The Cook
On her first going into a family the Cook will do well to inform herself of the rules and regulations of the house,—the customs of the kitchen,—the peculiarities of her master and mistress,—and above all, she must study, most sedulously, to acquire a perfect knowledge of their taste; which, when attained, will most probably lead to her permanent establishment in the sovereignty of the kitchen.
She will enter into all the economical plans of her employers, and endeavour to make the most of every thing, as well for the sake of her own character as for their interest. Not forgetting, that “wilful waste makes woful want.”
She will consider the encomiums of her master and mistress as her highest praise, and will accept even their admonitions as pleasing proofs of their desire to make her useful to themselves, and to enhance her own confidence and consequence.
The presidency of the kitchen being a situation of great trust and responsibility, she will best evince her sense of the confidence reposed in her by her anxiety to please, and a sedulous regard to the health and comforts of the family, which are, necessarily, in her keeping; governing her whole conduct by that most excellent moral maxim “Do unto others as you would they should do unto you.”
To be well qualified for every situation, the Cook must not only understand the business of the kitchen, but must be a good judge of provisions, as in many families, where there is no housekeeper, she will be required to go to market. She must also be able to keep an account of the current expenses of the family; and to examine, check, and pay the tradesmen’s bills, which she will have to settle with her mistress weekly, or when required.
The Cook should give directions to her assistants to rise early, particularly when a great dinner is to be dressed, that so every thing may be got quite ready in the kitchen to begin business as early in the morning as possible; else, nine times out of ten, the dinner will be too late: and it must always be recollected that “things done in a hurry are never well done,” and that, “an hour lost in the morning may be run after the whole day, but never overtaken.” Besides, to have every thing properly dressed, and to be punctual, as to time, with the dinner, will afford great satisfaction to her employers, and do credit both to them and to herself. Having learnt the precise time of dinner, she must not fail to be punctual.
Cleanliness, in every branch of domestic concerns cannot be too forcibly inculcated, and in the business of a Cook, particularly, it becomes a cardinal virtue. Cleanliness and neatness of person and dress are not less important in her than the arrangement of the kitchen and larder, and all her operations.
Boiling.
The boilers, saucepans, and other vessels, to be used for culinary purposes, must be kept perfectly clean and well tinned. Block tin saucepans, &c. are safest, and perhaps best for these purposes.—When washed they should be dried by the fire, before they are put away; and they should always be wiped out again, with a clean dry cloth, immediately before they are used. This is to be done chiefly to prevent rust, and its baleful effects.
Poultry, and every kind of meat, both fresh and salted, should be washed and wiped dry, and then dredged well with flour, before it be put into the boiler, or pot; this will prevent its being soiled in the water, and will, also, prevent its looking greasy, when taken up.
Meat must always be put into cold water, with just enough water to cover it; say, about a quart of water to a pound of meat,—and it must be kept so covered, during the whole process of dressing, by adding boiling water occasionally.—By this method the inside will always be heated thoroughly, and be properly swollen, before the outside becomes hard; and the whole will be regularly done. This will, also, occasion the meat to look plump; and veal and poultry, in particular, will be the whiter and the better for it.
Beef loses about one-fourth, and mutton about one-fifth, in boiling.
A moderate fire must be kept up under the pot, increasing the heat gradually, till it boils, when it must be drawn back, kept close covered, and constantly simmering, quite gently, but by no means boiling fast. A tea-spoonful of salt thrown into the water, before it boils, will cause the scum to rise the better, which must be very carefully skimmed clean off, immediately; and if, afterwards, a little cold water be thrown in, more scum will be cast up, which must frequently be taken off, as it rises, as on this alone depends the good appearance of all boiled articles.
Remember—that water cannot possibly be made hotter than it is when it first boils; it is, therefore, a waste of firing, and very detrimental to the meat to make it boil fast, as it is thereby rendered hard, and its juices and finest flavour are evaporated in steam.
Generally, beef, mutton, and lamb, unless the joints are very thin, or small, require boiling from a quarter of an hour to eighteen minutes to a pound; lamb, veal, and pork, and thick joints also, of whatever kind, require somewhat longer, especially in cold weather, or when fresh killed. A large leg of pork, for instance, will take a little more time;—always reckoning from the time of its first coming to boil, and taking into the account that the pot must always be kept gently simmering;—the slower the better, so that it be kept boiling. If you suffer boiled meats to remain in the pot after they are done, they become soddened and lose their flavour.
Examples in Boiling.
A Round of Beef.—After it has been carefully salted, and has lain in the pickle eight or ten days, wash it and wipe it dry; then cut out the bone, and skewer and tie it up tight and quite round. As soon as the pot boils skim it clean, and keep it boiling very gently, till done. The time will be according to its weight. Garnish with slices of carrot and turnip.
A LEG OF PORK.
If large, after it has been in salt eight or ten days, let it lie in cold water half an hour to make it white—weigh it, let it boil gently, allowing twenty minutes for every pound—skim it as soon as it boils, and often afterwards.—A small Leg of Pork is most delicate.—The liquor will make excellent peas-soup. Serve it up with peas-pudding and turnips.
A LEG OF MUTTON.
Put it in warm water for ten minutes, and wash it clean, then put it into the pot and cover it with water—let it simmer very gently and skim it carefully. A leg of ten pounds will take two and a half or three hours. Mutton, to be tender, should hang as long as it will keep.
A TURKEY.
Take a hen bird, pick nicely, singe, wash, draw the sinews of the thighs, and truss it. Make a stuffing of bread, herbs, salt, pepper, nutmeg, lemon-peel, a few oysters, or an anchovy, a bit of butter, some suet, and an egg, put this into the crop, fasten up the skin, and skim the pot most carefully to make it white. Serve with oyster sauce made rich with butter, a little cream, and a spoonful of soy or parsley and butter. Tongue, ham, or pickled pork, are the usual accompaniments.
A FOWL.
The legs, for boiling, should not be black.—Pick nicely, wash, singe, truss, and flour it—put it into boiling water, and simmer gently. A middling fowl will take forty minutes. Serve with parsley and butter, oyster, lemon, liver, or celery sauce.
Neither parsley and butter, liver and parsley, celery, onion, caper, curry, nor other sauce should be poured over boiled meats, but sent up separately in a boat.
VEGETABLES.
All vegetables are best when fresh from the garden,—when dead they are useless. They are also in the greatest perfection when in the greatest plenty;—unripe vegetables are unwholesome.
Greens must be carefully picked, neatly trimmed, washed quite clean from vermin, and laid on a cullender to drain. Then, having ready a well-tinned saucepan, with plenty of clean, soft, boiling water, into which some salt has been thrown, and the scum taken off, plunge them into it, boil them quickly, watch them, and keep continually pressing them under the water with a fork as they rise; and when they begin to sink of themselves, they are done, and must be taken up instantly, and drained dry; for if over done, they will lose not only their crispness and beautiful appearance, but their flavour also. Cabbages, savoys, and turnip-tops, require that the water should be changed when half done, the second water should be boiling, and if managed as above directed, they will eat much the milder and sweeter for it. This is the whole art of dressing vegetables to look green and eat well. We therefore deprecate the use of those factitious and filthy expedients recommended by some, and practised by many, to give, as they pretend, a good colour, to boiled vegetables. This is the best way;—and all artificial means ought to be avoided, as unnecessary and pernicious.
Esculent roots of all kinds may be set on to boil in cold water.
Fish.
Fish, particularly if large, must be put into cold water, with plenty of salt; when ready, it will part from the bone; or it may be tried with a fork, and must be taken out of the water the moment it is done.
If not immediately wanted, let it stay on the fish-plate, over the hot water, and throw over it a clean cloth, dipped in boiling water, to preserve its colour.
A sliced cod should be stewed fifteen minutes.
In all cases, dinner should be served up as soon as possible after it is ready, because keeping the boiled articles, particularly fish, in hot water, renders them vapid and heavy; and hot closets, covers, and other means used to keep them hot, dry the juices and make them eat strong and rancid.
Neither fish, nor vegetables of any kind, (except ripe potatoes,) should be boiled by steam.
Elements of Roasting.
Cleanliness must ever be the maxim for the kitchen.
Before the spit is drawn from the meat, let it be wiped clean, and when done with, let it be rubbed with a little sand and water.
A good brisk fire, due time, proper distance, and frequent basting, are the chief points to be attended to in roasting.
Much depends on the fire;—it should always be brisk and glowing, clear at the bottom, and suited to the article to be roasted.
Beef and mutton lose about one-third in roasting.
The ashes should be taken up, and the hearth made quite clean, before you begin to roast. If the fire require to be stirred during the operation, the dripping-pan must be drawn back, so that then, and at all times, it may be kept clean from cinders and dust.—Hot cinders, or live coals, dropping into the pan, make the dripping rank, and spoil it for basting.
Beef requires a strong, steady fire, which should be made up a little time previous to its being wanted. If the meat has been hung up some time, the dry outside parts must be pared off, and it must be basted, first, with a little salt and water, then well dredged with flour, and afterwards basted, continually, with the dripping; but, if the meat be frozen, it must be brought into the kitchen several hours before it is dressed.—Large joints should be kept at a good distance from the fire at first, and gradually brought nearer and nearer;—the average distance for a large joint, at a good fire, may be about ten or twelve inches, an inch or two more or less, according to circumstances: when kitchen paper, dipped in the dripping, must be tied, not skewered, over the fat parts, to prevent their being scorched. When nearly ready, the smoke will draw from the meat towards the fire; at which time the paper must be taken off, and the meat must be put nearer to the fire to brown it; it must also be sprinkled with a little salt, and well dredged again, with flour, to froth it.
It is as necessary to roast slowly as to boil slowly;—and the General Rule is to allow full a quarter of an hour to a pound for roasting with a proper fire, under ordinary circumstances, and with frequent basting. But neither beef nor mutton require to be so well done as pork, lamb, and veal.—Pork, in particular, requires to be thoroughly done. It must be basted with salt and water; and the skin or rind of the leg, loin, and spare-rib, must be scored, with a sharp knife, after it has been some time at the fire, to make it eat the better. Geese, pigs, and young pork, require a brisk fire, and should be turned quickly.
Great care should be taken in spitting the meat, that the prime part of the joint be not injured:—to balance it on the spit, cook-holds and loaded skewers are very handy.
A bottle jack is an excellent substitute for a spit, in small families, and for want of that, ten or a dozen yards of worsted, folded to a proper length, will answer the purpose very well. Meat if hung to be roasted, should have its ends changed when about half done. A good meat skreen, lined with tin, should always be set before the fire when roasting; it keeps off the cold air, renders the heat more equable, and saves coals.
After all, the above General Rule is liable to many exceptions. If the meat be fresh killed, or the weather be cold, a good joint will require half an hour longer than if the meat be tender and the weather temperate or warm.
We give the following particulars as a more certain guide to the Cook, in most cases on this important point.
Beef.—A Sirloin of about sixteen pounds, will take three hours and a half or four hours.
Ribs of Beef, of nearly the same weight, being thinner, will require half an hour less.
Mutton.—A Leg of eight or nine pounds, will take about two hours.
A Loin or Neck, from an hour and a half to an hour and three quarters.
A Breast, an hour and a quarter.
Veal requires to be managed as beef.
A Fillet, of fourteen or sixteen pounds, will take five hours.
(It must be placed at a distance from a strong fire at first, in order to be thoroughly soaked)
A good Loin, will take full three hours.
A Breast, from an hour and a half to two hours.
A Hind-quarter, of eight pounds, about two hours.
A Fore-quarter, of ten pounds, about two hours.
A Leg or Loin, about an hour and a quarter.
A Breast, three quarters of an hour.
Pork, as it must be well soaked and well done, requires longer time, in proportion, than any other meat.
A Hare will require an hour, at the least, and care must be taken that both ends be done enough. It should be well basted; first, with a pint of milk, or salt and water, then floured and basted with butter; when half done, it should be cut between the shoulders and the neck, to let out the blood.
A large Turkey, will require two hours roasting.
A smaller one,—one hour and a half.
A small one,—one hour and a quarter.
A Goose,—one hour.
A large Fowl,—about three quarters of an hour.
A middle sized Fowl,—thirty or forty minutes.
A Capon,—thirty or thirty-five minutes.
A Duck,—twenty or thirty minutes.
A small Fowl or Chicken,—twenty minutes.
A Partridge,—twenty or twenty-five minutes.
A Turkey Poult,—twenty minutes.
A Pheasant,—fifteen minutes.
Wild Ducks, or Grouse,—fifteen minutes.
Pigeons,—fifteen minutes.
Quails, and small Birds,—ten minutes.
Tame Fowls require more roasting than wild ones.
Poultry should not be dressed in less than four days.
All fowls must be well washed, and singed when put down to the fire, and they must be kept well basted with butter.
Examples in Roasting.
A SIRLOIN OF BEEF.
Wipe it clean and dry, and tie paper over the fat parts to preserve them. Baste it immediately with dripping, and frequently afterwards. Within the last half hour, sprinkle it with a little salt, baste it with butter, and dredge it with flour, and as soon as the froth has risen, dish it up. Garnish with horse-radish, scraped fine. If it weigh 15 lbs. or 16 lbs. it will require nearly four hours.
THE RIBS, OR OTHER JOINTS OF BEEF.
Must be roasted in the same way. If fifteen or twenty lbs. they will take three hours and a half, more or less according to circumstances.
LEG, SHOULDER, LOIN OR NECK OF MUTTON.
Let it be well basted and frothed in the same manner as directed for the Sirloin of Beef. The time and dressing will be according to its weight.
A LOIN OF VEAL.
Will take about three hours roasting. Paper the kidney, fat, and back, to preserve them.—Some will have it sent up with a toast to be eaten with the delicate fat of the kidney; brown it, and pour good melted butter over it. Garnish with slices of lemon and force-meat balls.
LAMB.
The Hind-quarter.—The leg and loin are best dressed together; baste and froth it as directed for beef. Serve it up with green mint-sauce and a salad.
The Leg, Shoulder, Ribs, Loin, Neck, and Breast are all to be dressed, and served up, in the same way.
FOWLS.
Turkeys and Fowls are to be roasted by a clear brisk fire, in the same way as each other, only allowing time according to their size. In drawing Poultry care must be taken not to break the gall-bag. The sinews of the thighs of Turkeys and large Fowls should be pulled out, and they should be trussed with the legs outward.—Wash well, dry, singe, extract the plugs, and dredge before roasting.
A GOOSE.
Stuff the Goose with onion, sage, pepper, and salt, fasten it tight at the neck and rump, and then set it down to the fire, at first, at some distance, bringing it nearer by degrees.—Paste a slip of paper over the breast-bone, and when the breast is rising, take it off. Send a good gravy up in the dish; but first take a table-spoonful of made mustard, half a tea-spoonful of cayenne pepper, and three spoonsful of port wine; mix and pour it hot into the body of the goose, by a slit in the apron: this will wonderfully improve the stuffing, and is, as Dr. Hunter says, a secret worth knowing.
All poultry must be nicely drawn, picked, the plugs removed, and the hair carefully singed off with white paper, and then well washed and dried.
Baking.
We do not much approve of baking butcher’s-meat, as a substitute for roasting it, though it cannot be denied that some articles may be baked to answer nearly as well as if roasted; and when a great dinner is to be prepared it may be convenient to send a dish or two to the oven, but over these the cook can have no controul, and must, therefore, depend entirely on the baker. The following are articles that may with most advantage be baked, provided the meat be good and fat, and the baker be very attentive:—A sucking-pig, goose, some joints of beef, leg and shoulder of mutton, leg and loin of pork, fillet of veal, ham, hare, sprats, and other small kinds of fish in pans, or jugs. To poor families, however, the oven affords great convenience as well as a considerable saving of expense and trouble.
Beef loses about one third of its weight by baking.
A SUCKING PIG.
Let it be prepared as for roasting; fasten buttered paper on its tail and ears to prevent their being scorched; and send with it a little butter, tied up in a bit of cloth, to baste its back with, occasionally, which the baker must be requested to do.
Broiling.
For this operation let the fire be brisk and clear. The bars of the gridiron must be bright at top and clean betwixt; wipe the gridiron quite clean with a cloth, make its bars hot, and rub them with nice mutton suet, before you lay on the meat. Set the gridiron slanting over the fire, to prevent the fat dropping into it so as to occasion a smoke, which must be prevented. We shall give as an example in this branch of cookery,
A RUMP STEAK.
The steak should be cut from the middle of the rump, must be about half an inch thick, and have been kept till tender. Broil it quick, and turn it often, with steak-tongs, to keep in the gravy and make it a nice brown; it will be done in fifteen or twenty minutes. Having ready, before the fire, a warm dish, with a table-spoonful of catsup, and a little minced shallot or onion, lay the steak on it, rub it over with a little butter, and garnish the dish with pickles and horse-radish scraped fine.
Frying.
Frying is, in fact, boiling in fat. Before you begin to fry, rub the inside of the Frying-pan with a little fat, warm it and wipe it out with a cloth, quite clean.—To fry fish, half fill the pan with fat, olive oil, nice fresh lard, clarified drippings, or beef or mutton suet;—but whatever fat be used let it be perfectly sweet, free from salt, and nice and clean. Keep a brisk fire, and make the fat very hot, which may be known by its having done hissing. When ready, carefully drain it quite dry before the fire.
We give the following as an example of the best method of Frying soles, and most other kinds of fish:
Let them be quite fresh, and some time before you dress them, wash them thoroughly, and wipe them with a clean cloth, quite dry.—If to be fried with bread-crumbs, beat up an egg, the white and yolk together, quite well, dip the fish in the egg, and cover them completely with grated crumbs, and if you wish the fish to look still better, do them twice over with egg. The fish, if large, may be cut into pieces, the proper size for the table, otherwise they may be fried whole; when cut they must be dished up as if whole. Let the fat in the pan be sufficient to cover the fish, and when it quite boils, and begins to smoke, put in the fish; it will be nicely browned in about five minutes, when it should be turned, and fried just as long on the other side. When done lay them on a soft cloth, before the fire, and turn them every two or three minutes, till they are perfectly dry on both sides.
The fat in which any thing is fried will serve to fry the same kind of thing several times.
Broths, Soups, Stock, &c.
Cleanliness in this, as in every department of kitchen business, must ever be held as the leading principle, and will contribute most to the satisfaction of all parties.
An economical Cook, when she boils animal food, will make a rule to convert the liquor, or broth, into some sort of soup or stock, which may be done at her leisure, and by which means she will always have a rich kitchen, as it is technically called, and will be able to make an extra dish, or an additional tureen of soup, at a short notice, and at a trifling expense. The fragments of meat left after dinner, with the trimmings of undressed meat and game, the heads, necks, gizzards, and feet of fowls, &c. when picked and washed clean, will help to enrich soups, or make stock, and save much expense in gravy meat. The broths, if saved in separate pans, will assist in making white or brown soups, and the gravies left in the dishes after dinner, will be good in hashes, or, with some trifling ingredients added, will make sauce for fish, goose, &c.
