Round up the usual suspects!
See George Cruikshank. Pic Nic disturbed by a Swarm of Bees. Aquatint. London: George Humphrey, 1826; http://images.library.yale.edu/walpoleweb/oneitem.asp?imageId=lwlpr12922. A black and white print is the British Museum collection.
Paper wasps: “Outside the lab, they aren’t so bad, either. They’re pretty uninterested in picnic food, and “you have to try hard” to be stung by them.” Dr. Elizabet Tibbetts in The New York Times (2020)
“Well, young ladies, we are indeed fortunate in the weather for our picnic to Hanging Rock. I have instructed Mademoiselle that as the day is likely to be warm, you may remove your gloves once the drag has passed through Woodend. You will partake of luncheon at the picnic grounds near the rock.” Joan Lindsay. Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
“Skill without imagination is craftsmanship and gives us many useful objects such as wickerwork picnic baskets. Imagination without skill gives us modern art.” Tom Stoppard. Artist Descending a Staircase (1972)
The turf will be our chairs and table, the banks of the stream our side-board, and our dessert is hanging on the trees; the dishes will be served in any order, appetite needs no ceremony; each one of us, openly putting himself first, would gladly see everyone else do the same; from this warm-hearted and temperate familiarity there would arise, without coarseness, pretense, or constraint, a laughing conflict a hundredfold more delightful than politeness, and more likely to cement our friendship.” Jean Jaques Rousseau. Emile (1762)
“This is gonna be about the most expensive chicken supper you ever et, boy.” Martin Ritt’s The Long Hot Summer (1958)
“Snow was mashed up everywhere, and the place looked like a polar bear’s picnic spot.” Mick Herron. Joe Country (2019)
"Then I walked down Central Park which seemed to be the scene of universal picnics." William A. Clary, July 1999
Mrs. Danvers: She would take them bathing from the boat, she would have a picnic supper at her cottage. They made love to her of course; who would not?” Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca (1940)
“Life is a pic-nic en costume; one must take part, assume as character, stand ready in a sensible way to play the fool. Herman Melville. The Confidence Man (1857)
"There are picnics and picnics—picnics of high and of low degree." William Hamilton Gibson. “Honey Dew Picnic” (1897)
The illustrious Society of Blithedale, though it toiled in downright earnest for the good of mankind, yet not unfrequently illuminated its laborious life with an afternoon or evening of pastime. Picnics under the trees were considerably in vogue. Nathaniel Hawthorne. The Blithedale Romance (1852)
“Yet nobody, I think, would pretend that it was other than an ugly word, picnic, verging on chit-chat, or snip-snap. . .” Osbert Sitwell. “Picnics and Pavilions,” Sing High! Sing Low! (1944)
“At an English picnic, more than in any other entertainment is shown our utter disregard of the fitness of things in the matter of eating.” William Blanchard Jerrold, “Picnic Reform” (1869)
"I know just what you want—you want a house where they go in for theatricals and picnics and that sort of thing."
Henry James. <em<em>The Portrait of a Lady </em>(1881)
Madame Marie Max Goesler: “There is a Bohemian flavour of picnic about it which, though it does not come up to the rich gusto of real wickedness, makes one fancy that one is on the border of that delightful region in which there is none of the constraint of custom,—where men and women say what they like, and do what they like." Anthony Trollope. Phineas Finn (1869)
“We both sat there for a long time, silent and alone, like a washed-out picnic party, under dripping trees, waiting for the thunder to stop.” Len Deighton. Charity (1997)
“There was no picnicking in those days—people had more serious matters to attend to—and it required no great keenness to conclude that no honest men were in the habit of occupying the place.” Allan Pinkerton. Criminal Reminiscences and Detective Sketches (1878)
“Anyone would think I was on a picnic.” Maurice Wilson, Diary (on Mount Everest at 21,000 feet)
“How would you like to go on a train ride—and picnic today?” he asked suddenly. “Stop it! I can’t take jokes before breakfast.” Harry Harrison. Make Room! Make Room! (1966)
"Picnickers who are determined to picnic will always find a spot somewhere."
Betty Fussell My Kitchen Wars (1999)
“I have met a Snob on a dromedary in the desert, and picnicking under the Pyramid of Cheops.”
William Makepeace Thackeray. The Book of Snobs (1848)
"Oh, it's so beautiful! Let's have our picnic here!"
Philip K. Dick Eye in the Sky (1957)
“We never had picnics when I started in this business,” Hassler said. "Worked till eight and nine o'clock on Friday nights and no overtime. All this picnic stuff is a lot of folderol. New Deal socialistic nonsense." Richard Bissell. 71/2 Cents (1953)
“But the wind is roaring now, and the sea is raving, and the rain is driving down, as if they had all set in for a real hearty picnic, and each had brought its own relations to the general festivity.” Charles Dickens [Letter to Clarkson Stanfield, August 24th, 1844]
“I once mentioned to a young lady that I thought a pic-nic party would be very agreeable, and that I would propose it to some of our friends. She agreed that it would be delightful, but she added, “I fear you will not succeed; we are not used to such sort of things here, and I know it is considered very indelicate for ladies and gentlemen to sit down together on the grass.’” Frances Trollope. Domestic Manners of the Americans (1832)
Oh, Laura! such a charming party!
You've missed our pic-nic, foolish girl;
I do assure you from my heart,
I Hate you, now you're Mrs. Searle.
George Cruikshank's "A Water Party" (1845c.)
