The U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom is sometimes known as the ambassador to the Court of St. James’s. This name is derived from St. James’s Palace, the oldest royal palace in London (which for some reason the menu spells St. James’). Although the monarch no longer resides there, his sister and some other relatives do and it is the official location of the Marshall of the Diplomatic Corps, the official liaison between the king and foreign diplomats. Most residents of Britain and Canada probably know all this, but U.S. residents find it confusing that the United Kingdom has so many royal palaces for so many purposes.

Click image to download a 541-KB PDF of this menu.

In any case, this menu was used on the Empress of Scotland on April 24, 1953. This was the first night out for the aging empress on its first trans-Atlantic voyage of the season. The ocean liner had entered service as the Empress of Japan in 1930, renamed in 1942, and continued to work for CP until 1957.

The menu exhibits the usual abundance of a Canadian Pacific ocean liner first-class dining room. In addition to several different appetizers, the menu offered two kinds of fish, steak, lamb, duckling, various cold meats, and — because it was a Friday — several vegetable entrées. Passengers also had their choice of seven sweet desserts and, if they wished, a savory Scotch woodcock, which has no woodcock meat in the same way that Welsh rabbit has no rabbit meat.