The liquor of a knuckle of veal may be converted into glaze, if boiled with a knuckle of ham, till reduced to a fourth or a third part, with the necessary herbs and spices added.
To prepare Soups, &c.—the first care of the Cook will be to see that the stew-pan to be used is well tinned, scalded, and wiped out perfectly clean and dry. She will put some butter or marrow into the bottom of the pan, then lay in a leg or shin of beef with the bones well broken, and the meat cut to pieces; or the skirts of beef, the kidney or melt, or the shank bones of mutton, well cleaned, with the fragments and trimmings of meat and other articles, as above mentioned;—these she will cover close and keep over a slow fire an hour, stirring it up, occasionally, from the bottom, and taking great care that it does not burn.—When all the virtues of the meats are extracted, and the juices are again absorbed by them, she will add water enough to cover them, which will be in the proportion of about a quart of water to a pound of meat, for soup, and to two pounds, for gravies; the scum must then be carefully taken off, quite clean, as it rises, after it has boiled; for the more soups and broths are skimmed, the better, and more transparent they will be: and this transparency, combined with their uniformity of taste, constitutes their chief excellence. It is important that the soup be kept gently simmering five or six or more hours, and that then be added a scraped carrot, a head of celery, a couple of onions, two turnips, and a few sweet herbs;—when ready, let it be strained carefully through a clean tamis, previously dipped in cold water, into stone or unglazed earthen pans, and let the fat remain upon it, to preserve it, till wanted.
Soups and broths when done, ought not to be covered, nor put away with vegetables in them.
Use soft water to boil white peas, and let the peas be whole; but pump water will make green peas-soup of a better colour.
A good tureen of peas-soup may be made from the liquor of pork, mutton, or beef.
The lean of hams or gammon of bacon should be used when Stock is made; but if the former, first give it a boil in water, before you put it in, else it will turn the soup red.
The sediment of gravies, &c. that have stood to be cold, should never be used.
A clear jelly of cow-heels makes a great improvement to gravies and soups.
A lump of clarified butter, thoroughly mixed with flour and boiled with the soup will give it a richness and a greater consistency, if required.—A little tarragon added, just before it is served up, will give it an agreeable flavour.
All soups should be sent to table quite hot.
Cullis, or brown gravy, is made with lean veal and ham or gammon, and sweet herbs, &c.
Bechamel, or white sauce, is made in the same way, but is not browned; it must be improved by the addition of equal quantities of good broth and thick cream simmered with it half an hour, before it is strained off.
The articles used in thickening, seasoning, and flavouring broths and soups, are chiefly bread, flour, oatmeal, peas, rice, Scotch and pearl-barley, isinglass, maccaroni, turnips, beet, carrots, mushrooms, garlick, onions, shallots, cress, parsley, thyme, sage, mint, and other sweet and savoury herbs; also allspice, cinnamon, cloves, mace, nutmeg, ginger, pepper, lemon-juice, essence of anchovies, &c. these combined with wine and mushroom catsup, form an endless variety for flavouring and seasoning broths and soups.
Basil, savoury, and knotted-marjorum, are very pungent, and should be used cautiously.
No Cook can support the credit of her kitchen without having plenty of gravy, cullis, and stock always at hand, as these are the bases of all soups and high-seasoned dishes.
Sauces and Gravies.
These are simple, and easily made.
GRAVY FOR ROAST MEAT.
Almost every joint will afford trimmings enough to make plain gravy for itself, which may be heightened with a little browning.
Or, half an hour before the meat is done, mix a little salt and boiling water, and drop it on the brown parts of the meat, which catch in something under, and set it by to cool; when the meat is ready, remove the fat, warm the gravy, and pour it into the dish.
Or, the brown bits of roasted or broiled meat, infused a night in boiling water, and the next day just boiled up, and drained off, will make a good gravy.
GRAVY FOR BOILED MEAT.
Make it of the trimmings and paring of the meat.
Or pour as much of the liquor as may be necessary into the dish, and pierce the meat, on the under part, with a skewer.
MELTED BUTTER.
Cut two ounces of butter into small pieces, and put it into a pint saucepan, with a large tea-spoonful of flour, and two table-spoonsful of milk; when thoroughly mixed, add six table-spoonsful of water, shake it continually, over the fire, always the same way, till it simmers, then set it on, and let it just boil up, when it will be about the thickness of cream: if too thick to eat with vegetables, add a little more milk.
This is the foundation of almost all the sauces.
Two table-spoonsful of mushroom catsup added to this instead of the milk, will make an excellent sauce for fish, flesh, or fowl, and particularly for chops and steaks.
If butter be oiled in melting, put in a spoonful of cold water and stir it with a spoon; or pour it forward and backward from the saucepan to the boat, till it is come again.
LEMON SAUCE.
Pare a lemon, cut it into thick slices, and divide these into small squares or dice, which mix with a quarter of a pint of melted butter.
PARSLEY AND BUTTER.
Wash and pick the parsley, very carefully, boil it ten minutes with a tea-spoonful of salt, in a little water, drain it, and bruise it to a pulp, then mix it by degrees with about half a pint of melted butter.
N. B. Sauces of fennel, chervil, basil, tarragon, burnet, cress, &c. may be made in the same way.
ANCHOVY SAUCE.
Pound three anchovies in a mortar with a bit of butter, rub it through a hair-sieve, with the back of a wooden spoon, and stir it into half a pint of melted butter.
CAPER SAUCE FOR MUTTON.
To a quarter of a pint of melted butter put a table-spoonful of capers, and nearly as much vinegar.
GARLIC SAUCE.
Pound two cloves of garlic and proceed as with the anchovy sauce.
SHALOT SAUCE,
Is made with three or four shalots pounded, and done in the same way.
Browning,
Is nothing more than pounded white sugar, melted over a slow fire, with a little butter and water, till it begins to smoke and turn brown, then diluted with more water, till about the consistence of soy, and afterwards boiled, skimmed, strained, and preserved in well corked bottles.
All plain sauces, should taste only of the articles from which they take their names.
In compound sauces the several ingredients should be so nicely proportioned that no particular flavour should predominate.
Soy, walnut-peels, burnt treacle, or sugar, cayenne pepper, or capsicums, chilies, vinegar, pickled herrings, anchovies, sardinias, or sprats, are the bases of almost all the sauces to be found in the shops.
Never season too highly your sauces, gravies, or soups.
Cloves and allspice,—mace and nutmeg,—marjorum, thyme, and savory,—leeks, onions, shalots, and garlic,—need not be mixed together in the same preparation, when either of them will supply the place of the others.
In short, Cooks now know, by experience, that a much less number of ingredients are sufficient to give a finer flavour to sauces, &c. than was formerly used; because, in this age of refined taste, we have learnt to combine the simply elegant with the purely nutritious.
Salads.
These may be eaten at all seasons of the year; but they are most wholesome in the spring, when green herbs, of all kinds, are in the greatest perfection. They are, then, most efficacious, in cleansing, sweetening, and purifying the blood. But, though Salads in the winter act not so powerful as in the spring, yet, such as are to be had, retain all the properties or qualities of their nature, and the warmer kinds, in particular, being gentle, salutary, and most excellent stimulants, are well calculated to warm the stomach, and exhilarate the spirits.
The following are the principal herbs, or vegetables, used in English salads; viz.
| Beet Root, | Mint, | Small Salading |
| Celery, | Onions, | which are |
| Chervil, | Parsley, | Turnip, |
| Chives, | Radish, Common, | Rape, |
| Corn Salad, | ——–, Turnip, | Salad Radish, |
| Cucumber, | Shalots, | Mustard, |
| Garlic, | Sorrel, | Garden Cress. |
| Lettuce, | Water Cresses, and |
Balm, Dandelion, Nettle Tops, Sage, Spinage Tops, and Tarragon, are sometimes used.
Besides these, the French use many other articles as Salads, most of which being warm, exhilarating, and antiscorbutic, contribute greatly to their health and cheerfulness; viz.
| Balm, | Pennyroyal Tops, | Dandelion, |
| Sage, | Tarragon, | Spinage Tops, |
| Nettle Tops. |
Salad herbs should be used fresh from the gardens; but if grown stale, they must be refreshed in cold water. They must be carefully picked, and washed clean, and then shaken in a clean cloth to dry.
The ingredients generally used in mixing Salads are eggs boiled hard, and rubbed fine, oil, vinegar, mustard, pepper, and salt.
The adulteration of articles of provision is now so common, that the Cook will do well to be guarded against such impositions, by dealing with respectable tradesmen only.—The articles most frequently adulterated are bread, tea, brown sugars, coffee, mustard, pepper, and all other things that are to pass through the mill.
The Cook should take care to be amply provided with proper instruments, and kitchen utensils of all kinds, without which she can do nothing as it ought to be done. It will be necessary to have graduated glass measures, such as the apothecaries use, divided into tea-spoonsful and table-spoonsful,14 and also graduated on their sides, according to the following figures, in order to measure quantities of fluids with accuracy.
Scales and weights should also be kept at hand, not only for weighing heavy articles, such as butcher’s-meat, grocery, &c. but also such as will weigh small quantities with accuracy. (See the Appendix.)
Before breakfast, or as soon as possible after, the Cook having seen that her assistants in the kitchen are getting forward all things preparatory to the principal dinner, and having also given the kitchen-maid directions for the servants’ dinner, her attention will next be directed to
The situation of the Larder should be dry, airy, and shady; it should be well ventilated, and kept perfectly clean, cool, and free from smells of all kinds.
The freezing point, or about 32° of Farenheit’s Thermometer, is the most perfect temperature of the atmosphere for preserving animal food.
Moist and close weather is very bad for keeping meat, poultry, &c. A southerly wind is also unfavourable;—and lightning will quickly destroy it.
MEAT.
A large Safe, pierced with holes on every side, to be hung up in an airy situation, would be a very valuable appendage to every Larder.
Management of Butcher’s Meat, &c. before it is dressed.
BEEF.
Management.—When the meat first comes in, trim it neatly and carefully, by cutting out all the bloody parts and the fly-blowings, if any; cut out also the kernels in the thick end of the sirloin, in the fat of the rump, in the pope’s-eye, the thick fat of the buttock, and wherever else they are to be found. Cut off the skirt under the ribs, and as much of the suet from the sirloin and rump as will leave them handsome for dressing. Cut off also the spare suet in the loins of veal and mutton; and the spare fat of necks, or loins of mutton, makes much lighter puddings than suet. Be careful also to take out the pipe which runs along the chine-bone, and the pith which is in the back-bone in the sirloin, rump, &c.; the whole should then be wiped dry, all the holes filled up with salt, and the roasting pieces should be sprinkled with salt and hung up till wanted. In winter, the boiling meat, that is frozen, should be soaked in cold water, two or three hours before it is dressed; but the best way to thaw a roasting joint is to let it be in the warm kitchen several hours before it is put to the fire.
SALTING.
The boiling pieces, if the weather permit, will be the better for hanging a day or two before they are salted. In warm weather, it is best to let them lie an hour, rubbing well every part that is likely to be fly-blown, and then wiping them dry with a cloth, and having salt ready, rub it into every part, taking care to fill the holes where the kernels and skewers have been. Turn them and rub them well with the pickle every day, and in three or four days they will be fit to dress, if wanted. Wash all the boiling pieces before dressing; and its colour will be the better for soaking; but never wash roasting joints before they are dressed, as it robs them of their best juices and finest flavour; it is, therefore, much better to wipe them well with a dry cloth, and pare off the dry parts on the outside.
VEAL.
Management.—Examine and trim the several joints when they come in; take out the skewers and wipe all the parts dry, particularly round the kidney and udder; cut out the pipe that runs along the chine-bone in the loin and neck; take out the spine in the back-bone, and the kernels in the leg and the chump end of the loin, and cut off the skirt within the breast.
MUTTON.
Management.—In warm weather, trim the meat as soon as it comes in, as directed for beef: cut out the kernels in the leg, the chine, and near the tail in the loin; cut out also the pipe that runs along the chine-bone, and take out the pith in the chine; cut off the skirt of the breast; wipe all dry with a clean cloth, and hang it up till wanted.
LAMB.
Management.—Lamb, whether in quarters or joints, should be managed like mutton and beef, as directed.
PORK.
Management.—Examine and trim it, when brought in, as you do all other kinds of meat. Sprinkle the joints intended for roasting with a little salt, to improve their relish. Cut the joints intended for boiling into suitable pieces, and rub them well with salt as you put them into the salting-pan.
VENISON.
Management.—To prevent venison from tainting, take the kernel out of the haunch, wash the whole with vinegar and water, then wipe it quite dry, and dust it with ground ginger or pepper, to keep off the flies.—Thus managed, it may be kept a fortnight.
General Business of the Larder.
Joints of meat, game, &c. should be hung where there is a current of dry air, till they are tender. If they be not kept long enough, they will be hard and tough;—if too long, they lose their flavour. Much loss is sustained by the spoiling of meat in warm weather; to prevent which, as far as possible, it must be turned daily, end for end, and wiped every morning and night, with a clean, dry cloth, to free it and keep it from damp and moisture. If it be feared that any of the ripe meat will not keep till wanted, it should be parboiled, or part-roasted, by which means it may be kept a day or two the longer. Pieces of charcoal should also be put over meat, and a plug of charcoal put into the vents of fowls, &c. a string being tied round their necks. Before dressing meat it must be well washed and wiped dry; except roasting-beef, the dry outsides of which must be pared off. When meat indicates the least degree of putridity it should be dressed with out delay, else it becomes unwholesome. In the latter case, however, even fish, as well as meat, may be reclaimed, by putting pieces of charcoal into the water with it, when boiled or parboiled.—Tainted meat may also be restored by washing it in cold water, and afterwards in strong chamomile tea, and rubbing it dry with a clean cloth; after which it may be sprinkled with salt, and suffered to remain till the next day, if necessary.
In frosty weather all meat should be brought into the kitchen over night, or at least several hours before it is to be dressed.
Early in the morning remove the cold meat into clean dishes; change also, all the broths, soups, gravies, stock, cullis, &c. that require it, into clean scalded stone-pans; and never leave any eatables in copper or brass vessels, for if touched with salt or vinegar, or any acid, and left wet, they will corrode and gather poison.
Turn and rub the meat that is in salt; after which let the Larder be well scoured and cleaned out.
Dried meats, hams, tongues, bacon, &c. must be hung up in a cool, dry place, otherwise they will become rusty.
Bread should be kept in an earthen pan, with a cover, to exclude the air;—it should not be cut till it is a day old.
The vigilant Cook, having attended to the minutiæ of the larder, and directed that the shelves and floor be well scoured and washed, and every part made perfectly free from smells, will next, if it be in her department, prepare to go to market, and consult her mistress or the housekeeper accordingly.15
Having seen that all the marketing is properly disposed of,—the parlour lunch, nursery and servants’ dinners getting forward, or got out of the way, then commences the principal preparations for the day.
In families where great dinners are seldom given, it will be better, when it can be conveniently done, to make an arrangement, as to the principal dishes, a day or two, or more, before hand. The Cook should never quit her post, on such an occasion, as it requires not only great skill but the utmost attention and exertion to send up the whole of a great dinner, with all its accompaniments, in perfect order.
When there is an opportunity of getting forward the soups, sauces, and made dishes, on the preceding day, it should, by all means, be done; but if not, the soups, &c. should be forwarded early in the morning, and while these are preparing, the joints of meat, cutlets, and other articles should be trimmed, the poultry and game, &c. trussed and made ready for dressing; the vegetables picked quite clean, trimmed, and well washed, and laid separate, in dishes or cullenders. The shalots, onions, sweet-herbs, spices, &c. should also be prepared, and laid quite at hand.
The Bill of Fare being made out, and the hour of active operation approaching, the clock must be consulted, and the different articles prepared and laid to the fire, in succession, according to the times they will take, that all may be ready in due time.—A scene of activity now commences, in which you must necessarily be cool, collected, and attentive.—Have an eye to the roast meat, and an ear to the boils,—and let your thoughts continually recur to the rudiments of your art, which at this moment must be called into practical requisition. You will endeavour that every kind of vegetable, and of sauce, be made to keep pace with the dishes to which they respectively belong—so that all may go up stairs smoking hot together, and in due order.
Let a clean cloth be laid on the kitchen-table, and with the bill of fare for your guide, if neither housekeeper nor the butler be present, let the dishes, intended to be used, be placed on this table, exactly as they are meant to stand on the table in the dining-room, and let every article be taken off the table in the kitchen, by the footman, and proper assistants, in regular order, by which means the butler cannot fail to set them in their proper places above stairs.
In some families, the soups are sent up first; and next, after a few minutes, the fish, then the removes, vegetables, sauces, and the whole of the first course:—mean time the entremets, or second course, will be dished and sent up, precisely in the same way. This would be done in all families, at all times, were it not deemed necessary frequently to sacrifice convenience, comfort, and every other consideration, at the shrine of fashion and elegance of appearance.
When the dinner things are brought down, the meat must be removed into clean common dishes; and as many things, such as fricandeaus, stews, &c. may remain untouched, or can be made to do again, when tossed up afresh, in different ways; they must be taken out of the gravies, the garnish, &c. picked clean off them, and the meat put by in clean dishes, and covered with thin slices of bacon. These gravies, and those from the roast meats of different kinds, must all be saved in separate stone pans, as all things of this kind serve to make a rich kitchen, and may be converted or applied to various useful purposes. The soups that are left should be strained through sieves to take out the bread and other vegetable matters, which, if left in, would turn them sour.
What sweets are left, such as Blancmange, Jellies, &c. may be melted and run into smaller moulds or shapes, and made to do again. Such management as this is highly commendable in all families, as thereby you are at all times provided for extra visiters.
Potted Meats, Collared articles, Anchovies, Oysters and other shell-fish, mock Brawn, cold Hams, Tongue, Stewed Peas, Black Caps, Sweets of various kinds, and some sorts of Tarts, should also be kept ready for suppers and extra occasions.16
The kitchen fire being reduced, and made up for ordinary occasions,—The dishes and every other article that has been used in the course of the day, and particularly the pots, kettles, sauce-pans, and other culinary utensils, being all scoured, and made perfectly clean, dried, wiped out, and put in their proper places;—the dressers and tables scoured down, and the whole kitchen made quite clean and put into perfect order, the principal business of the day may be considered at an end, as little more, of consequence, will seldom be required on the part of the Cook, except what further attention the larder, in hot weather, may demand, before she retires.
Useful Hints.
With the utmost attention of the Cook, she can gain no credit, if she send up more than one dish, with all its accompaniments, at a time, and that as quickly as possible.
Old meats do not require so much dressing as young, because they may be eaten with the gravy in them.
Pickled pork requires longer dressing, in proportion, than any other meat.
Hashes and minces should be only simmered, if boiled, they become hard.
Meat hastily boiled or roasted is, thereby, made the more indigestible, and its juices are wastefully extracted.
The warmer the weather, and the staler the meat, the less time it will take in dressing.
