In reply to:

You omit the fact that following the last of the courses you list, the hostess rose and the ladies left the table, to take coffee in the drawing room while the men circulated the port or cognac and maybe enjoyed cigars, joining the ladies in due course.

The custom of separating by gender after dinner has gone the way of the reason for the separation. Current etiquette authorities suggest that, if there is a division to be made, it is between smokers and nonsmokers. I tend to agree.

That assumes, of course, that you can manage to stand and walk out of the room after eating all that food. I don't know how they ate even a bite or two of every course while wearing corsets.