Possible Clues:

• H. saw to do this after the meal
• Prepare for dinner, say
• Seems that H saw to this after the meal
• Mom's pre-meal instruction
• Clean dishes and cutlery
• Perform domestic chore that's hard - so now down about it?
• Clean oneself
• Clean the dishes
• Bearded, Portobello playwright rose in order to do the cleaning
• White snake concealing unpleasant smell briefly gets to drift onto the beach