When meat is overdone it is spoiled, and the fault can never be corrected;—when neither overdone nor underdone it is most digestible and most nutritious;—and when thoroughly done, it eats short and tender.
In dressing Meats, be as correct as possible as to quantities, qualities, and time.
Meat that is not to be cut up till cold must be well done, particularly in the summer time.
The greatest skill of the best cook will avail nothing, unless the provisions are good.
The present taste is simply to boil both carp and tench; and serve up with plain or savoury sauce, or rather, with Dutch sour sauce, which does not destroy the flavour of the fish.
All fish should be sent up as hot as possible, and particularly the sauces. In fact, all sauces ought to be set on the table quite hot.
Essence of anchovies is a very good fish-sauce, alone—or otherwise.
To prepare meat in a hot-bath is a most excellent mode of cookery; as it makes it tender without the loss of its juices.
A conjuror or Papin’s digester is a very economical Utensil. It will dress a steak deliciously, with the addition of a little catsup, or with oysters, &c.—It boils water in a few minutes.
To keep meat hot, when done, take it up, set the dish over a pan of boiling water, put a deep cover over it, and throw a clean cloth over that.
Broiled beef steaks, mutton-chops, &c. should always be sent to the table hot and hot.
Whole peas are better than split peas for soup, in winter. It is a good practice to steep them an hour or more in cold water, before they are boiled.
Wines and spices should not be put into soups, stews, &c. too early, as the heat evaporates both the spirit and the flavour.
Vermicelli, when used in soups, &c. should not be suffered to remain in it more than fifteen minutes, as it will become a paste.
Dripping will do as well as butter to baste any thing.
A small quantity of cream is better than flour and water, in melting butter.
Much butter is not to be recommended on all occasions.
When the palate is become dull by frequent tasting, wash the mouth with milk;—or eat an apple.
A bit of bread stuck upon the point of the knife with which you peel or cut onions, will prevent their disagreeable effect on the eyes.
A kettle of water kept boiling, over a charcoal fire, will effectually prevent its deleterious effects in the room.
Coals. Judicious Cooks will perform their culinary operations with much less coal than those who erroneously conceive that the greater the fire, the greater the dispatch. Time, rather than a fierce fire, answers best both for roasting and boiling meats.—Round coals are best for use, and small coal should never be thrown on a weak fire, as it will stop the progress of the air through the fire; and perhaps extinguish it. But small coal, or culm, a little wetted, and thrown at the back of a good fire, will become cinders or coke, and greatly improve it.
All the ashes of the kitchen and other grates should be sifted, and the cinders saved, to be used under the boilers in brewing and washing, or in the ironing stove.
A simple and excellent contrivance for sifting cinders may be purchased at the Ironmongers.
Omelets should be made to eat full and thick at the mouth. They should be sent up quite hot, after dinner, and are wholesome, and great favourites in most countries.
A little sugar much improves the taste of green peas.
Potted meats make excellent sandwiches.
Sandwiches should be neatly cut in mouthfuls, so as to be taken up with a fork.
Maxims.
Do every thing in the proper time.
Keep every thing in its proper place.
Use every thing for its proper use.
Never use any boiling or stewing utensil, pot or pan, spit, cookhold, spoon, ladle, or skewer, sieve, tammy or pudding cloth, jelly bag, net, tape, or other kitchen article, that have not been well scalded or washed with boiling water, and thoroughly dried.
The Cook’s Catechism.
| Browning | A preparation of white sugar, browned over the fire, and then diluted to the consistency of soy, for the purpose of colouring soups, gravies, &c. |
| Bechamel | A simple white gravy or sauce |
| To Braize | To stew over a slow fire |
| Consommé | A rich soup or gravy consumed over the fire to the consistency of a jelly, to be diluted and converted, when wanted, into soup |
| Cullis | A rich brown gravy, made in various ways, according to the purpose for which it is intended |
| Entrés | Dishes for a first course |
| Entremets | Dishes for a second course |
| Esculents or Edibles | Animal or Vegetable food—any article that may be eaten |
| Fricandeau | A sort of Scotch collops |
| Fricassee | Fowls, rabbits, or other things cut to pieces and dressed with a strong white sauce |
| Garnishes | Articles laid round a dish by way of ornament, and generally, but not always, intended to be eaten therewith |
| Glaze | A very rich sauce or gravy boiled to a thick substance, and preserved in pots, to be laid on with a long-haired brush, over high-seasoned dishes |
| To Glaze | To cover the outsides of hams, tongues, and all stewed dishes, with glaze or braize, to give them a rich appearance |
| Harrico | Veal, mutton, &c. stewed with vegetables |
| Hot-Bath | A pan or other vessel filled with water, and placed in a pot, which is kept boiling over the fire, for the purpose of scalding fruits, or preparing meats |
| Maigre | Soup, or any other dish, made without meat or gravy |
| To Pass | To dress a thing partially, by setting on, or shaking it over the fire for a short time |
| Ragoût | Or stewing or boiling meat or other articles, to preserve their juices |
| To Sheet | To line the inside of a dish with paste |
| Stock | A preparation from gravy meats, &c. always to be kept at hand, for the purpose of making soup or gravy |
We have now initiated our honest candidate for culinary fame, by regular and easy gradations, into the whole arcana of the profession,—taught her to judge of the natures and qualities of provisions, and their comparative values;—the best seasons and methods of purchasing, and of managing undressed animal and vegetable food; and the general economy of the larder;—Have given her the plainest elementary principles and precepts, and a few of the most simple examples, for practice, in all the various branches of boiling, roasting, baking, broiling, frying, &c.—the best methods of making soups, gravies, sauces, and salads: and, lastly, the modern mode of preparing a good dinner, with all its most approved accompaniments. In fine, we have been anxious, not only to instruct the common cook in the rudiments, and all the ordinary operations of her art, but how to combine, both in principle and practice, the most elegant with the most useful results; so as to enable her to please both the man of taste and the man of temperance;—the economist and the epicure;—the whimsical and the wise;—those who eat to live, and those who live to eat.—Under the head Housekeeper, we have also given ample instructions for making Pastry, Confectionary, Preserves, and Pickles, which frequently fall within the province of the cook. The whole comprises, as it were in a nut-shell, a complete compendium of culinary knowledge, chiefly valuable for its comprehensive brevity, and which, we trust, will be found, by the ingenious practitioner, full as useful as many, more elaborate volumes, professedly written on this subject only, and published at not less, if not more than the whole price of this little Work.
Dean Swift’s ironical directions to the Cook.
Although I am not ignorant, that it hath been a long time since the custom began among people of quality to keep men cooks, and generally of the French nation; yet because my treatise is chiefly calculated for the general run of knights, ’squires, and gentlemen both in town and country, I shall therefore apply to you, Mrs. Cook, as a woman; however, a great part of what I intend may serve for either sex: and your part naturally follows the former; because the butler and you are joined in interest; your vails are generally equal, and paid when others are disappointed; you can junket together at nights upon your own prog, when the rest of the house are a-bed; and have it in your power to make every fellow-servant your friend; you can give a good bit or a good sup to the little masters and misses, and gain their affections: a quarrel between you is very dangerous to you both, and will probably end in one of you being turned off, in which fatal case, perhaps, it will not be so easy in some time to cotton with another. And now, Mrs. Cook, I proceed to give you my instructions, which I desire you will get some fellow-servant in the family to read to you constantly one night in every week when you are going to bed; whether you serve in town or country, for my lessons shall be fitted for both.
If your lady forgets at supper, that there is any cold meat in the house, do not you be so officious as to put her in mind of it; it is plain she did not want it; and if she recollects it the next day, say she gave you no orders, and it is spent; therefore, for fear of telling a lie, dispose of it with the butler, or any other crony, before you go to bed.
Never send up a leg of a fowl at supper, while there is a cat or a dog in the house, that can be accused for running away with it: but if there happen to be neither, you must lay it upon the rats, or a strange hound.
It is ill house-wifery to foul your kitchen rubbers with wiping the bottoms of the dishes you send up, since the table-cloth will do as well, and is changed every meal.
Never clean your spits after they have been used; for the grease left upon them by meat is the best thing to preserve them from rust; and when you make use of them again, the same grease will keep the inside of the meat moist.
If you live in a rich family, roasting and boiling are below the dignity of your office, and which it becomes you to be ignorant of; therefore leave that work wholly to the kitchen-maid, for fear of disgracing the family you live in.
If you are employed in marketing, buy your meat as cheap as you can, but when you bring in your accounts, be tender of your master’s honour, and set down the highest rate; which, besides, is but justice, for nobody can afford to sell at the same rate that he buys, and I am confident that you may charge safely; swear that you gave no more than what the butcher and poulterer asked. If your lady orders you to set up a piece of meat for supper, you are not to understand that you must set it up all; therefore, you may give half to yourself and the butler.
Good cooks cannot abide what they justly call fiddling work, where abundance of time is spent and little done: such, for instance, is the dressing of small birds, requiring a world of cookery and clutter, and a second or third spit, which by the way is absolutely needless; for it will be a very ridiculous thing indeed, if a spit which is strong enough to turn a sirloin of beef, should not be able to turn a lark; however, if your lady be nice, and is afraid that a large spit will tear them, place them handsomely in the dripping-pan, where the fat of roasted mutton or beef falling on the birds, will serve to baste them, and so save both time and butter: for what cook of any spirit would lose her time in picking larks, wheat-ears, and other small birds? Therefore, if you cannot get the maids, or the young misses to assist you, e’en make short work, and either singe or flay them; there is no great loss in the skins, and the flesh is just the same.
If you are employed in marketing, do not accept a treat of a beef-steak and a pot of ale from the butcher, which I think in conscience is no better than wronging your master; but do you always take that perquisite in money if you do not go in trust, or in poundage when you pay the bills.
The kitchen bellows being usually out of order with stirring the fire with the muzzle to save the tongs and poker, borrow the bellows out of your lady’s bed-chamber, which being least used, are commonly the best in the house; and if you happen to damage or grease them, you have a chance to have them left entirely for your own use.
Let a blackguard boy be always about the house to send on your errands, and go to market for you on rainy days, which will save your clothes, and make you appear more creditable to your mistress.
If your mistress allows you the kitchen-stuff, in return for her generosity take care to boil and roast your meat sufficiently. If she keeps it for her own profit, do her justice, and, rather than let a good fire be wanting, enliven it now and then with the dripping, and the butter that happens to turn to oil.
Send up your meat well stuck with skewers, to make it look round and plump; and an iron skewer rightly employed now and then will make it look handsomer.
When you roast a long joint of meat, be careful only about the middle, and leave the two extreme parts raw, which may serve another time, and will also save firing.
When you scour your plates and dishes, bend the brim inwards, so as to make them hold the more.
Always keep a large fire in the kitchen, when there is a small dinner, or the family dines abroad, that the neighbours, seeing the smoke, may commend your master’s house-keeping: but when much company is invited, then be as sparing as possible of your coals, because a great deal of the meat, being half raw, will be saved, and serve next day.
Boil your meat constantly in pump water, because you must sometimes want river or pipe water; and then your mistress, observing your meat of a different colour, will chide you when you are not in fault.
When you have plenty of fowls in the larder, leave the door open, in pity to the poor cat, if she be a good mouser.
If you find it necessary to go to market in a wet day, take out your mistress’s cloak, to save your clothes.
Get three or four chair-women to attend you constantly in the kitchen, whom you pay at small charges, only with the broken meat, a few coals, and all the cinders.
To keep troublesome servants out of the kitchen, always leave the winder sticking on the jack, to fall on their heads.
If a lump of soot falls into the soup, and you cannot conveniently get it out, stir it well, and it will give the soup a high French taste.
If you melt your butter to oil, be under no concern, but send it up; for oil is a genteeler sauce than butter.
Scrape the bottoms of your pots and kettles with a silver spoon, for fear of giving them a taste of the copper.
When you send up butter for sauce, be so thrifty as to let it be half water; which is also much wholesomer.
If your butter, when it is melted, tastes of brass, it is your master’s fault, who will not allow you a silver saucepan; besides, the less of it will go the farther, and new tinning is very chargeable: if you have a silver saucepan, and the butter smells of smoke, lay the fault upon the coals.
Never make use of a spoon in any thing that you can do with your hands, for fear of wearing out your master’s plate.
When you find that you cannot get dinner ready at the time appointed, put the clock back, and then it may be ready to a minute.
Let a red-hot coal now and then fall into the dripping-pan; that the smoke of the dripping may ascend, and give the roast meat a high taste.
You are to look upon the kitchen as your dressing room; but you are not to wash your hands, till you have gone to the Privy, and spitted your meat, trussed your fowl, picked your salad, nor indeed till after you have sent up your second course: for your hands will be ten times fouler with the many things you are forced to handle; but when your work is over, one washing will serve for all.
There is but one part of your dressing that I would admit while the victuals are boiling, roasting, or stewing; I mean, the combing your head, which loseth no time, because you stand over your cookery, and watch it with one hand, while you are using the comb with the other.
If any of the combings happen to be sent up with the victuals, you may safely lay the fault upon any of the footmen that hath vexed you: as those gentlemen are sometimes apt to be malicious, if you refuse them a sop in the pan, or a slice from the spit, much more when you discharge a ladle-full of hot porridge on their legs, or send them up to their masters with a dish-clout pinned at their tail.
In roasting and boiling, order the kitchen-maid to bring none but the large coals, and save the small ones for the fires above stairs: the first are properest for dressing meat; and when they are out, if you happen to miscarry in any dish, you may fairly lay the fault upon the want of coals; besides, the cinder-pickers will be sure to speak ill of your master’s house-keeping, where they do not find plenty of large cinders mixt with fresh large coals: thus you may dress your meat with credit, do an act of charity, raise the honour of your master, and sometimes get share of a pot of ale for your bounty to the cinder-woman.
As soon as you have sent up the second course, you have nothing to do (in a great family) until supper: therefore scour your bands and face, put on your hood and scarf, and take your pleasure among your cronies, till nine or ten at night—but dine first.
Let there be always a strict friendship between you and the butler, for it is both your interests to be united: the butler often wants a comfortable tit-bit, and you much oftener a cool cup of good liquor. However, be cautious of him, for he is sometimes an inconstant lover; because he hath great advantage to allure the maids with a glass of sack, or white-wine and sugar.
When you roast a breast of veal, remember your sweet-heart the butler loves a sweet-bread; therefore set it aside till evening; you can say, the cat or the dog has run away with it, or you found it tainted or fly-blown; and besides, it looks as well at the table without it.
When you make the company wait long for dinner, and the meat be over-done, which is generally the case, you may lawfully lay the fault upon your lady, who hurried you to send up dinner, that you was forced to send it up too much boiled or roasted.
If your dinner miscarries in almost every dish, how could you help it? You were teazed by the footmen coming into the kitchen; and to prove it true, take occasion to be angry, and throw a ladle-full of broth on one or two of their liveries; besides Friday and Childermas-day are two cross days in the week, and it is impossible to have good luck on either of them; therefore on those two days you have a lawful excuse.
When you are in haste to take down your dishes, tip them in such a manner, that a dozen will fall together upon the dresser, just ready for your hand.
To save time and trouble, cut your apples and onions with the same knife; well-bred gentry love the taste of an onion in every thing they eat.
Lump three or four pounds of butter together with your hand; then dash it against the wall just over the dresser, so as to have it ready to pull by pieces as you have occasion for it.
If you have a silver sauce-pan for the kitchen use, let me advise you to batter it well, and keep it always black; this will be for your master’s honour; for it shews there has been constant good house-keeping: and make room for the sauce-pan by wriggling it on the coals, &c.
In the same manner, if you are allowed a large silver spoon for the kitchen, let half the bowl of it be worn out with continual scraping and stirring; and often say merrily, this spoon owes my master no service.
When you send up a mess of broth, water-gruel, or the like, to your master in a morning, do not forget, with your thumb and two fingers, to put salt on the side of the plate; for if you make use of a spoon, or the end of a knife, there may be danger that the salt would fall, and that would be a sign of ill luck. Only remember to lick your thumb and fingers clean, before you offer to touch the salt.
In this satire, much useful instruction is conveyed, and many faults exposed which could not be so well noticed in any other form. A valuable servant will, of course, not lay herself open to the Dean’s irony.
Above all things, a cook should avoid all cruelty, and no custom or usage should be an excuse for any practices, by which living and sensitive creatures are to be put to wanton and unnecessary torture.
N.B. In the previous article it has not been attempted to give a detailed system of cookery, which alone would have filled a volume; but the object has been so to condense as to give the substance of the art in a few general rules, applicable to all cases, and therefore more useful than detailed instructions, for, applied with good sense, they cannot fail to make a complete cook.
THE KITCHEN-MAID, or UNDER COOK.
Cleanliness must be considered as the first and leading principle of the kitchen-maid, as well as of the head cook and all other persons in any way employed in the business of the kitchen.
This servant has, in many families, the hardest place in the house. It is her business, under the superintendance of the cook, to take nearly the whole management of roasting, boiling, and otherwise dressing all plain joints and dishes, and all the fish and vegetables.—She is also, if there be no scullion, to keep the kitchen, larder, scullery, all the kitchen utensils, and every thing belonging to it perfectly clean,—in the best possible condition, and always fit for use. On the due performance of this important part of her business mainly depends the credit and character, not of herself only, but of the cook also; it therefore behoves the cook to see it properly done.
The kitchen-maid must always rise betimes, light the kitchen fire, and set on water to be heated for all the purposes of the family, the first thing she does.—She next scours the dressers and shelves, and the kitchen tables, with soap and sand, and hot water; and cleans up the kitchen: she then clears out and cleans the housekeeper’s room, the hall and passages, the front door, and area steps, the larder, and the butler’s pantry; in doing which, the scullion (if there be one kept) takes the dirtiest and most laborious part. She then prepares the breakfasts in the housekeeper’s room, and the servants’-hall. These things, if she be active, she will have accomplished before the cook begins to require her attention and attendance in the larder, in the furtherance of the culinary preparations; to which, however, she must have an eye, even from her earliest rising, particularly to the soups and other things, that require a long time to prepare.
After breakfast, if not before, the cook will require her assistance in the larder, and afterwards for the remainder of the day she will be occupied in the kitchen, under the direction of the cook; first, in preparing for the servants’ dinner, the dinner in the nursery, or elsewhere, and the lunch in the parlour; next in helping to get ready the family dinner; then in washing up and clearing away every thing, and cleaning up the kitchen; and lastly, in setting out and preparing the supper, either hot or cold, for the servants.
As the kitchen-maid generally fills her situation with the view of becoming a cook, at a future day, it behoves her to read with attention the foregoing Directions to the Cook, which contain the rudiments of the art, and which, if she attentively study, and practically apply, will enable her to attain such a proficiency in her business, as will render her a valuable acquisition to her future employers. [Wages from 12 to 14 guineas per year.]
Having given a full and adequate sketch of the theory and leading principles of the culinary art, and exemplified them in the practical duties of the cook and kitchen-maid, we shall conclude the subject with a brief outline of the duties of their humble and laborious assistant,
THE SCULLION, or SCULLERY-MAID.
