25 JUNE 1942, Page 4

Studying an advertisement of " Wine and Food, No. 34, Summer

1942," I try to decide both what my emotions are and what the should be. There is a wistful nostalgia about the contents. Fo example:

"The Passing of Antoine." "Alfred Housman, Gourmet." "Memorable Meal-times." "A Connoisseur Looks at Flavour." "Three Unforgettable Dinners."

The pathos of these endeavours to substitute lingering memon for the present pleasures of which the palate is so ruthlessl deprived is palpable. It is, I suppose, the involuntary econom imposed by the advent of the 5s. meal which enables the Wine an Food Society to advertise its journal fairly widely, and its membe to arm themselves with copies of it at 3s. 6d. It is all rather dis tressing, for beyond all question " this is truth the poet sings, That a sorrow's crown of sorrows is remembering happier things. All the same, the Wine and Food Society might very well have gon to ground for the duration. * * * *