four o'clock
It was the old English custom and the old Irish custom , too . In the reign of William the Conqueror people dined at eleven A.M. or was it ten ? Then , as civilisation advanced , the dinner hour stole forward . In the time of the Georges it reached four o'clock . In Ireland , the most conservative country on earth , some people even still sit down to table at four -- in Charleston every one does . One would not change the custom for worlds , just as one would not change the old box pews of St. Michael 's or replace the cannon on the Battery with modern ordinance . Richard Pinckney did not dine at home that day .