It is the business of this servant to light the fires in the kitchen range, and under the copper or boilers, and stew-holes—to wash up all the plates and dishes—scour and clean all the sauce-pans, stew-pans, kettles, pots, and all other kitchen utensils; and to take care that all the latter are always kept clean, dry, and fit for use. She is to assist the kitchen-maid in picking, trimming, washing and boiling the vegetables, cleaning the kitchen and offices, the servants’-hall, housekeeper’s room, and steward’s room; and to clean the steps of the front door and the area. She makes the beds for the stable men—and generally fetches, carries, and clears away for the cook and kitchen-maid, and otherwise assists in all the laborious parts of the kitchen business, [Wages from 8 to 12 guineas a year.]
TO CLEAN BLOCK-TIN DISH-COVERS, PEWTER POTS, &c.
Mix a little of the finest whiting, free from sand, with the smallest drop of sweet oil; rub the outside well and wipe it clean, with clean, dry soft linen rags.—Do the same to the inside, but wet with water, not oil:—always wiping these articles dry immediately after using them, and drying them by the fire, prevents their rusting, and saves much trouble in cleaning them.
THE LADY’S MAID.
The business of the lady’s-maid is extremely simple, and but little varied. She is generally to be near the person of her lady; and to be properly qualified for her situation, her education should be superior to that of the ordinary class of females, particularly in needle-work, and the useful and ornamental branches of female acquirements. To be peculiarly neat and clean in her person and dress, is better than to be tawdry or attractive, as intrinsic merit is a much greater recommendation than extrinsic appearance. In her temper she should be cheerful and submissive, studying her lady’s disposition, and conforming to it with alacrity. A soft and courteous demeanour will best entitle her to esteem and respect. In fine, her character should be remarkable for industry and moderation,—her manners and deportment, for modesty and humility—and her dress, for neatness, simplicity, and frugality.
It will be her business to dress, re-dress, and undress her lady; and, in this, she should learn to be perfectly au fait and expeditious, ever studying, so far as it depends on herself, to manifest good taste, by suiting the ornaments and decoration of her dress to the complexion, habits, age, and general appearance of her person. Thus will she evince her own good sense, best serve her lady, and gratify all those who are most interested in her welfare and happiness. She should always be punctual in her attendance, and assiduous in her attention. Her’s will be the care of her lady’s wardrobe, and she should make that her particular care; appropriating to each article of dress its proper place, where it always may be found when wanted. It will be her business carefully to examine every part of her dress, when taken off, and if they have sustained an injury, or acquired any spots or stains, immediately to clean and repair them;17 then fold them up neatly, and put them away.
Her first business, in the morning, will be to see that the house-maid has made the fire, and properly prepared her lady’s dressing-room:—she then calls her mistress, informs her of the hour, and having laid out all her clothes, and carried her hot water, to wash, she retires to her breakfast with the house-keeper and other principal servants. When her lady’s bell rings, she attends her in her dressing-room,—combs her hair for the morning, and waits on her till dressed; after which, she folds and puts away her night-clothes, cleans her combs and brushes, and adjusts her toilet-table:—she then retires to her work-room, to be ready if wanted, and employs herself in making and altering dresses, millinery, &c. About one o’clock the family generally take their lunch, and the servants their dinner.—After this, she is again summoned to attend her lady’s toilet whilst dressing to go abroad. When gone, she again adjusts her clothes, and every thing in the room, and lays out and prepares the several articles that may be required for her dinner, or evening dress, and afterwards employs herself at needle-work in her own room, or in her other avocations, till her mistress returns to dress for dinner, perhaps about five, when she attends her for that purpose; and having done this, it may happen that no further attendance on her mistress’ person will be required till she retires to bed: meanwhile she employs herself at needle-work, as in the morning18—or else in the various occupations of getting up the fine linen, gauzes, muslins, cambrics, laces, &c. washing silk stockings, taking the spots or stains out of silks, &c. &c. for doing which the best receipts are annexed.
It is her business to see that the house-maid, or chamber-maid, empties the slops, keeps up the fires, both in this and the bed-room, (if wanted) and keeps the rooms in perfect order.—Previous to her mistress’ retiring for the night, she will have looked out her night-clothes, and aired them well; and she will, not only now, but at all times when she goes to dress, carry up hot water, for washing, &c. and when she is gone to bed, she will carefully examine all her clothes, and do all that is necessary to be done to them, before she folds them away. If her lady be elderly, infirm, or unwell, she will sometimes be required to bring her work, and sit with her, to administer her medicines, and sometimes to read to her. To qualify herself for this latter purpose, and to acquit herself with propriety, she will, at her leisure, practise reading aloud, from the best authors; as it is important to acquire a proper style and manner of reading, in all the varieties of poetry or prose, ode or epistle, comedy, or sermon; avoiding, alike, the dull monotony of the school girl, and the formal affectation of the pedant; but following nature as her guide, in all that appertains to emphasis, modulation, and delivery.
If acquainted with the superior branches of needle-work, she might afford her lady much gratification, in presenting her, occasionally, with such trifles as will be acceptable, and suitable ornaments for her person.—This will evince her disposition to be grateful and to oblige; and this, combined with a feminine sweetness of temper, and suavity of manners, cannot fail to be her sure recommendation to the esteem of her superiors and others, through all the various circumstances of life.—Wages, from 18 to 25 guineas per annum, with tea and washing.
As the duties of the lady’s-maid include the personal ornament, dress, and decoration of her mistress, we have availed ourselves of a work recently published, under the title of “The Art of Beauty,” and in the subsequent pages have introduced some important receipts and observations from that work; together with various approved receipts on other points of the lady’s-maid’s duty.
ROMAN BALSAM FOR FRECKLES OF THE SKIN.
Take one ounce of bitter almonds,
one ounce of barley flour,
a sufficient quantity of honey.
Beat the whole into a smooth paste, spread it thinly on the skin at night, and wash it off in the morning.
The skin being thus prepared for the chemical remedies, you may select any of the following, or try them in succession.
FRECKLE WASH.
Take one drachm of muriatic acid,
half a pint of rain water,
half a tea spoonful of spirit of lavender.
Mix, and apply it two or three times a day to the freckles, with a bit of linen, or a camel-hair pencil.
PURIFYING WATER FOR THE SKIN.
Take one tea-spoonful of liquor of potass,
two ounces and a half of pure water,
a few drops of eau de Cologne.
Mix, and apply as before.
DR. WITHERING’S COSMETIC LOTION.
Take a tea-cupful of soured milk, cold,
scrape into it a quantity of horse-radish.
Let this stand from six to twelve hours, and strain, when it may be used to wash the parts affected, twice or thrice a day.
PREVENTIVE WASH FOR SUNBURN.
Take two drachms of borax,
one drachm of Roman alum,
one drachm of camphor,
half an ounce of sugar candy,
a pound of ox-gall.
Mix, and stir well for ten minutes, or so, and repeat this stirring three or four times a day for a fortnight, till it appears clear and transparent. Strain through blotting paper, and bottle up for use. Wash the face with it every time you go into the sunshine.
GRAPE LOTION FOR SUNBURN.
Dip a bunch of green grapes in
a basin of water, and then sprinkle it with
alum and salt, powdered and mixed.
Wrap it in paper, and bake it under hot ashes. Then express the juice, and wash the face with it, and it will remove sunburn, tan, and freckles.
LEMON CREAM FOR SUNBURN AND FRECKLES.
Put two spoonsful of sweet cream into
half a pint of new milk, squeeze into it
the juice of a lemon, add
half a glass of good brandy, and
a little alum, and loaf sugar.
Boil the whole, skim it well, and when cool, put it aside for use.
THE WORM PIMPLE WITH BLACK POINTS.
This sort is very common and very annoying to females, from the age of fourteen and upwards, as they give the skin a dirty greasy appearance, which no washing will remove. The vulgar opinion that such pimples are caused by worms or grubs, is quite erroneous. The best means of removing the worm pimple, is by squeezing out all the thickened matter of each; for, unless you do this, it is impossible to get rid of them, as no wash nor other application will remove them, nor will they ever disappear of their own accord. Several things may be useful in preventing their return. Of these, the Roman balsam, is a safe and excellent application, and daily rubbing the parts very gently with a soft glove, or with the warm hand.
THE SMALL RED PIMPLE.
In this species, the pimples appear singly, and are not very numerous, and the intermediate skin is unaffected. They are most liable to appear upon the cheeks, nose, and forehead, though they sometimes spread over the shoulders and upper part of the breast. Gowland’s Lotion, Kalydor, Cold Cream, and all such nostrums, ought to be used with great caution, but prefer the three following.
BATEMAN’S SULPHUR WASH.
Break one ounce of sulphur, and pour over it
one quart of boiling water.
Allow it to infuse for twelve or fourteen hours, and apply it to the face twice or thrice a day, for a few weeks. It is excellent for removing the roughness of the skin which usually succeeds pimples.
KNIGHTON’S LOTION.
Take half a drachm of liquor of potass,
three ounces of spirit of wine.
Apply to the pimples with a camel’s-hair pencil. If this be too strong, add one half pure water to it.
DARWIN’S OINTMENT FOR PIMPLES.
Take six drachms of mercury,
six grains of flour of sulphur,
two ounces of hog’s lard.
Mix them carefully in a mortar.
THE LIVID BUTTONY PIMPLE.
The pimples, even when they do not suppurate, but especially while they continue highly red, are always sore and tender to the touch; so that washing, the friction of the clothes, &c. are somewhat painful. In its most severe form, this eruption nearly covers the face, breast, shoulders, and top of the back, but does not extend lower than an ordinary tippet in dress.
Mr. Plumbe recommends the pimples to be pricked with a needle or a lancet, in order to irritate them, and spur them on to suppuration. When this has been accomplished, the matter is to be squeezed out, and if any blueness or hardness remain, sponge the part slightly, three or four times a day, with the following lotion.
Dissolve two grains and a half of oxymuriate of mercury in
four ounces of spirit of wine.
Keep it in a close-stopped phial for use.
BARDOLPH PIMPLE OR ERUPTION.
A careful examination of the parts, in the earlier stages of the disease, will, in most cases, lead to the detection of small and deep-seated collections of matter, which, upon being let out with a needle, or the point of a lancet, will cause the swelling and redness of the skin to disappear; and, if the fomentations of warm water, and frictions with mild soap and a soft brush be persevered in, along with plain diet, and abstinence from high-seasoned dishes, pickles, cayenne, mustard, and strong liquors, a cure may, in time, be effected.
POMADE FOR REMOVING WRINKLES.
Take two ounces of the juice of onions, the same quantity of the white lily, the same of Narbonne honey, and an ounce of white wax; put the whole into a new earthen pipkin till the wax is melted; take the pipkin off the fire, and, in order to mix the whole well together, keep stirring it with a wooden spatula till it grows quite cold. You will then have an excellent ointment for removing wrinkles. It must be applied at night, on going to bed, and not wiped off till the morning.
LOTION FOR WRINKLES.
Take the second water of barley, and strain it through a piece of fine linen; add a few drops of balm of Mecca; shake the bottle for a considerable time, till the balm is entirely incorporated with the water, when it will assume a somewhat turbid and whitish appearance.
This is an excellent wash for beautifying the face, and preserving the freshness of youth. If used only once a day, it takes away wrinkles, and gives surprising brilliancy to the skin. Before it is applied, the face ought to be washed with rain-water.
PERSPIRATION OF THE HANDS AND FEET.
The temporary removal of disagreeable perspiration in the hands or the feet, may sometimes be useful. The hands may be dipped in cold water, and if rose-water is at hand, it will be still better. Washing the hands with the infusion, or the tincture of galls, or oak bark, into which a little eau de Cologne, or any other perfume, may be put, is an excellent application of the same kind in bad cases. With respect to the feet, dusting them with very fine powder of galls, or of alum, or, what is, perhaps, still better, soaking the stockings with any perfumed soap till they are quite saturated, and then allowing them to dry thoroughly before putting them on, may be safely and effectually tried.
COLOURS IN DRESS.
Females of fair complexion ought to wear the purest white; they should choose light and brilliant colours, such as rose, azure, light yellow, &c. These colours heighten the lustre of their complexion, which if accompanied with darker colours, would frequently have the appearance of alabaster, without life and without expression.
On the contrary, women of a dark complexion, who dress in such colours as we too frequently see them do, cause their skin to appear black, dull, and tanned. They ought, therefore, to avoid wearing linen or laces of too brilliant a white; they ought to avoid white robes, and rose-colour, or light-blue ribbons, which form too disagreeable a contrast with their complexions.
Fair women cannot be too careful to correct, by light colours, the paleness of their complexions; and dark women, by stronger colours, the somewhat yellow tint of their complexion.
Crimson is extremely handsome at night, when it may be substituted for rose-colour, which loses its charms by candle-light; but this crimson, seen by day, spoils the most beautiful complexion; no colour whatever strips it so completely of all its attractions. Pale yellow, on the contrary, is often very handsome by day, and is perfectly suited to people who have a fine complexion; but at night it appears dirty, and tarnishes the lustre of the complexion, to which it is designed to add brilliancy.
Green is the only colour which should be worn as a summer veil.
USE OF PAINTS.
The vegetable substances which furnish rouge, are red sandal-wood, root of orchanet, cochineal, Brazil wood, and especially the bastard saffron, which yields a very beautiful colour, when it is mixed with a sufficient quantity of talc. Some perfumers compose vegetable rouge, for which they take vinegar as the excipient. These reds are liable to injure the beauty of the skin; it is more advisable to mix them with oily or unctuous matter, and to form salves. For this purpose, you may employ balm of Mecca, butter of cacao, spermaceti, oil of bhen, &c.
The red powders, above described, are best put on by a fine camel-hair pencil. The colours in the dishes, wools, and green papers, are commonly laid on by the tip of the little finger, previously wetted.
The Spanish wool, the papers, and the English-made Portuguese dishes, are all made from a moss-like drug, from Turkey, called safflower, well known to scarlet dyers, &c.
WHITE PAINTS.
White paints are extracted from minerals, more or less pernicious, but always corrosive. They affect the eyes, which swell and inflame, and are rendered painful and watery. They change the texture of the skin, on which they produce pimples, and cause rheums; attack the teeth, make them ache, destroy the enamel, and loosen them.
TO MAKE TALC WHITE.
Take a piece of the talc white, known by the name of Briançon chalk; choose it of a pearl grey colour, and rasp it gently with a piece of dog’s skin; after this, sift it through a sieve of very fine silk, and put this powder into a pint of good distilled vinegar, in which leave it for a fortnight, taking care to shake the bottle or pot several times each day, except the last, on which it must not be disturbed; pour off the vinegar, so as to leave the chalk behind in the bottle, into which pour very clean water that has been filtered; throw the whole into a clean pan, and stir the water well with a wooden spatula; let the powder settle again to the bottom; pour the water gently off, and wash the powder six or seven times, taking care always to make use of filtered water. When the powder is as soft and as white as you would wish, dry it in a place where it is not exposed to the dust; sift it through a silken sieve, which will make it still finer. It may be either left in powder, or wetted and formed into cakes, like those sold by the perfumers. One pint of vinegar is sufficient to dissolve a pound of talc.
This white may be used in the same manner as carmine, dipping your finger, or a piece of paper, or what is preferable to either, a hare’s foot, prepared for the purpose in ointment, and putting upon it about a grain of this white, which will not be removed, even by perspiration. If the ointment with which it is applied is properly made, this white does no injury to the face. The same ingredients may be used for making rouge.
COSMETIC JUICE.
Make a hole in a lemon, fill it up with sugar candy, and close it nicely with gold leaf, applied over the rind that was cut out; then roast the lemon in hot ashes. When desirous of using the juice, squeeze out a little through the hole already made, and wash the face with a napkin wetted therewith. This juice is said to cleanse the skin, and brighten the complexion marvellously.
BALSAM FOR CHAPPED LIPS.
Take two tea-spoonsful of clarified honey,
and a few drops of lavender-water, or any other
agreeable perfume.
Mix, and anoint the parts frequently. If the hands are affected, anoint them all over on going to bed, wearing your gloves all night, and wash with tepid milk and water in the morning. A night or two will effect a cure.
Another excellent preparation is,
LADY CONYNGHAM’S LIP-HONEY.
Take two ounces of fine honey,
one ounce of purified wax,
half an ounce of silver litharge,
the same quantity of myrrh.
Mix over a slow fire, and add milk of roses, Eau de Cologne, or any other perfume you may prefer, and keep for use.
EXCELLENT TOOTH-BRUSH.
Procure two or three dozen of the fresh roots of marsh-mallows, and dry them carefully in the shade, so that they may not shrivel. They must be chosen about as thick as a cane, and cut to five or six inches long, then with a mallet bruise the ends of them very gently, for about half an inch down, in order to form a brush. Then take two ounces of dragon’s blood, four ounces of highly rectified spirit, and half an ounce of fresh conserve of roses, and put them in a glazed pipkin or pan, to dissolve over a gentle fire. When dissolved, put in your prepared mallow-roots, stirring them to make them take the dye equally. Continue this till no moisture remains in the vessel, when the roots will be hard, dry, and fit for use. If you take care of them, they will last you a considerable time. When you use this toothbrush, it may be dipped in the following:
WASH FOR THE TEETH AND GUMS.
Take the juice of half a lemon,
a spoonful of very rough claret or port wine,
ten grains of sulphate of quinine,
a few drops of Eau de Cologne, or oil of bergamot.
Mix, and keep in a well-stopped phial for use.
LOTION FOR TOOTH-ACHE.
Put two drams of camphor
into an ounce of the oil of turpentine,
and let it dissolve; when it will be fit for use.
Cajeput oil is another valuable remedy for allaying the pain, when put into the hollow of the tooth. The most effectual, however, of all the remedies for destroying the sensibility of the nerve, is the putting of a red hot wire into the hollow, which will destroy the nerve, and prevent the return of the pain.
MUCILAGE FOR TOOTH-ACHE.
Take one dram of the powdered leaves of pyrethrum,
and a sufficient quantity of gum arabic mucilage.
Make a mass, divide it into twelve portions, and take one into the mouth, and let it lie till dissolved, as occasion requires.
If an external application is preferred, the following may be rubbed on the outside of the jaw.
LINIMENT FOR TOOTH-ACHE.
Take an ounce of spirit of camphor,
three drams of liquid ammonia,
ten drops of essential oil of bergamot.
Mix them in a phial for use.
A blister placed behind the ear, or burning the lap of the ear with a cloth dipped in boiling water, will often remove the pain entirely.
TO PREVENT THE TOOTH-ACHE.
Rub well the teeth and gums with a hard tooth-brush, using the flowers of sulphur as a tooth powder, every night on going to bed; and if it is done after dinner it will be best: this is an excellent preservative to the teeth, and void of any unpleasant smell.
A RADICAL CURE FOR THE TOOTH-ACHE.
