...placed him under the decent and disagreeable necessity of returning at once, before a bet was decided, whether his own cook, or that of Lord Montagle's, would prepare a single dish to the greatest perfection. The jury of taste had been impanelled, and here was he summoned away ten minutes before the dishes came up.
1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “A Request Refused”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], page 295