Coke added a salon picnic into her personal gossip. Like Chesterfield, whose son attended salon picnics in Hanover 25 years earlier, Coke’s “picnic” was locked in her personal writing and not published until 1970.
While traveling on the Continent in 1763, Coke stopped in Hanover, the home city of Britain’s king, George II. One night’s entertainment merited a special mention to her sister Lady Anne Stafford because of its name. “I was last night at a Subscription Ball which is called here Picquenic.” Short on detail, Coke provides a phonetic spelling to describe an evening enjoyably spent supping, dancing, and talking late into the night.
See Mary Coke. “Letter to Lady Strafford 23 September 1763.” In Letters and Journals of Lady Mary Coke, edited by J.A. Home, vol 1, 7. Edinburgh, 1763. Reprint, 1970 Kingsmead Reprints, Bath, U.K.