Use as a tooth powder the Spanish snuff called Sabella, and it will clean the teeth as well as any other powder, and totally prevent the tooth-ache; and make a regular practice of washing behind the ears with cold water every morning; the remedy is infallible.
REMEDY FOR BAD BREATH.
Take from five to ten drops of muriatic acid, in
an ale glassful of barley-water, and add
a little lemon juice and lemon peel to flavour.
Mix for a draught, to be taken three times a day, for a month or six weeks at least, and, if effectual, it may be continued occasionally.
Another medicine of this kind, which has often proved beneficial when the stomach has been wrong, and the bowels costive, is, the
DRAUGHT FOR BAD BREATH WITH COSTIVENESS.
Take one dram of sulphate of magnesia,
two drams of tincture of calumba,
an ounce and a half of infusion of roses.
Make a draught, to be taken every morning or every other morning, an hour before breakfast, for at least a month.
PALMA CHRISTI OIL FOR THICKENING THE HAIR.
Take an ounce of Palma Christi oil,
a sufficient quantity of oil of bergamot or lavender to scent it.
Apply it morning and evening for three months, or as long as it may be necessary, to the parts where you want the hair to grow thick and luxuriant.
MACASSAR OIL.
Take three quarts of common oil,
half a pint of spirit of wine,
three ounces of cinnamon powder,
two ounces of bergamot.
Put it in a large pipkin, and give it a good heat. When it is off the fire, add three or four pieces of alkanet root, and keep it closely covered for several hours. Filter it through a funnel lined with blotting paper. The commonest oil is used; and, when rancid, it is remedied by putting in two or three slices of an onion.
EXCELLENT HAIR OIL.
Boil half a pound of green southern wood, in
a pint and a half of sweet oil, and
half a pint of port wine.
When sufficiently boiled, remove it from the fire, and strain the liquor through a linen bag. Repeat this operation three times, with fresh southern wood; and the last time add to the strained materials, two ounces of bear’s grease. It is excellent for promoting the growth of the hair, and preventing baldness.
LYE FOR STRENGTHENING THE HAIR.
Take two handsful of the root of hemp,
same quantity of the roots of a maiden vine,
same quantity of the cores of soft cabbages.
Dry and burn them, and make a lye of the ashes. Before you wash the hair with this lye, it should be well rubbed with honey, and this method persisted in for three days at least.
INFALLIBLE CORN-PLASTER.
Take two ounces of gum ammoniac,
two ounces of yellow wax,
six drams of verdigris.
Melt them together, and spread the composition on a bit of soft leather, or a piece of linen. Cut away as much of the corn as you can with a knife, before you apply the plaster, which must be renewed in a fortnight, if the corn is not by that time gone.
TO CLEAN SILKS, COTTONS, AND WOOLLENS,
without damage to their texture or colour.
Grate raw potatoes to a fine pulp in clean water, and pass the liquid matter through a coarse sieve, into another vessel of water; let the mixture stand till the fine white particles of the potatoes are precipitated, then pour the mucilaginous liquor from the fecula, and preserve the liquor for use. The article to be cleaned should then be laid on a linen cloth, on a table, and having provided a clean sponge, dip it into the potatoe liquor, and apply it to the article to be cleaned, till the dirt is perfectly separated; then wash it in clean water several times. Two middle-sized potatoes will be enough for a pint of water. The coarse pulp, which does not pass through the sieve, is of great use in cleaning worsted curtains, tapestry, carpets, and other coarse goods. The mucilaginous liquor will clean all sorts of silk, cotton, or woollen goods, without hurting or spoiling the colour; it may be also used in cleaning oil paintings, or furniture that is soiled. Dirtied painted wainscots may be cleaned by wetting a sponge in the liquor, then dipping it in a little clean sand, and afterwards rubbing the wainscot with it.
TO PRESERVE FURS.
When laying by muffs and tippets for the summer, if a tallow candle be placed on or near them, all danger of moths, &c. will be obviated.
TO PRESERVE CLOTHES FROM MOTHS, &C.
Put cedar shavings, or clippings of Russia leather, among the drawers and shelves where the clothes are kept. Pieces of camphor, or tallow candle, wrapt up in paper, will preserve furs and woollens from moths; and lavender, roses, and flowers and perfumes of every kind, are useful as well as agreeable in keeping away moths and worms.
VARNISH FOR OLD STRAW OR CHIP HATS.
Take half an ounce of the best black sealing-wax, bruise it, and put it to two ounces of spirit of turpentine; melt them very gently, by placing the bottle that holds them in boiling water, or near a fire. When all the wax is melted, lay it on warm with a fine hair brush near the fire or in the sun. It will not only give a beautiful gloss and stiffness to the hats, but make them resist wet.
TO TAKE GREASE SPOTS OUT OF SILK.
Dip a clean piece of flannel into spirits of turpentine, and rub the spots until they disappear, which will soon be the case. Do not be sparing of the turpentine, as it will all evaporate, and leave no mark or stain behind.
TO TAKE OUT STAINS FROM CLOTH OR SILK.
Pound French chalk fine, mix with lavender-water to the thickness of mustard. Put it on the stain; rub it soft with the finger or palm of the hand. Put a sheet of blotting and brown paper on the top, and smooth it with an iron milk-warm.
TO EXTRACT GREASE SPOTS FROM SILKS, AND COLOURED MUSLINS, &c.
Scrape French chalk, put it on the grease spot, and hold it near the fire, or over a warm iron, or water-plate, filled with boiling water. The grease will melt, and the French chalk absorb it; brush or rub it off. Repeat if necessary.
TO TAKE STAINS OUT OF SILK.
Mix together in a phial, 2 oz. of essence of lemon, 1 oz. of oil of turpentine.
Grease and other spots in silks, are to be rubbed gently with a linen rag dipped in the above composition.
TO TAKE SPOTS OF PAINT FROM CLOTH, SILK, &c.
Dip a pen in spirit of turpentine, and transfer it to the paint spot, in sufficient quantity to discharge the oil and gluten. Let it stand some hours, then rub it.
For large or numerous spots, apply the spirit of turpentine with a sponge, if possible, before it is become dry.
TO WASH CHINTZ.
Take two pounds of rice, boil it in two gallons of water till soft; then pour the whole into a tub; let it stand till about the warmth in general used for coloured linens; then put the chintz in, and use the rice instead of soap, wash it in this, till the dirt appears to be out, then boil the same quantity as above, but strain the rice from the water, and wash it in warm clear water. Wash in this till quite clean; afterwards rinse it in the water which the rice has been boiled in, and this will answer the end of starch, and no dew will affect it. If a gown, it must be taken to pieces, and when dried, be careful to hang it as smooth as possible;—after it is dry, rub it with a smooth stone, but use no iron.
TO WASH FINE LACE OR LINEN.
Take a gallon of furze blossoms and burn them to ashes, then boil them in six quarts of soft water; this, when fine, use in washing with the suds, as occasion requires, and the linen, &c. will not only be exceedingly white, but it is done with half the soap, and little trouble.
TO CLEAN BLACK AND WHITE SARCENETS.
Lay these smooth and even upon a board, spread a little soap over the dirty places; then make a lather with Castille soap, and with a common brush, dip it in, pass it over the long way, and repeat it in this manner, till one side is sufficiently scoured; use the other in the same manner; then put it into hot water, and there let it lie, till you have prepared some cold water, wherein a small quantity of gum arabic has been dissolved. Now rinse them well, take them out and fold them, pressing out the water with the hands on the board, and keeping them under the hands till they are dry; at which time, have brimstone ready to dry them over, till they are ready for smoothing, which must be done on the right side, with a moderate hot iron.
TO WASH AND STAIN TIFFANIES.
Let the hems of the tiffanies be at first only a little soaped, then having a lather of soap, put them into it hot, and wash them very gently for fear they should be crumpled; and when they are clean, rinse them in warm water, in which a little gum arabic has been dissolved, keeping them from the air as much as possible; then add a lump of starch, wet the tiffanies with a soft linen rag, and fold them up in a clean cloth, pressing them till they are near dry; after which put them near the fire, and finish the drying over brimstone; then shape them properly by gently ironing them.
TO WASH AND STARCH LAWNS.
Lawns may be done in the same manner as the former, only observe to iron them on the wrong side, and use gum arabic water instead of starch, and, according to what has been directed for sarcenets, any coloured silks may be starched, abating or augmenting the gum water, as may be thought fit, according to the stiffness intended.
TO CLEAN AND STARCH POINT LACE.
Fix the lace in a prepared tent, draw it straight, make a warm lather of Castille soap, and, with a fine brush dipped in, rub over the point gently; and when it is clean on one side, do the same to the other; then throw some clean water on it, in which a little alum has been dissolved, to take off the suds, and having some thin starch, go over with the same on the wrong side, and iron it on the same side when dry, then open it with a bodkin, and set it in order.
To clean point lace, if not very dirty, without washing; fix it in a tent as the former, and go over with fine bread, the crust being pared off, and when it is done, dust out the crumbs, &c.
TO CLEAN WHITE VEILS.
Put the veil in a solution of white soap, and let it simmer a quarter of an hour. Squeeze it in some warm water and soap, till quite clean. Rinse it from soap, and then in clean cold water, in which is a drop of liquid blue. Then pour boiling water upon a tea-spoonful of starch, run the veil through this, and clear it well, by clapping it. Afterwards pin it out, keeping the edges straight and even.
TO CLEAN BLACK VEILS.
Pass them through a warm liquor of bullock’s gall and water; rinse in cold water; then take a small piece of glue, pour boiling water on it, and pass the veil through it; clap it, and frame it to dry.
TO CLEAN WHITE SATIN AND FLOWERED SILKS.
Mix sifted stale bread crumbs with powder-blue, and rub it thoroughly all over, then shake it well, and dust it with clean soft cloths. Afterwards, where there are any gold or silver flowers, take a piece of crimson in grain velvet, rub the flowers with it, which will restore them to their original lustre.
Another Method.
Pass them through a solution of fine hard soap, at a hand heat, drawing them through the hand. Rinse in lukewarm water, dry and finish by pinning out. Brush the flossy or bright side with a clean clothes brush, the way of the nap. Finish them by dipping a sponge into a size, made by boiling isinglass in water, and rub the wrong side. Rinse out a second time, and brush and dry near a fire, or in a warm room.
Silks may be treated in the same way, but not brushed. If the silks are for dyeing, instead of passing them through a solution of soap and water, they must be boiled off; but if the silks are very stout, the water must only be of heat sufficient to extract the dirt, and when rinsed in warm water they are in a state for the dye.
Another Method.
Strew French chalk over them, and brush it off with a hard brush once or twice.
TO CLEAN COLOURED SILKS OF ALL KINDS.
Put some soft soap into boiling water, and beat it till dissolved in a strong lather. At a hand heat put in the article. If strong, it may be rubbed as in washing; rinse it quickly in warm water, and add oil of vitriol, sufficient to give another water a sourish taste, if for bright yellows, crimsons, maroons, and scarlets; but for oranges, fawns, browns, or their shades, use no acid. For bright scarlet use a solution of tin. Gently squeeze, and then roll it in a coarse sheet, and wring it. Hang it in a warm room to dry, and finish it by calendering or mangling.
For pinks, rose colours, and thin shades, &c., instead of oil of vitriol, or solution of tin, prefer lemon juice, or white tartar, or vinegar.
For blues, purples, and their shades, add a small quantity of American pearl-ash; it will restore the colours. Wash the articles like a linen garment, but instead of wringing, gently squeeze and sheet them, and when dry, finish them with fine gum water, or dissolved isinglass, to which add some pearl-ash, rubbed on the wrong side, then pin them out.
Blues of all shades are dyed with archil, and afterwards dipped in a vat; twice cleaning with pearl-ash, restores the colour. For olive greens, a small quantity of verdigris dissolved in water, or a solution of copper, mixed with the water, will revive the colour again.
TO CLEAN BLACK SILKS.
To bullock’s gall, add boiling water sufficient to make it warm, and with a clean sponge, rub the silk well on both sides, squeeze it well out, and proceed again in like manner. Rinse it in spring water, and change the water till perfectly clean, dry it in the air, and pin it out on a table; but first dip the sponge in glue water, and rub it on the wrong side; then dry it before a fire.
TO DIP RUSTY BLACK SILKS.
If it requires to be red dyed, boil logwood; and in half an hour, put in the silk, and let it simmer half an hour. Take it out, and dissolve a little blue vitriol and green copperas, cool the copper, let it simmer half an hour, then dry it over a stick in the air. If not red dyed, pin it out, and rinse it in spring water, in which half a tea-spoonful of oil of vitriol has been put. Work it about five minutes, rinse it in cold for ten minutes, rinsing in cold water. For a blue cast, put water, and finish it by pinning and rubbing it with gum water.
TO CLEAN SILK STOCKINGS.
Wash with soap and water; and simmer them in the same; put one drop of liquid blue, into a pan of cold spring water, run the stockings through this a minute or two, and dry them. For a pink cast, put one or two drops of saturated pink dye into cold water, and rinse them through this. For a flesh-colour, add a little rose-pink in a thin soap liquor, rub them with clean flannel, and calender or mangle them.
TO CLEANSE FEATHERS FROM ANIMAL OIL.
Mix well with a gallon of clean water, a pound of quick lime; and, when the lime is precipitated in fine powder, pour off the clear lime-water for use, at the time it is wanted. Put the feathers to be cleaned in a tub, and add to them a sufficient quantity of the clear lime-water, so as to cover them about three inches. The feathers, when thoroughly moistened, will sink down, and should remain in the lime-water for three or four days; after which, the foul liquor should be separated from them by laying them on a sieve. Afterwards, well wash them in clean water, and dry them on nets, about the same fineness as cabbage-nets. Shake them from time to time, on the nets; as they dry, they will fall through the mashes, when collect them for use. The admission of air will be serviceable in the drying, and the whole process may be completed in about three weeks. The feathers, thus prepared, want nothing further than beating, to be used either for beds, bolsters, pillows, &c.
TO BLEACH WOOL, SILKS, STRAW BONNETS, &c.
Put a chafing-dish with some lighted charcoal into a close room, or large box; then strew an ounce or two of powdered brimstone on the hot coals. Hang the articles in the room or box, make the door fast, and let them hang some hours. Fine coloured woollens are thus sulphured before dyed, and straw bonnets are thus bleached.
THE YOUNG LADIES’ MAID.
In large families, where there are young ladies who require attendance, a maid is appointed to wait on all, or perhaps each lady has a maid. The duties of these are in all respects the same as the ladies’-maid; we therefore refer them to the directions given to her, for the necessary instructions. As this situation is considered merely initiatory to a better, and is occupied, generally, by an upper house-maid, or a young woman on her outset in life, the salary is somewhat less than that of a well qualified servant; and the perquisites, including that of her mistress’ left-off clothes, are also reckoned at the same rate.
THE HEAD NURSE.
As the hopes of families, and the comfort and happiness of parents are confided to the charge of females who superintend nurseries of children, no duties are more important, and none require more incessant and unremitting care and anxiety. Every symptom of approaching disease should be watched and reported to the parents or medical attendant of the family, and in this respect, nothing should be concealed or deferred till remedies are too late. In the daily washings, the state of the skin should be examined and noticed, as well as the tongue and the appetite, and spirits; and above all things, all chances of accident or juvenile mischief should be guarded against and removed. Windows should be fenced with bars, or the lower sashes nailed down; knives and sharp instruments should be kept out of reach; scalding water and dangerous ingredients secured from access; ponds and rivers fenced in; ladders removed; and fire-places guarded by well-fastened wire fenders.
This important Servant ought to be of a lively and cheerful disposition, perfectly good tempered, and clean and neat in her habits and person. She ought also to have been accustomed to the care and management of young children, as all the junior branches of the family are intrusted to her care and superintendence, confiding in her skill, experience, and attention. She usually takes the sole charge of the infant from its birth, when the parent suckles it: to assist her in the management of this and the other children in the nursery, she has under nurses assigned her, who are entirely under her controul.
The youngest nurse, or nursery-maid, usually rises about 6 o’clock to light the fire, and do the household work of the nursery before the children are up, perhaps about seven o’clock, at which time the head nurse is dressed, and ready to bathe and wash them all over with a sponge and warm water; after which they are rubbed quite dry and dressed. This process, when there are several children, usually occupies the nurses an hour, or an hour and a half, when their breakfast is got ready, and the children are placed at their meal in the most peaceable and orderly manner. After breakfast, if the weather be favourable, the children are taken out by the assistant nurse, or nursery maid, for air and exercise, an hour or perhaps two, but not so long as to fatigue either of them. On their return, their hands and feet are washed, if damp or dirty, after which they attend to their lessons till dinner time. After dinner, if it be fine weather, the children are again taken abroad for air and exercise, and on their return again, after having their hands and feet washed, if necessary, they are in due time, about eight o’clock, dressed and put to bed. The Head Nurse finds ample employment during the whole day, in paying due attention to her infant charge, in giving directions, and in seeing that the whole business of the nursery is properly executed.
The sleeping room of the Nursery should be spacious, lofty, dry, airy, and not suffered to be inhabited in the day time. No servants should sleep in the same room, nor ought any thing to be done there that may contaminate the air, in which so great a portion of infantine life is to be spent. The consequences of vitiated air in bed-rooms are often fatal. Feather-beds and bed-curtains ought to be proscribed, as tending to debility; neither ought the beds to be placed too low, as the most pernicious stratum of air is that nearest the floor.
The air of the sleeping room ought to be changed immediately on the children’s leaving the room, by opening the windows and doors; the beds ought, also, to be shaken up and left to cool; the slops cleared away; and every thing made and kept perfectly clean. In damp or bad weather, a fire must be made in the room to purify the air.
The management of infant children, has a more important influence on the health and happiness of man, than is generally imagined; as, at this period of existence, the foundation is laid either for irremediable debility, or for mental and bodily vigour. An Infant, consequently requires considerable care, and indefatigable personal attention.
Its management for the first two months, cannot be too gentle, kind, or tender. Nothing should be done at first that can give it uneasiness; therefore, next to its health and well-being, regard should be had to its disposition, and the regulation of its temper; with this view also, the most rational way is to let the infant enjoy all the liberty it possibly can, without being restrained by its clothing, or starved by system. To set a child upright before the end of the first month is hurtful: afterwards the nurse may begin to set it up and dance it by degrees. It must be kept as dry as possible.
The clothing should be very light, and not too long, so that the legs may be got at with ease, in order to have them often rubbed in the day, with a warm hand, or flannel, and particularly the inside of them. Rubbing the child all over takes off scurf, and promotes the circulation of the blood.
A nurse ought to keep a child as little in her arms as possible, lest the legs should be cramped, and the toes turned inwards. Let her always keep the child’s legs loose. The oftener the posture is changed, the better.
For the first fortnight or three weeks it should be always laid on a bed, except when taken up to supply its wants, which will give it habits of cleanliness at a very early age.
It may be very comfortably laid on a cushion, where it can be in no danger of falling, nor of any thing falling on it. Some one should sit by it, and divert and cheer it, if necessary, and take it up instantly, when it expresses the least dissatisfaction. A nurse should make it a strict rule, that the child should be in her own view, in whatever she may be employed.
