In “Picnics and Pavilions,” Osbert Sitwell, man of definite opinions, writes that “picnic” as an ugly word. But thinks eating outdoors is delightful, and then suggests picnics are opportunities to act as the noble savage in a controlled natural setting, a continuation of the perpetual picnic of Adam and Eve. This is a contentious point of view, but one shared by Georgina Battiscombe in her 1949 survey, English Picnics.
Sitwell’s foods for a perfect picnic should be of the earth: bread, goat cheese, apples, celery, bilberries, fruits of the month—“nothing lethal or botulistic.” “Yet, how little in reality have food and drink to do with a picnic and its enjoyment! You must, it is true, have something to eat, but mood, companions, scene are everything.”
See Osbert Sitwell’s “Picnics and Pavilions” from Sing High! Sing Low! (1944)