[Illustration:  PRESIDENTIAL DINNER INVITATION]

Bradbury gives the menu of a dinner at which he was, where “there was an elegant variety of roast beef, veal, turkey, ducks, fowls, hams, &c.; puddings, jellies, oranges, apples, nuts, almonds, figs, raisins, and a variety of wines and punch.  We took our leave at six, more than an hour after the candles were introduced.  No lady but Mrs. Washington dined with us.  We were waited on by four or five men servants dressed in livery.”  At the last official dinner the President gave, Bishop White was present, and relates that “to this dinner as many were invited as could be accommodated at the President’s table....  Much hilarity prevailed; but on the removal of the cloth it was put an end to by the President—­certainly without design.  Having filled his glass, he addressed the company, with a smile on his countenance, saying:  ’Ladies and gentlemen, this is the last time I shall drink your health, as a public man.  I do it with sincerity, and wishing you all possible happiness.’  There was an end of all pleasantry.”

A glance at Mrs. Washington’s receptions has been given, but the levees of the President remain to be described.  William Sullivan, who attended many, wrote,—­

“At three o’clock or at any time within a quarter of an hour afterward, the visitor was conducted to this dining room, from which all seats had been removed for the time.  On entering, he saw” Washington, who “stood always in front of the fire-place, with his face towards the door of entrance.  The visitor was conducted to him, and he required to have the name so distinctly pronounced that he could hear it.  He had the very uncommon faculty of associating a man’s name, and personal appearance, so durably in his memory, as to be able to call one by name, who made him a second visit.  He received his visitor with a dignified bow, while his hands were so disposed of as to indicate, that the salutation was not to be accompanied with shaking hands.  This ceremony never occurred in these visits, even with his most near friends, that no distinction might be made.  As visitors came in, they formed a circle round the room.  At a quarter past three, the door was closed, and the circle was formed for that day.  He then began on the right, and spoke to each visitor, calling him by name, and exchanging a few words with him.  When he had completed his circuit, he resumed his first position, and the visitors approached him in succession, bowed and retired.  By four o’clock the ceremony was over.”

The ceremony of the dinners and levees and the liveried servants were favorite impeachments of the President among the early Democrats before they had better material, and Washington was charged with trying to constitute a court, and with conducting himself like a king.  Even his bow was a source of criticism, and Washington wrote in no little irritation in regard to this, “that I have not been able to make bows to the taste of