By slow degrees, the infant may be accustomed to exercise, both within doors and in the open air: but it never should be moved about immediately after sucking or feeding, as that will be apt to sicken it. Exercise should be given it by carrying it about, and gently dandling it in the arms; tossing an infant about, and exercising it in the open air, in fine weather, is of the greatest service to it, in preventing distortion. In cities, children ought not to be kept in hot rooms, but to have as much air as possible; want of exercise being the cause of rickets, large heads, weak joints, a contracted breast, and diseased lungs, besides a numerous train of evils.
Endeavour to harden the body, but without resorting to violent means. A child is constitutionally weak and irritable to a high degree; hence we should endeavour to diminish this irritability, in order to procure it the greatest happiness of life, a firm body, whence may result a sound mind.
Such management is highly advantageous, as it will enable children to support every species of fatigue and hardship, when they become adults.
The plan of hardening children may, however, be carried to excess. An extravagant attempt to strengthen youth, deprives them of all their natural susceptibility of excitement, renders them insensible, and produces many bad effects, while they only acquire temporary energy, which decreases as they advance in years, and is attended with an early loss of their primitive vigour.
All attempts to render children hardy must, therefore, be made by gradual advances: for nature admits of no sudden transition. When children have once been accustomed to a hardy system of education, such a plan must be strictly adhered to.
The child’s skin is to be kept perfectly clean by washing its limbs morning and evening, and likewise its neck and ears; beginning with warm water, till, by degrees, it will not only bear, but like to be washed with cold.
After it is a month old, if it has no cough, fever, nor eruption, the bath should be colder and colder (if the season be mild) and by degrees it may be used as it comes from the spring. After carefully drying the whole body, head, and limbs, a second dry soft cloth, somewhat warmed, should be gently used, to take all the damp from the wrinkles or soft parts of the body. Then rub the limbs; but when the body is rubbed, take special care not to press upon the stomach or belly. On these parts, the hand should move in a circle, because the bowels lie in that direction. If the skin be chafed, hair-powder is to be used. The utmost tenderness is necessary in drying the head; and a small, soft, brush, lightly applied, is safer than a comb.
Clean cloths, every morning and evening, will tend greatly to a child’s health and comfort.
The dress of the child by day should be light and loose, and for the night, it may be a shirt, a blanket to tie on, and a thin gown to tie over the blanket.
The unnecessary haste in which some nurses are accustomed to dress children, cannot be too strongly reprehended. In addition to this hurried dressing, its clothes are often injuriously tight. Pins should never be used in an infant’s clothes; and every string should be so loosely tied, that two fingers may be introduced under it. Bandages round the head should be strictly forbidden, for to this error many instances of idiotism, fits, and deformity, may be traced.
Never allow the infant to be held opposite to open doors and windows. The air is beneficial, when it is in motion, and the weather is moderate, but it should always have some covering besides that which it wears in the house, when taken out; and it must not be laid on the cold ground, nor allowed to step on it, when it begins to use its feet. The intense heat of a summer day should likewise be avoided; excessive heat or cold being equally injurious.
The wisest maxim in treating infants with respect to food and drink, is to follow the simple dictates of nature; yet some nurses give them wine, spirits, spices, sugar, &c. which the stomach of a grown person would reject. At all times the utmost care will be necessary to avoid hurting its gums when feeding it. Its food should be gradually cooled in a saucer, and it should be given to it in a small spoon, only half filled, which will save its clothes from being soiled, and keep its bosom dry. Let it swallow one small portion, before another is offered, and raise its head, that it may pass the gullet easily. Never entice or press it to take more, if it once refuses, for it knows best when it has had enough.
As long as it has its mother’s milk, no other sustenance will be wanting, if she be a good nurse. If there should be the least doubt of her having milk enough, the child may have cow’s milk, mixed with two-thirds soft boiled water, presented to its lips very frequently; but it never should be urged to accept it.
Rising early in the morning is good for all children, provided they awake of themselves, which they generally do; but they ought never to be waked out of their sleep. As soon as possible, however, they should be brought to regular sleep in the day.
Children, till they are two or three years’ old, must never be suffered to walk so long at a time as to be weary.
In laying a child to sleep, it should be placed on the right side oftener than on the left. Laying it on its back when it is awake, is enough of that posture, in which alone it can move its legs and arms with freedom.
Infants cannot sleep too long; and it is a favourable symptom when they enjoy calm and continued rest, of which they should by no means be deprived, as this is the greatest support granted to them by nature. Sleep promotes a more calm and uniform circulation of the blood, and it facilitates assimilation of the nutriment received. The horizontal posture, likewise, is the most favourable to the growth and bodily developement of the infant.
Sleep ought to be in proportion to the age of the infant, and this salutary refreshment should fill up the greater part of a child’s existence. After the age of six months, the periods of sleep, as well as all other animal functions, may, in some degree, be regulated; yet, even then, a child should be suffered to sleep the whole night, and several hours both in the morning and afternoon. Nurses should endeavour to accustom infants, from the time of their birth, to sleep in the night in preference to the day, and for this purpose they will remove all external impressions which may disturb their rest, but especially they ought to avoid obeying every call for taking them up, and giving food at improper times.
To awaken children from their sleep with a noise, or in an impetuous manner, is certainly injudicious and hurtful; nor is it proper to carry them from a dark room immediately into a glaring light, against a dazzling wall; for the sudden impression of light debilitates the organs of vision, and causes weak eyes from early infancy.
Infants are sometimes very restless at night, which is generally owing either to their eating a heavy supper, to their tight night-clothes, or their being over-heated by too many blankets.
Wages 18l. to 25l. Perquisites at christenings.
Diseases of Children, &c.
THE YELLOW GUM.
The yellow gum is known by a yellow tinge of the skin, with languor and a tendency to sleep. It is to be relieved by giving a tea-spoonful or more of castor oil, to clear the intestines. When the disease does not give way to this treatment, three drops of antimonial wine are to be given in a tea-spoonful of water, so as to prove emetic. In about eight or ten hours, this is to be followed by ½ a grain of calomel, or four grains of rhubarb.
VOMITING.
When the food is vomited in an unaltered state, it is generally a sign of over feeding: but when the vomiting is bilious, or when the food is partly digested, the diet ought to be changed, and the bowels opened by one grain of calomel, given in sugar. This is to be followed by a tea-spoonful of castor oil on the following morning. If the vomiting should still continue, give a gentle emetic, and the calomel powder (containing one or two grains, according to the age)
soon afterwards. If there be much irritation, apply a blister to the stomach; and, if possible, give a tea-spoonful of the saline medicine, in a state of effervescence, and containing two drops of laudanum.
HICCUPS.
These generally arise from acidity in the stomach, and may be remedied by the administration of eight grains of prepared chalk, with two grains of powdered rhubarb, given in a little syrup, or gruel. If very severe, the stomach is to be rubbed with soap liniment, or opodeldoc, to which a little laudanum has been added.
GRIPING AND FLATULENCY.
These are known by continual crying, restlessness, and drawing up of the legs. When attended by diarrhœa and green stools, they are to be relieved, in general, by the administration of a few grains of rhubarb and magnesia. If sour belchings, &c. still continue, a tea-spoonful of very weak solution of tartar emetic should be given every quarter of an hour, until the child vomits. After this, particularly if there be any purging, it may be proper to give a little rhubarb and magnesia again, and now and then a little chalk mixture.
Absorbent Mixture.
If the pains are very great, so as to make the child scream violently, two tea-spoonfuls of the following mixture, with five or six drops of laudanum, may be given directly:—
Mix together, prepared chalk, 1 scruple, tincture of caraway seeds, 3 drams, compound spirit of lavender, 1 do. and of peppermint water, 2 oz.
As soon as there is diminution of pain, a purgative should be given, particularly if the bowels happen to be in a costive state. The best will be castor oil. The above mixture may afterwards be occasionally continued, but without the laudanum.
Anodyne Plaster.
The late Dr. Clarke, of Burlington Street, frequently ordered the following plaster to be applied over the bowels of infants, in case of griping and inflammatory excitement of the intestines:—
Take of compound plaster of laudanum, 1½ oz.
diachylon plaster, 2 drams,
purified opium, 1 do.
oil of peppermint, 1 do.
camphor, 1 do.
Mix for a plaster, and spread on soft leather.
DIARRHŒA.
This may, in general, if the stools are green, be relieved by a brisk purgative, of from one to two grains of calomel, with four or five of rhubarb, according to the age of the child.
EXCORIATIONS OF THE SKIN.
Children are apt to be chafed between the thighs, behind the ears, and in the wrinkles of the neck, for want of proper attention to cleanliness. In such cases it will be necessary to bathe the parts twice a day, (or every time that the child’s clothes are changed,) with a little water gruel, and to apply a puff with a little hair powder immediately afterwards, so as to keep the parts dry.—When discharges take place behind the ears, they must not be dried up too suddenly, as such a circumstance might produce a divertion to the brain. In this case it will always be best to give frequent doses of castor oil, or calomel, every night, in the proportion of one grain to three grains of rhubarb.
CUTANEOUS ERUPTIONS.
No real danger attends these eruptions, which are generally known by the names of red-gum, nettle-rash, &c. All that is required to be done, is to keep the bowels open by such means as are prescribed in the foregoing articles; and to guard against cold, which might drive the eruption inwardly, and thus produce internal inflammations of a critical nature. If the milk or food be considered the cause, the nurse, or diet, ought to be changed: and if sickness and vomiting should prevail, it will be proper to give the absorbent mixture mentioned under the head griping and flatulency.
THE THRUSH.
This disease makes its appearance by little ulcerations in the mouth, tongue, &c. of a white colour, and sometimes of a yellow appearance. They are generally owing to acidities in the stomach, &c.
In this disorder nothing avails more than an emetic at first, and then a little magnesia and rhubarb, (if there is diarrhœa,) with thin chicken-water as drink. Testaceous powders, or the absorbent mixture (see griping and flatulency,) will also be proper. If there is no looseness, it will be proper to give a grain or two of calomel, with three or four grains of rhubarb. The mouth and throat should at the same time be cleansed by gargles.
Syrup of Black Currants.
Take of the juice of black currants, strained, 1 pint,
double refined sugar, 24 oz.
Dissolve the sugar, and boil to make a syrup.
A tea-spoonful of this to be given to children in the thrush.
FALLING DOWN OF THE FUNDAMENT.
This happens frequently to children who cry much, or who have had a diarrhœa, or from straining on going to stool. If it proceed from costiveness, give lenitive clysters. In case the gut be swelled or inflamed, foment with warm milk, or decoction of oak bark, or wash frequently with cold water. The protruded parts are now to be replaced by the finger, and supported by a truss or bandage. The internal use of tonics will be proper.
DENTITION.
When children are about cutting their teeth, they slaver much, are feverish, hot, and uneasy; their gums swell, and are very painful; they are sometimes loose in the bowels, and at other times costive; and occasionally convulsions come on.
Leeches are often serviceable when applied behind the ears; as are also blisters.
Scarifying the Gums.
Instead of giving narcotics to children cutting their teeth, it is strenuously recommended to have their tumid gums divided by a lancet down to the tooth; an operation at once safe and unattended with pain. If done in time, by removing the cause of the complaint, all the symptoms will disappear of themselves. Instead of giving preparations of opium, it will be found, in the majority of cases, far better to administer calomel, in minute doses, as this medicine is well known to possess peculiar efficacy in promoting absorption in these parts. The body, if costive, should be kept regularly open, and if there should be looseness of the bowels, it should by no means be discouraged. Instead of coral, or any other hard body, let the child nibble at a piece of wax candle.
CONVULSIONS.
Children are particularly liable to convulsions at the period of teething, small pox, measles, and other eruptive diseases; sometimes, also, from external causes, such as strait clothes, bandages, &c. When they proceed from any of these, bathing the feet, or the whole body, in warm water, of 92 or 94 degrees, and administering a mild clyster, will almost immediately relieve them. To shorten the duration of the fit, cold water should be poured over the face and neck, whilst the rest of the body is in the bath.
The return of convulsions is to be prevented only by the removal of the cause of the existing irritation; but, in general, when the body is kept carefully open, there will be little reason to fear a return.
INWARD FITS.
In these fits the infant appears as if asleep, the eyelids however are not quite closed, but frequently twinkle and shew the whites turned upwards. The muscles of the face are sometimes slightly distorted, the mouth having the appearance of a laugh or smile. The breath is sometimes very quick, and at others stops for a time; whilst the eyelids and lips are alternately pale and dark. The infant startles on the least noise, and sighs deeply, or breaks wind. This relieves him for a little, but he soon relapses into a doze. Whenever the above-mentioned symptoms are observed, it will be right to awaken the infant, by stirring or otherwise, and to rub its back and belly well before the fire, until wind escapes. At the same time it will be proper to give half a tea-spoonful of drink or pap, containing two drops of oil of anise or caraways. As soon after as possible, a purgative of castor oil, or a grain or two of calomel (according to the age,) with two or three grains of rhubarb, is to be given, to empty the bowels of whatever crude matter may occasion the disorder.
THE RICKETS.
This disorder affects the bones of children, and causes a considerable protuberance, incurvation, or distortion of them. It may arise from various causes, but more particularly when proper care has not been taken with children: when they have been too tightly swathed in some parts, and too loose in others; keeping them too long in one and the same position; and not keeping them clean and dry. Sometimes it may proceed from a lax habit, and at others from costiveness.
It usually appears about the eighth or ninth month, and continues till the sixth or seventh year of the child’s age. The head becomes large, and the fontanelle keeps long open; the countenance is full and florid; the joints knotty and distorted, especially about the wrists; less near the ancles. The ribs protuberate, and grow crooked; the belly swells; a cough and disorder of the lungs succeed; and the child moves but weakly, and waddles in walking.
Regimen, &c.
The regimen should be light and properly seasoned; the air dry and clear. Exercise and motion should be encouraged, and bandages, as well as instruments, contrived to keep the limbs in a proper situation; but care should be taken that they be so formed as not to put the child to pain, or restrain it too much.
Cold sea-bathing is of infinite use; after which friction should be used, and the child placed between two blankets, so as to encourage perspiration. The back should be well rubbed with opodeldoc, or good old rum, every night.
A few grains of ipecacuanha or calomel may occasionally be proper, and chalybeates are also very serviceable.
A decoction of Peruvian bark is also good with red wine: and should be used with moderation in the forenoon and after dinner.
DISTORTION OF THE SPINE.
Examine the child’s back-bone frequently and closely, and on the slightest trace of any distortion wash the same with brandy every morning and night, and pay the strictest attention to the child’s keeping a straight posture; both sleeping and waking; and if it can be bathed from time to time, it will be advisable.
RING WORM AND SCALD HEADS.
It is well known that these disorders, which are in many respects similar, are contagious; therefore, no comb or hair-brush used by a child affected by them is to be used by another child, either in a school or in the same family. Nor should the hat or cap of such a child be worn by any other.
Treatment.
Let the hair be removed carefully with a razor, dipped frequently in olive oil; and afterwards apply the following lotion by means of fine linen, and cover the whole or part of the head with it.
Take of liquor of acetated lead, 2 drams,
distilled vinegar, 6 drams,
sulphuric æther, 2 drams,
rain water, 1 pint.
Mix.
This lotion should be kept occasionally applied in the night as well as in the day, and an oil-silk cap should be fitted close to the head, and worn continually.
Ointment for the same.
Take of spermaceti ointment, 1 oz.
tar ointment, 1 oz.
powdered angustura bark, 3 drams.
Rub the whole well in a marble mortar, and apply to the parts affected.
Alterative Medicines.
In six cases out of ten, this disease is aggravated by a scrofulous taint of the system; and, when this is the case, the following alterative medicine accelerates the cure.
Take of oxide of zinc,
precipitated sulphur of antimony, each 9 grains,
resin of guaiacum,
extract of bark,
extract of hemlock, each 2 scruples.
Mix, and form into 20 pills.
To Children from six to ten years of age, give one pill night and morning; under six years, half a pill night and morning, mixed in raspberry jam.
Instead of the above, one grain of calomel may be given going to rest, and repeated every night; also the use of salt water externally and internally, as an alterative, has been found very useful.
In all cases the bowels ought to be kept open, and the diet should consist of wholesome and nutritive food; avoiding fish and salt meats. Cleanliness, and an occasional use of the warm bath, will likewise be of service.
HOOPING COUGH.
In this complaint, next to occasional vomiting, the daily use of the warm bath is most useful. Bleeding may sometimes be useful, to prevent inflammation of the internal membranes, or cupping between the neck and shoulders. Gentle antimonial emetics should be given repeatedly, because the symptoms are always relieved when the child vomits.
Parisian Remedy.
Take of sulphuret of potass,
tincture of fox-glove, each, 1 dram,
extract of liquorice root, 2 drams,
almond emulsion, 6 oz.
gum arabic powder, 3 drams.
Mix.
A dessert-spoonful to be given to a child from three to six years of age; a table-spoonful from six to ten; two dessert-spoonsful from ten to fifteen; and two table-spoonsful from fifteen to twenty; three times a day.
Embrocation for Hooping Cough.
Take of emetic tartar, 2 drams,
boiling water, 2 oz.
tincture of cantharides, 1 dram,
oil of wild thyme, 3 drams.
Mix.
A dessert-spoonful to be rubbed upon the chest every night and morning.
Regimen, &c.
A frequent change of air is exceedingly useful in hooping cough, particularly short voyages at sea; at the same time flannel is to be worn next the skin. Young children should lie with their heads and shoulders raised; and when the cough occurs, they ought to be placed on their feet and bent a little forward, to guard against suffocation. The diet should be light, and the drink warm and mucilaginous.
THE CROUP.
The croup is a disease peculiar to children, and generally fatal, if care is not taken in the commencement. It commonly approaches with the usual signs of a catarrh, but sometimes the peculiar symptoms occur at the first onset; namely, a hoarseness, with a shrill ringing sound both in speaking and coughing, as if the noise came from a brazen tube. At the same time there is a sense of pain about the larynx, and some difficulty of respiration, with a whizzing sound in inspiration, as if the passage of air was diminished; which is actually the case. The cough is generally dry, but if any thing is spit up, it is a purulent matter, sometimes resembling small portions of a membrane. There are also a frequent pulse, restlessness, and an uneasy sense of heat. The inside of the mouth is sometimes without inflammation, but frequently a redness, and even a swelling exist. Sometimes there is an appearance of matter on them like that rejected by coughing.
Remedies.
As soon as possible a brisk emetic should be administered for the purpose of freeing the patient from the coagulable lymph which is already secreted. Topical bleeding, by means of leeches, should immediately succeed, and the discharge be encouraged. As soon as it diminishes, a blister, sufficiently large to cover the whole throat, should be applied, and suffered to lie on for thirty hours or longer. The steam of warm water should be inhaled, and the bowels should be evacuated by calomel.
