Clad in hobnailed boots and homespun clothing, he looked like a duck out of water in the genteel surroundings of the drawing room.

In these genteel surroundings, where Holly Golightly or the president of Vassar might occupy the next seat, one ate at the counter or at seats along the wall from little hinged trays like those on high chairs.

Atmosphere: Grill food in comfortable, genteel surroundings.

Klezmer dances, synagogue songs, Mahler lieder, 12-tone chamber works, Copland's "Quiet City," European avant-garde creations and a Beastie Boys rap collided in the genteel surroundings of Jordan Hall.

Whatever your own verdict, you'll eat in genteel surroundings.

When Jim Rohwer was writing about Asia from the genteel surroundings of the London offices of The Economist, he was convinced he knew what he was doing.

Among the tasks Bessie undertook was taking women of ill repute into her own home in the hope that exposure to genteel surroundings would provide them with moral rehabilitation.

Meanwhile out on the stump, Michael White tracks down the two candidates slugging it out in the genteel surroundings of Richmond Park.

Number one is the superb fried fish and number two the chance to escape chaotic Crater and relax in the altogether more genteel surroundings of At-Tawahi.

PETE Sampras and Andre Agassi and John and Patrick McEnroe arrived from the genteel and plush surroundings of their tennis world yesterday to play in a charity tennis exhibition for the Safe Passage Foundation.