the hunt, at which the ladies meet the hunters at a predetermined place, called a tryst, for lunch. The meal, always […] read more

Rousseau was not thinking of a pique-nique when he wrote, “The turf will be our chairs and table, the banks of the stream our sideboard, and our dessert is hanging on the trees.” He knew that pique-nique was an indoor meal for which friends shared the cost. Sharing the bill at a tavern or restaurant […] read more

Writing to his dear friend (and probable mistress) Martha Blount, Pope related his adventure at Netley Abbey and his alfresco luncheon there. He does not call it a picnic because the word was not used in English parlance until 1806. (See Harris’s The happy courtship, Merry Marriage, and Pic-Nic Dinner of Cock Robin and Jenny […] read more

Cervantes’s merienda looks like a picnic on the grass. It occurs while, Don Quixote and Sancho engage in a spirited discussion of the uses of enchantment and the power of imagination with the Canon, the curate, and the barber. They sit on the grass waiting for cold rabbit, pasties, and wine ordered from a local […] read more