As soon as the emetic has operated sufficiently, opium may be administered, by which means the breathing will in general be soon relieved; but should it become more difficult in the course of a few hours, the emetic is to be again repeated, and after its operation the opium again employed. This practice is to be alternately used till the patient is out of danger, which will, in general, be in the course of three or four days. The child should be kept nearly upright in bed.
Children, until the age of six years, are liable to be attacked by bilious fever, which is gradually developed, by irregularity in the bowels, which are either too costive, or too much relaxed.
On its first appearance, the child becomes peevish and fretful, his lips are dry, his hands hot, accompanied by shortness of breath, pains in the head, and quickness of pulse, which beats from 110 to 112 in a minute; he shows an unwillingness to stir or speak, starts in his sleep, and has a loathing for food. The stools have often a mucous and slimy appearance; some children are affected with delirium, others dull and stupid, and many are for a time speechless. Several slight accessions of fever take place in the course of the day, during which the child is usually drowsy; in the intervals of these paroxysms he appears tolerably well, though, at times, unusually peevish.
These symptoms are more or less prevalent for eight or ten days, when suddenly a more violent paroxysm of fever will ensue, preceded by a shivering fit, and sometimes an incessant vomiting of bile. The pulse rises to 140; the cheeks are flushed, the child’s drowsiness increases, and when awake, he resorts to picking at the skin of the nose, lips, and eyes, to a most painful degree.
This species of fever is mild at the commencement, slow in its progress, and very uncertain in its event. The desire for food is destroyed, and the child will take neither aliment nor medicine. The stools are changed from their natural appearances, being sometimes black, and smelling like putrid mud; and at other times they are curdled, with shreds of coagulable lymph floating in a dark green fluid.
Treatment.
The first thing, is to cleanse the stomach by a few grains of ipecacuanha, and soon afterwards to administer some active purgative. For restoring the healthy secretions of the bowels, nothing is so efficacious as small and often repeated doses of calomel and scammony, (¾ of a grain of the former to 1¼ of the latter,) followed up after some hours by a solution of Epsom salts in an infusion of senna, or by a dose of castor oil. When the stomach is very irritable, small quantities of chalk mixture, with a few drops of laudanum, are to be given alternately with the above-mentioned purgatives.
If the head is much affected, leeches should be applied to the temples, and if the stomach will not retain the medicine, from three to six leeches should be applied to the upper part of the belly, or right side; and after this a blister, if necessary. The warm bath will prove useful after the stomach and bowels are properly cleansed.
Tonic Powder.
To obviate debility, when the fever has abated, the following tonic powder is recommended.
Mix together 2 drams of powder of cascarilla,
24 grains of rhubarb, and
1 scruple sub-carbonate of iron.
Divide this into 24 papers, one to be taken morning and evening.
Regimen and Diet.
The child should likewise be sent into the country as soon as possible, and be allowed every reasonable amusement, to dissipate the peevishness which is an invariable consequence of a severe attack of this disease. The diet, for a time, should be light and nourishing; as jellies, isinglass and milk, veal broth, and beef tea. The drink may be whey, and toast and water.
THE UNDER NURSE.
Is chiefly engaged in attending to the senior children, and is entirely under the controul of the head nurse. She assists in getting them up in the morning, washing and dressing them; attends them at their meals and takes them out for air and exercise, and performs or assists in the performance of all the duties of the nursery, while the head nurse is chiefly engaged with the infant child.—Wages 10 to 12 guineas.
THE NURSERY MAID.
The Nursery Maid is generally a girl who does the household work of the nursery, and attends the children when they go out for the air, &c. carrying such of them as may be required.—Wages 6 to 10 guineas.
THE GOVERNESS, or GOUVERNANTE.
As many mothers have an aversion to public education for their daughters, the system of private instruction, by a respectable and well-educated female, is very generally adopted, in many families of moderate fortune, and in all of rank and opulence. Hence there is a constant demand for females of genteel manners, and finished education, at salaries which vary according to qualifications, and number and age of pupils, between 25l. and 120l. per annum, and often improved, on certain great length of service, by some provision for life.
Teachers in seminaries, half-boarders, educated for the purpose, and the unsettled daughters of respectable families of moderate fortune, who have received a finished education, are usually selected for this important duty; and the engagement is made either through an advertisement in the newspapers, or by agents who arrange between the parties for a moderate fee. But, in general, families apply to the governesses of public seminaries, who have young women in training for these employments.
The qualifications, of course, are various, and may vary with the age of the pupils. Good temper, and good manners, with a genteel exterior, are indispensable: for more is learnt by example than precept. Besides, the governess who desires to be on a footing with the family, ought to be able to conduct herself in such manner, as never to render an apology necessary for her presence at family parties.
In addition to a thorough knowledge of the English language, and to the power of being able to write a letter in a graceful and accurate style, the governess ought to be moderately acquainted with the French language; and it would be an advantage if she knew something of Italian, as the language of music. She ought also to be able to play on the piano forte, so as to give the first lessons, and to superintend the practice directed in the lessons of a master; and in cases where great perfection is not desired, to render a master unnecessary. If she can perform on the harp or guitar, these instruments will qualify her to accommodate her instructions to various tastes. It will be also expected that she shall be able to teach the elements of dancing, at least, the steps and ordinary figures of fashionable practice. Nor ought she to be ignorant of the useful art of arithmetic, the constant exercise of which, will so much improve the reasoning powers of her pupils. Needle-work of various descriptions, from the plain to the ornamental, will, as matter of course, be expected; and there can be no reason why she should omit to introduce to her pupils the geographical copy books, and other elementary books of geography, by Goldsmith; and the familiar keys to the popular sciences, published by Blair and Barrow, such as the Universal Preceptor, the Class Book, the Grammar of Natural Philosophy, the Key to General Knowledge, by Barrow, and other superior works of the same kind, the selection of which, will distinguish her good sense: while the answering the questions, and filling up the copy books on the admirable Interrogative System, will be the means of incalculable advantage to her pupils, and a source of infinite gratification to their parents. The branches of elegant literature are also within her reach, in such books as Aikin’s Poetry for Children, and Pratt’s Selection of Classical Poetry; and if she chooses to expand their intelligence, she can provide them with Blair’s Belles Lettres, Shaw’s Nature Displayed, (a book which ought to be found in every family,) and with a pair of globes, a microscope, and a telescope. Drawing is also so essential an accomplishment, that its constant exercise should be kept up by means of Hamilton’s Elementary Examples, or those of Chalons and Calvert.
No young persons who are born to the enjoyment of fortune, and destined to fill any stations in society with credit and advantage, ought to have these accomplishments and sources of knowledge withheld from them; and the governess who contents herself with mere personal attainments, without at the same time addressing instruction to the mind of her pupils, and who lays before them old-fashioned books, and obsolete systems of knowledge, compromises her own character, and sacrifices through their lives, the interests, welfare, and reputation, of her pupils.
In the sub-division of time, prolonged application is wearisome, and too frequent renewals are irksome. The best time for learning is in the morning before breakfast, and one hour and a half, or two hours, between seven and nine, will always be worth the three hours, which should be industriously passed, between eleven and two. The rest of the day should be devoted, in fine weather, to exercise and amusements in the open air; and in bad weather to such amusements as induce exercise, of which, dancing, the skipping-rope, and dumb-bells, should form a part, and certain games which are practised in genteel society, as chess and cards, may be advantageously introduced in winter evenings.
Religion, morals, and temper, should be specially studied, and the essays of Mrs. Chapone, and Mrs. Hannah More, Barrow’s Questions, his School Bible, and School Sermons, with Blair’s or Enfield’s Sermons, are suitable auxiliaries. Bad habits should be watched and corrected, and graceful ones, cleanliness and neatness of person, be stimulated. Blair’s Governess’s Register of Study and Conduct, will prove an excellent auxiliary. Superstitions, and vulgar faith in dreams, signs, omens, fortune-telling, and other weaknesses of mind, should be constantly exposed.
A governess, influenced by these practices and principles, will entitle herself to live on a footing with a family, when there are no special parties; and she must possess good sense enough not to intrude on that domestic privacy, and personal independence, which, without offence, is often desirable. Her own apartment, or that of her pupils, ought to be at once the scene of her pleasure and amusement, and if she mingles with the parties of the families, she must, of course, not make herself too familiar with the domestic servants.
Thus conducting herself with propriety, and identifying herself with the growing minds and affections of her pupils, she may secure their personal friendship to the end of their mutual lives, and if their moral feelings are not blunted, she may calculate on their gratitude in her old age, or if she survive them, in their last will.
THE UPPER HOUSE MAID.
In large families, where there is much work, two or more house maids are kept, but as the Upper House Maid has generally the superintendence and responsibility of all, we shall include their principal labours under one general head.
The Upper House Maid should be fully competent to undertake the management of all the household business of a gentleman’s family; and to be perfectly qualified for her situation, she ought to have been previously initiated in the capacity of Under House Maid.
In most families she has the care of all the household linen, bed and table linen, napkins, towels, &c. which she also makes and keeps in repair, and besides cleaning the house and furniture, and making the beds, she washes her own clothes, and has sometimes to assist the laundry-maid in getting up the fine linen, washing silk stockings, &c. instead of the lady’s maid; but these latter are considered as rather extra labours, and are not, in all families, deemed a necessary part of the house maid’s business. She also cleans all the coal skuttles in use above stairs, and all the kettles used for warming water in the dressing-rooms, &c. When there are dinner parties the house-maid washes up the plate and china.
The house-maid, in a regular family, will find it necessary to rise about five o’clock, and her first business will be to open the shutters of the usual family sitting-rooms; as the breakfast-room and library, whence she clears away all the superfluous articles that may have been left there, and prepares for cleaning the stoves, fire-places, and hearths, by rolling up the hearth rugs, carefully carrying them out to be shaken, and then laying down a piece of canvas, or coarse cloth, to keep the place clean, while she rakes out the ashes, takes them up, and brushes up the fire-place. She then rubs the bright bars of the stoves, and the fire-irons, first with oil, and afterwards with emery-paper, No. 3, or with brick-dust, till clean and bright—and, finally, with scouring-paper; and this should be done in the summer time, particularly when the stoves may have acquired spots for want of constant use.
The backs and sides of the fire-places are next to be brushed over with black-lead, and then rubbed dry and bright with a hard brush kept for the purpose.
The fires are next lighted, and the marble hearths washed with flannel, dipped in a strong hot lather of soap and water, which must be cleaned off and wiped dry with a linen cloth;—the marble chimney pieces need not be thus cleaned above once or twice a week.
Common free-stone hearths may be scoured with soap and sand and cold water, and afterwards rubbed dry with a clean house cloth.
By this time the footman will have done all his work in the pantry, and have rubbed all the tables, chairs, cellerets, and other mahogany furniture, and cleaned the brass and other ornaments, the mirrors, looking-glasses, &c. in these rooms, when the carpets are to be swept, on ordinary occasions, with a carpet mop to take off the flue, lint, and dust; or more thoroughly, once a week with a long hair-brush or carpet-broom, first having strewed them over with damp tea-leaves, (see receipt for scouring and cleaning carpets.) The sides of the carpet are then turned up all round the room, and the dust on the floor swept away, or, occasionally, the floor scoured with soap and water. The carpet is then turned back again; the chairs and other furniture dusted singly, and removed from the middle of the room, where they were cleaned to their proper places.
The window curtains and hangings may not require to be shaken and dusted every day, but the dust on the windows should be removed with a long hair-broom, and the cobwebs or any dirt on the ceiling, and in the corners of the room, must be sought for and removed.
Every thing being adjusted in the rooms for the reception of the family, the house-maid next opens the shutters of the dining-room, and drawing-room, where she and the footman regularly proceed with their respective business in the manner above mentioned. The house-maid with the fires and fire-place, floors, carpets, &c. scouring, washing, brushing, and dusting them; and the footman, rubbing and cleaning the mahogany furniture, looking-glasses, and other articles in his department, till all is made quite clean, and the rooms are fit for the reception of the family.
At an appointed time she repairs to the dressing-rooms of the master and mistress, and others in use, empties the slops, replenishes the ewers and water-carofts with fresh spring and soft water, and fills the kettles for warm water—cleans up the fire-places, lights the fires, brushes the carpets, sweeps the rooms, dusts the furniture, and puts the rooms in order before the lady’s-maid and valet come to make their arrangements previous to the rising of their superiors.—Having done these, she sweeps down the principal stair-case and goes to her breakfast.
As soon as the best bed-rooms and dressing-rooms are at liberty, she repairs thither, puts out the fires, or not, according as the weather is,—throws open the windows, (or the doors only, in unfavourable weather) to air the rooms, and the beds; opens all the beds, throws the bed-clothes off, on the backs of chairs, placed at the foot of the bed, shakes up each bed, and then proceeds to her other business in the rooms, in order to give as much time as can be spared for airing the beds. Meanwhile, she cleans up the fire-places, again, lays the fires to be ready when wanted, and having washed her hands and put on a clean apron, she makes the beds. (In this business she is usually assisted by the under house-maid, as it requires two persons to make a bed well.) This done, she mops or brushes the carpets, to clean off the flue or feathers and dust,—sweeps out the rooms, rubs and dusts the furniture, supplies the ewers and carofts with clean water, and then retires; leaving the rooms properly arranged against the coming of the lady’s-maid and valet to prepare for their master’s and mistress’s dressing, previous to their going out.
She next proceeds to the other bed-rooms—opens the windows and makes the beds—empties the slops—cleans out the rooms, rubs and dusts the furniture, and puts them in proper order.
Having finished all the bed-rooms, the stair-cases, landings, and passages, will next claim her attention, which are also to be swept, the carpets brushed or swept, and the floor-cloths rubbed over with a clean wet flannel, and wiped dry with a clean house-cloth. On the appointed general cleaning days, the floor-cloths must be scoured with warm soap suds, and afterwards wiped dry, with a clean linen cloth.
On the general cleaning days also, which are usually Tuesdays and Saturdays, every branch of the household work must be thoroughly done, in the best manner;—the rooms are then to be scoured instead of being merely wiped or swept;—the carpets are to be well brushed or taken up to be beaten or shaken;—the stoves and fire-places brightened and cleaned with particular care;—the marble hearths and chimney-pieces scoured;—the mahogany furniture and the brass or other ornaments in the best rooms, and the mirrors and looking-glasses cleaned, with more than ordinary attention;—the bed-furniture, window-curtains and hangings well shaken, whisked and brushed: in short, the best practical methods for thoroughly cleaning the whole house, must be resorted to on that day.
If the house maid rise in good time, and employ herself busily, she will get every thing done above stairs in time to clean and make herself comfortable for dinner, about one o’clock; after which she will attend to her needle work, under the direction of the housekeeper. About four, in the winter, the fires in the dressing-rooms are to be lighted—the slops emptied—clean water supplied, (hot and cold) and the dressing-rooms again dusted and cleaned, preparatory to the lady and gentleman dressing for dinner. While the family is at dinner, the dressing-rooms must be again prepared; and in the evening the shutters of the bed-rooms and dressing-rooms must be fastened—the curtains let down—the beds turned down—the fires lighted, and the rooms put into proper condition for the night. Wages from 12 to 16 guineas a year.
TO CLEAN CARPETS.
First well beat and brush the carpet,—then to a gallon of water add eight potatoes grated, and with this liquid wash it slightly over with a sponge, which will not only clean it but restore it to its original beauty when dry. Or, after it has been well beaten and brushed, put an ox gall into a pint of water, wash the carpet over on the right side, and it will have the same effect.
TO SCOUR CARPETS, HEARTH-RUGS, &c.
Rub a piece of soap on every spot of grease or dirt; then take a hard brush dipped in boiling water, and rub the spots well. If very dirty, a solution of soap must be put into a tub, with hot water, and the carpet well beat in it, rinsing it in several clean waters, and putting in the last water a table-spoonful of oil of vitriol, to brighten the colours.
TO DUST CARPETS AND FLOORS.
Carpets should not be swept with a whisk-brush more than once a week; at other times sprinkle tea-leaves on them, and sweep carefully with a hair-broom, after which they should be gently brushed on the knees with a clothes’-brush.
TO CLEAN ALL SORTS OF METAL.
Mix half a pint of refined neat’s-foot oil, and half a gill of spirits of turpentine; wet a woollen rag therewith, dip it into a little scraped rotten-stone, and rub the metal well. Wipe it off with a soft cloth, polish with dry leather, and use more of the powder. If steel is very rusty, use a little powder of pumice with liquid, on a separate woollen rag, first.
TO RESTORE HANGINGS, CARPETS, CHAIRS, &C.
Beat the dust out of them as clean as possible, then rub them over with a dry brush, and make a good lather with Castille soap, and rub them well over with a hard brush, then take clean water and with it wash off the froth; make a water with alum, and wash them over with it, and when dry, most of the colours will be restored in a short time; and those that are yet too faint, must be touched up with a pencil dipped in suitable colours; it may be run all over in the same manner with water colours mixed well with gum water, and it will look at a distance like new.
TO CLEAN PAPER HANGINGS.
Cut into eight half quarters a stale quartern loaf: with one of these pieces, after having blown off all the dust from the paper, to be cleaned by means of a good pair of bellows, begin at the top of the room, holding the crust in the hand, and wiping lightly downwards with the crumb, about half a yard at each stroke, till the upper part of the hangings is completely cleaned all round; then go again round with the like sweeping stroke downwards, always commencing each successive course a little higher than the upper stroke had extended, till the bottom be finished. This operation, if carefully performed, will frequently make very old paper look almost equal to new. Great caution must be used not by any means to rub the paper hard, nor to attempt cleaning it the cross or horizontal way. The dirty part of the bread too must be each time cut away, and the pieces renewed as soon as necessary.
TO WHITE WASH.
Put some lumps of quick-lime into a bucket of cold water, and stir it about till dissolved and mixed, after which a brush with a large head, and a long handle to reach the ceiling of the room, is used to spread it thinly on the walls, &c. When dry it is beautifully white, but its known cheapness has induced the plasterers to substitute a mixture of glue size and whiting for the houses of their opulent customers; and this, when once used, precludes the employment of lime-washing ever after; for the latter, when laid on whiting becomes yellow.
White-washing is an admirable manner of rendering the dwellings of the poor clean and wholesome.
TO PRESERVE POLISHED IRONS FROM RUST.
Polished iron-work may be preserved from rust by a mixture not very expensive, consisting of copal varnish intimately mixed with as much olive oil as will give it a degree of greasiness, adding thereto nearly as much spirit of turpentine as of varnish. The cast iron-work is best preserved by rubbing it with black-lead.
But where rust has begun to make its appearance on grates or fire-irons, apply a mixture of tripoli with half its quantity of sulphur, intimately mingled on a marble slab, and laid on with a piece of soft leather: or emery and oil may be applied with excellent effect, laid on with a spongy piece of the fig-tree fully saturated with the mixture. This will not only clean but polish, and render the use of whiting unnecessary.
TO CLEAN MARBLE.
