At an early 18th-century English gentleman's table, dishes were not served one after another but placed all together, symmetrically, on the tablecloth. The first course mingled soups, roasted meats, and 'made dishes'; the soup was 'removed' by a roast; then came the second course where sweet tarts, garden fruits, creams, and preserves sat side by side. Dinner was taken in the mid-afternoon, followed in the evening by a light supper. At Pope's Twickenham villa, this refined yet unostentatious service reflected neoclassical taste: order, measure, and extreme attention to detail.

Georgian English cooking is generous with sweet spices from maritime trade: nutmeg, mace, cinnamon, ginger. Grated fresh over soups, creams, and mulled wines, nutmeg graces almost every dish. Rose water, inherited from Elizabethan kitchens, perfumes sweets and preserves — a perfumed luxury that Pope, an aesthete even at table, knew how to appreciate.