The history of the Anglais
has never been written because, as the proprietor will tell you, it
never _could_ be written without telling tales anent great men which
should not be put into print; but if you ask to see the book of menus,
chiefly of dinners given in the "Grand Seize," the room on the first
floor, the curve of the windows of which look up the long line of the
boulevards, and if you are shown the treasure you will find in it
records of dinners given by King Edward when he was Prince of Wales, by
the Duc de Morny and by D'Orsay, by all the Grand Dukes who ever came
out of Russia, by "Citron" and Le Roi Milan, by the lights of the French
jockey club, and many other celebrities. There is one especially
interesting menu of a dinner at which Bismarck was a guest--before the
terrible year of course. While I am gossiping as to the curiosities of
the Anglais I must not forget a little collection of glass and silver in
a cabinet in the passage of the _entresol_. Every piece has a history,
and most of them have had royal owners. The great sight of the
restaurant, however, is its cellars. Electric light is used to light
them, luminous grapes hang from the arches, and an orange tree at the
end of a vista glows with transparent fruit. In these cellars, beside
the wine on the wine-list of the restaurant, are to be found some
bottles of all the great vintage years of claret, an object-lesson in
Bordeaux; and there are little stores of brandies of wondrous age, most
of which were already in the cellars when the battle of Waterloo was
fought.
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