A valuable eighteenth century commodity was light, and its availability shaped most domestic activities. This can be seen in the dining room, today hung with an early nineteenth century oil chandelier. Such improvements in lighting, over expensive wax and unpleasant smelling tallow candles, allowed the main meal of the day to move from the mid afternoon to early evening by the turn of the nineteenth century. Formal dinners were elaborate affairs, where etiquette and aesthetics were as important as the quality of the
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