Mr. Frankland: “I’ve closed the wood where the Fernworthy folk used to picnic. These infernal people seem to think that there are no rights of property, an that they can swarm where they like with their papers and their bottles.” Arthur Conan Doyle. The Hound of the Baskervilles” (1902)
“There are a few things so pleasant as a picnic lunch eaten in perfect comfort,” Elliott added sententiously. The old Duchesse d’Uzes used to tell me that the most recalcitrant male becomes amenable to suggestion in these conditions.” W. Somerset Maugham. The Razor's Edge (1944)
“Now I sometimes say, joking, that war after all is only a long picnic.” Alberto Moravia
“Over all the brown ploughlands, and under all the leafless hedgerows, there was a stout piece of labour abroad, and, as it were, a spirit of picnic.” R. L. Stevenson. “An Autumn Effect” (1875)
“Fool,” says Mrs. Lee-Mittsen, “You can’t come here, it’s somebody else’s picnic. Elizabeth Bowen. The Hotel (1927)
“The weather here is simply supreme. It’s summer, hot enough for cold chicken, un peu de salade, champagne and ice-cream, all of which are very much here. The flowers are marvelous, Anne. We go for picnics up among the mountains and long day excursions by motor.” Katherine Mansfield. “March 1920,” Letters of Katherine Mansfield
“There are but few touchstones of our poor human hearts which can elicit any past remembrance wholly without pain; but I think this simple word [picnic], that is born of pleasure, and nicknamed in drollery, is one; poverty, ill-humour, illness, all things that deform or embitter our existence, are forgotten in the sound.” Georgina Battiscombe. English Picnics (1949)
“I know just what you want—you want a house where they go in for theatricals and picnics and that sort of thing.” Henry James. The Portrait of a Lady (1881)
September 28th--A picnic party in the woods, yesterday, in honor of little Frank Dana's birthday, he being six years old. I strolled out, after dinner, with Mr. Bradford, and in a lonesome glade we met the apparition of an Indian chief, dressed in appropriate costume of blanket, feathers, and paint, and armed with a musket. Almost at the same time, a young gypsy fortune-teller came from among the trees, and proposed to tell my fortune. Nathaniel Hawthorne. “September 28th, 1841,” Passages from the American Note-Books (1883)
"Who's missing from the picnic?
It's the one I love." Michelle Gurevich. "Let's Meet" (2010)
"We ought to get started soon—if we’re ever going to make that picnic." Eugene O’Neill. Ah, Wilderness! (1933)
“I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow,” said Scarlett. “It's rained nearly every day for a week. There's nothing worse than a barbecue turned into an indoor picnic.” Margaret Mitchel. Gone With the Wind (1936)
"People do all sorts of things at picnics."
William Dean Howells April Hopes (1887)
“The only he had seen remotely odd was a paper plate on which sat three scalloped orange rinds –a sign that the summer’s beach picnics were going to be more elegant than ever. “ Peter Benchley’s Jaws (1974)
Mrs. Bissonette: He attended the Epworth League picnic and eating an orange he choked to death. His heart couldn’t stand it.
Mr. Bissonette: I didn’t know oranges are bad for the heart. Norman Z. McLeod, It’s a Gift (1934)
“Keep your head down,” I said over my shoulder. “We may be watched all the way. This car sticks out like spats at an Iowa picnic.” Raymond Chandler’s Farewell My Lovely (1940)
“…if the weather's fair we have a picnic on the beach—take a traveling rug, a thermos and sandwiches, sit on the shore and watch the waves roll in onto the pebbly strand." Martin Boyd. Any Given Heart (2002)
“I hate Pic-nics, squatting in the grass don't suit me at all; when once down, I find it no easy matter to get up again, I can tell you." Robert Seymour. “The Pic-Nic,” Sketches of Seymour (1835c.)
“'Speaking of lilies of the valley, is it true that they grow wild in Hurst Wood? It is not the season for them to be in flower yet; but when it is, I think we must take a walk there –with our luncheon in a basket - a little picnic in fact. You'll join us, won't you?'” Elizabeth Gaskell. <em>Wives and Daughters</em> (1865)
"Have a picnic at the slightest excuse." James Beard. Menus for Entertaining (1965)
James Beard Menus for Entertaining (1965)
My Dear Beard. Thursday the first of July, is a holiday at Eton. Are you gone for a water party on that day? Say yes, and Lemon (who is a jolly fellow) shall be our coadjutor and comrade in league against the boys—Fortnum and Mason shall come to our rescue. . . Charles Dickens. “Letter to Thomas Beard” (22 June 1852)
“Foraging in the kitchen turned up a jar of almonds, an only slightly stale loaf of bread, and even an orange. . . I ate my little picnic on the wall of the terrace, trying to ignore the fermented taste of the orange, and then tucking a bath towel under my arm, made my way down to the bay.” Kate Weinberg. The Truants (2019)
Early in his career Thursdale had made the mistake, at the outset of his acquaintance with a lady, of telling her that he loved her and exacting the same avowal in return. The latter part of that episode had been like the long walk back from a picnic, when one has to carry all the crockery one has finished using: it was the last time Thursdale ever allowed himself to be encumbered with the debris of a feast. Edith Wharton. “The Dilettante” (1903)
“A “family picnic” generally consists of a Buick, a father, a mother, a daughter, a small son, beef loaf, lettuce sandwiches, a young man (you), two blow-outs, one spare tire, and Aunt Florence.” Donald Ogden Stewart. “Correct Behavior on a Picnic” (1922)