Take verdigris and pumice-stone, well powdered, with lime newly slacked. Mix with soap lees, to the consistence of putty. Put it in a woollen rag, and rub the stains well one way. Wash off with soap and water. Repeat, if not removed.
TO CLEAN FLOOR-CLOTHS.
Sweep them and wipe them with a damp flannel, after which wet them all over with milk, and rub them till bright with a dry cloth.
N. B. Floor-cloths should be chosen that are painted on fine cloth, well covered with colour and perfectly dry. The durability of the cloth depends greatly on these points, and particularly on its having had time for the paint to get quite dry. Old carpets answer extremely well, if painted and hung up to season some time, before they are laid down for use.
TO CLEAN LOOKING-GLASSES.
Remove fly stains or any other soil from the glass with a damp cloth, then polish with a woollen cloth and powder-blue.
TO TAKE SPOTS OF GREASE OR OIL OUT OF BOARDS.
Drop a few drops of oil of turpentine on the spots and rub it hard with your finger; this will dissolve the grease, and make it mix with the soap (or suds) and water when the room is washed.
Another Way.
Mix together fuller’s-earth and soap lees, and rub them on the boards. Let the mixture dry, and then scour it off with strong soft soap and sand, or use lees to scour it with. It should be put on hot, by heating the lees.
TO EXTRACT LAMP OIL, &C. OUT OF STONE OR MARBLE HALLS, &C.
Mix well together a pint of strong soap lees, some fuller’s earth, well dried, and a little pipe-clay, powdered fine; lay it on the part which is oiled, then put a hot iron upon it till dry. If all the oil come not out the first time, repeat it, and rub it well in. By doing it two or three times it will come out.
THE UNDER HOUSE MAIDS.
Are entirely under the direction of the Upper House Maid, and are chiefly employed in cleaning and scouring the stoves and grates, scouring the coal skuttles, kettles, and fire-irons, beating and cleaning the carpets—scouring the floors, stairs, and passages;—washing the dishes when there is company, &c. &c.; besides assisting to make the beds, and carrying up the coals and water. In the afternoon, evening, or at leisure time, they are engaged with the Upper House Maid at their needle-work, in making and mending the household, bed and table linen,—mending stockings—washing and mending their own linen, and occasionally, assisting in the laundry. When there is no still-room-maid, the Under House Maid has to wait at table in the house-keeper’s room. Wages 10l. to 12l. per year.
THE SERVANT OF ALL WORK.
In small families where only one female servant is kept, the servant of all work will be required to do all the work of the house, which in large establishments is very properly divided into several departments.
This description of servant is usually taken from the industrious and labouring classes of the community, who are bred up with a view to the situation, having no other prospect or dependence; and are taught, from their earliest age, to assist in the management of the house, the care of the younger children, preparing the meals, making the beds, scouring, washing, and in every other branch of domestic business:—In short, no girl ought to undertake, or can be qualified, for such a situation, who has not been thus bred up. And if, in addition to these preparatory qualifications, she comes from a sober, well-disposed family, and is of a tractable disposition, there can be but little doubt of her acquiring the good-will of her master and mistress, of qualifying herself for a superior service, and of finally succeeding in her sphere of life.
She will receive her first instructions from her mistress, or probably from the former servant, as to the peculiarities of the house, and will very soon, with attention, become versed in all.
Industry and cleanliness, with a determination to be useful, and to please, will speedily overcome all difficulties.
To rise early is indispensably necessary. “Those who would thrive, must rise by five.” And, recollect, that “the servant who begins her work late, will have to run after it all the day, but will never overtake it.”
Every morning, the first business will be to light the kitchen fire, brush up and clean around the grate and fire-place, take up the ashes, sweep the floor and hearth, and having made all quite clean, rinse out the tea-kettle, and set it on the fire, with clean spring water, preparatory to the family breakfast; and also another kettle to heat water for household purposes. She next takes the tray, carpet-broom, hair-broom, hearth-rug, a clean dry duster, and the basket or box, containing the brushes, rags, leathers, brick-dust, scouring-paper, and other things for cleaning the grate and fire-place, and proceeds to the parlour, or sitting-room, to get that in order, before the family comes down to breakfast. She begins there by clearing away the candlesticks, dirty glasses, and such other things as may have been left there the preceding night. She then rolls up the hearth-rug, so that no dirt or dust may drop from it, as it is carried out to be shaken; she next turns back the carpet, with the drugget, baize, or other covering, if any, and lays down a piece of canvas, or coarse cloth, to keep the place clean; after which she rakes out the ashes from the grate, takes them up, and brushes up the dust and dirt; then rubs the bright bars of the grate, and the fire-irons, with emery paper, No. 3, or brick-dust; or if there be very fine steel stoves, fenders, &c. they should be first rubbed with oil, then with emery, till clear and bright, and afterwards with scouring paper, which is an excellent article to use every second or third day in summer-time, when stoves are not in constant use, as it will take off all the spots they may have acquired.
After the stove and fire-irons are cleaned, and the back and sides of the hearth are washed over with black-lead mixed with water, and rubbed dry and bright with a hard brush, light the fire, and proceed to wash the marble hearth.
For this purpose, take a piece of flannel dipped in a strong, hot, lather of soap and water, and having washed off the dirt, wipe it dry with a clean linen cloth. The jambs and chimney-piece need only be cleaned thus, once or twice a week, or as the custom of the family may be. Soap and sand, with cold water, will answer for washing free-stone hearths, &c. which must be afterwards wiped dry with a clean house-cloth. The next business will be to clean the brass locks, finger-plates, and other brass furniture; for which see the receipt.—If the locks are stiff, or hang, put a very little sweet oil on the bolts with a feather; the same ought to be done occasionally to the hinges, latches, bolts, and locks of every door in the house. A few minutes thus employed, when necessary, will prevent most of the disagreeable noises of creaking hinges, rusty bolts, and useless locks.
For the finger-plates, and other brass ornaments about the room, you must have pieces of pasteboard, with holes cut in them of the size of the respective articles, to prevent soiling or rubbing the door or furniture to which they are fixed.
The carpet next requires attention; this must generally be swept with the carpet-mop, to clean off the lint and dust, but, occasionally with the carpet-broom, or long hair-broom, first strewing it over with a few damp tea-leaves, (which should always be saved for the purpose, when the tea-things are washed up.) Then remove the chairs, and other furniture, to the middle of the room, turn up the sides of the carpet, and sweep up all the dust and flue round the sides of the room before replacing the carpet.
Always rub and dust the chairs, tables, and other mahogany furniture, in the middle of the room, and return them to their places, one by one, as you finish them; this will prevent your scratching or soiling the walls or wainscot. The window-curtains and hangings may not require to be shaken and brushed every day, but the windows should be brushed with the long hair-broom, and cobwebs and other filth, on the ceiling, and upper corners of the room, should be occasionally sought for, and removed. When she has swept the room, and rubbed and dusted the furniture, she must dust the window-frames, ledges of the wainscot, and doors, chimney-pieces, glass, china, and other ornaments, and having seen that every article is in its proper place, stir the fire, and taking all her brushes, &c. leave the room perfectly clean, and fit for the reception of the family at breakfast. She next proceeds (if the parlour be up stairs) to sweep and dust the stairs, which she does one by one, sweeping the dust from each into the dust-pan, and afterwards dusting the windows and balustrade as carefully as she had done the room.
She should also sweep the passage in the same way. The floor-cloth in the passage, for the daily cleaning, need only to be swept and rubbed with a damp flannel first, and afterwards with a dry one. The steps, at the front door, should be cleaned every morning, after the passage is swept out, and the street-door and the knocker, &c. must be cleaned or polished. The kitchen stairs also, and the steps at the back-door, if any, are to be cleaned. Above all, the kitchen must now be put in order.
She then washes her hands and face, and puts on a clean apron, &c. so as to be cleanly before the parlour bell rings for breakfast. Directions for setting out the breakfast table will be found in the Instructions to the Footman, as well as for dinner, lunch, tea, &c.
As soon as the family is seated at breakfast, she throws open the bed-room doors and windows, and uncovers the beds to be aired, and placing the bed-clothes across a chair at the foot of the bed, leaves them in that state till breakfast is finished, when she proceeds to make the bed.
On going down, she takes the slop-pails, night-candlesticks, and the water-ewer and carofts to be filled with fresh water, and brought up again immediately, lest they should be wanted. When she goes up after breakfast, if there have been fires, the fire-places must be swept up, the fires laid, and before she makes the beds, she should wash her hands and put on a clean apron. Every bed should be well shaken daily, and the mattresses turned, at least, once a week. The head of the bed, the curtains, vallance, &c. will often require attention; when they should be brushed with a whisk-brush, and well shaken, the bed-side carpets having been first taken up. After she has made the beds, and before the carpets are laid down again, the chairs, glasses, and other articles of furniture in each room are to be properly rubbed and dusted, and the floors swept clean. The sleeping rooms being thus prepared, and the stairs swept down, she will scarcely have occasion to go up again till evening, when she turns down the beds, lets down, or draws the curtains, and puts the rooms in order for the night.
At intervals, she will, perhaps, be called to bring coals for the parlour fire, in the winter time; (see directions to the footman;) but, in addition to this, little will occur to take her from the regular routine of the morning’s work, till the preparation for dinner requires her attention. She will find ample instructions for the care of the kitchen and larder, and for dressing dinners, under the directions to the cook.
If she is required to wait at table, she will find instructions for the purpose in the directions to the footman. After the dishes, &c. and the cloth and table-cover are removed, when there is no company present, her mistress will, perhaps, require her to bring a piece of cloth, with bees’-wax on it, and a hard furniture brush, to rub the dining-table, and take out the stains of the hot dishes.
When all things are set right in the parlour, as her mistress may direct, she will get her own dinner, (which she will contrive to keep as warm as circumstances will allow;) meanwhile the water must be heating to wash the dishes, and all the kitchen utensils, which being washed, and the several articles (particularly the tinned ones) wiped out clean and dry, they are to be put away, always in their proper places, in the cleanest and nicest order, and fit for immediate use.
This done, she is to make up the fire, (having due regard to the very expensive article of coals) and put on the kettle for tea. The kitchen is next to be set to rights, and every article in and about it is to be made quite clean, and disposed in perfect order. In fact, the cleanly and orderly state of the kitchen ought, at all times, to claim her utmost attention, as it is there that all the food of the family is prepared, and nothing does, nor, indeed, can, more deservedly contribute to the good character of a servant, than the well-regulated state and cleanly appearance of her kitchen.
The situation of a servant of this denomination is, as we have seen, one continued round of activity, but industry becomes habitual, and she will reap the benefit of it throughout life. To be content is the main thing, and others, seeing her good tempered, and disposed to be happy, will study to make her so; while experience and habit will greatly contribute towards it, by daily rendering the routine of the service more familiar, and consequently, more easy.
There are times, however, when the regular course of business will be interrupted. Once a week is the appointed day for a thorough scouring and cleaning, viz. Saturday. But even this day is rendered less formidable by an attentive servant, and by a little charitable consideration in the mistress, (which is generally the case) who will contrive that there shall be less of the ordinary business of the family to be done on that day than on any other. The maid will, perhaps, manage to get the bed-rooms thoroughly scoured on Friday. This should be done as early in the day as possible, and in the winter, fires should be made in the rooms, in order that they may be quite dry and safe by bed-time. For cleaning calico and other bed-furniture, and for scouring rooms, see Head House-Maid. The Sitting-room, and the spare rooms, if any, instead of the usual every-day cleaning, should now be thoroughly cleaned, the floors scoured, the grates, hearths, chimney-pieces, carpets, curtains, and furniture rubbed, scrubbed, dusted, and otherwise cleaned in the best manner; the kitchen, it is presumed, is already clean—always clean; the pots, pans, kettles, and every other culinary utensil being always cleaned as soon as done with;—scoured, wiped out dry, and put away in their proper places, fit for use at a moment’s notice. However laborious the work of the Saturday may appear, it is but getting up an hour or two earlier, and setting about it with a good heart, and all the extra business of the house, in every part, is completely finished, and you sit down, in the evening, to tea, rejoicing that all is comfortable, and in order.
Another, and more laborious deviation from the regular routine of family business is—the appointed “Washing-day,” which is, indeed, a day of bustle and activity; perhaps the only one that can be called a hard day’s work, from one washing-day to another. But, here also, if the intervals between the washings be long, a washer-woman will be hired, and the mistress will probably lend her aid, in sorting the clothes, getting up the small linen, ironing, &c.
In proportion to the arduous and active duties of a situation, is the satisfaction to be enjoyed from a regular and attentive discharge of those services: hence no servant has it in her power to render herself and her employers more comfortable, than the maid of all work. By a methodical division of her time, she is enabled to keep in order every apartment in the house, from the kitchen to the attic, all of which may be accomplished without any extraordinary effort on her part: and while she thus promotes the comforts of her master and mistress by her industry and regularity, they will not be backward in rewarding those meritorious qualities. Wages from 8 to 12 guineas.
TO LIGHT AND MANAGE A PARLOUR FIRE.
There is more art, perhaps, and more economy than is considered necessary in making well, and managing a fire.
First rake out all the ashes, quite clean, leaving in the bottom of the grate a few light cinders, through which the air, from beneath, may pass freely; upon these lay shavings, or waste paper, and then the wood, the smaller pieces under, of course, and the whole crossing each other promiscuously, and in all directions; throw cinders behind, and some at the sides, to fill out the grate, and in the front, betwixt the bars, put small knobs of fresh coals, with some larger knobs at top, and a little small coal behind, but not so much at first as to prevent a draft of air through the grate at the top. The fire, thus prepared, may be lighted with a match, and will kindle well of itself, whilst the ashes are taken up, and the fire-place cleaned. When it is found necessary to blow a fire, do not thrust the nose of the bellows between the bars, but keep it at an easy distance from the fire, and rather below the centre of the fire, that so, the air may be dispersed around to a considerable distance in front of the fire. When you stir a fire, always put the poker between the second and third bars.—After you have stirred the fire, rake out the ashes at the bottom of the grate, and sweep up the hearth.
THE LAUNDRY MAID.
This Servant washes all the household and other linen belonging to her employers, and is assisted, generally, by the housemaids; or the house maids, kitchen maids, and scullery maids wash for themselves. All the men servants find their own washing, except the footmen’s aprons and jackets.
The foul linen is given out to her on Monday morning, and returned clean, on Friday night or Saturday morning.—Wages from 8l. to 15l. a year.
Two ounces of pearl-ash, to a pound and a half of soap, will make a considerable saving. Soda, by softening the water, saves a great deal of soap. It should be dissolved in a large jug of water, some of which should be poured into the tubs and boiler, and when the lather becomes weak, add more.
The use of soft soap, saves nearly half in washing.
Good new hard soap contains full half of oil, one-third water, and the rest soda.
TO MAKE TOWN-WASHED LINEN WHITE.
In large towns, where linen cannot be exposed to the air and sun upon the grass, let it be steeped, for some time before it is washed, in a solution of oxymuriate of lime. Let it then be boiled in an alkaline ley. Linen or cotton thus treated will not become yellow by age.
TO TAKE OUT IRON MOULDS FROM LINEN.
Hold the iron mould on the cover of a tankard of boiling water, and rub on the spot a little juice of sorrel and salt, and when the cloth has thoroughly imbibed the juice, wash it in ley.
TO SCOUR THICK COTTON COUNTERPANES.
Cut a pound of mottled soap into thin slices; and put it into a pan with a quarter of an ounce of pot-ash. Pour a pail of boiling water on it, and let it stand till dissolved. Then pour hot and cold water into a scouring tub, with a bowl of the solution. Put in the counterpane, beat it well, turn it often, give it a second liquor as before, and then rinse it in cold water. Then put three tea-spoonsful of liquid blue into a thin liquor; stir it, and put in the counterpane: beat it about five minutes, and dry it in the air.
TO SCOUR FLANNELS OR WOOLLENS.
Cut ½ a pound of the best yellow soap into thin slices, and pour such a quantity of boiling river water on it as will dissolve the soap, and make it of the consistence of oil. Cover the articles about two inches with water, such as the hand can bear, and add a lump of American pearl-ash, and about a third of the soap solution. Beat them till no head or lather rises on the water; throw away the dirty water, and proceed as before with hotter water without pearl-ash.
TO TAKE MILDEW OUT OF LINEN.
Rub it well with soap: then scrape some fine chalk, and rub that also in the linen; lay it on the grass; as it dries, wet it a little, and it will come out after twice doing.
TO TAKE OUT SPOTS OF INK.
As soon as the accident happens, wet the place with juice of sorrel or lemon, or with vinegar, and the best hard white soap.
THE DAIRY MAID
Manages the dairy, milks the cows, makes the butter, cheese, wheys, syllabubs, &c. attends the poultry, picks and prepares them for trussing, makes bread and fresh butter for the parlour every morning, and bakes all the bread of the family.
The greatest possible attention must be paid to the Dairy. Cleanliness being the primary object, all the utensils, shelves, and the floor, should be kept perfectly neat, and cold water should be frequently thrown over it.—There should be shutters to the Dairy to keep out the sun and hot air.
The cows should be milked at a regular and early hour, and their udders should be perfectly emptied, else the quantity given will be diminished. When you go to the cow, take with you, cold water and a sponge, and wash each cow’s udder; bathe it well with cold water, both in winter and summer, as that braces them and repels heat. But, if any cow has sore teats, let them be soaked in warm water twice a day, and either dressed with soft ointment, or bathed with spirits and water. In either case, the milk should be given to the pigs.
When the milk is brought into the Dairy, it should be strained and emptied into clean pans, immediately, in winter, but not till cool, in summer. Suffer no one to milk the cows but yourself, as much depends on their being dripped quite clean, particularly after a calf is taken away.
The quantity of milk given by cows, will be different according to their breed, health, pasturage, the length of time from calving, and other circumstances. Change of pasturage will tend to increase the quantity.
In good pastures, the average of each cow will be about three gallons a day from Lady-day to Michaelmas; and thence to Christmas, one gallon a day.
Cows will be profitable yielders of milk, to fourteen or fifteen years of age, if of a good breed. They should be fed well two or three weeks before calving, which will increase the quantity of milk. In gentlemen’s Dairies, more attention is paid to the beauty and size of cows, than to their produce.
It is absolutely necessary that the cows should be kept feeding whilst you are milking them.
It should be contrived that cows kept for a gentleman’s family, should calve at different seasons, and, particularly, that one or two should calve in August or September, to insure a supply of milk in winter.
When there is not a great demand for cream in the family, the Dairy-maid will take that opportunity to provide for the winter store. She should keep a regular weekly account of the quantity of milk given by each cow, and the quantity of butter she pots. The average of a good fair Dairy cow, during several months after calving, will be seven pounds of butter a week, and from three to five gallons of milk per day; afterwards, a weekly average of three or four pounds of butter, from barely half that quantity of milk. On an average, three gallons of good milk, will yield one pound of butter. The annual consumption of a good cow, turned to grass, is from an acre to an acre and a half in the summer, and from a ton to a ton and a half of hay, in the winter. Each cow should be allowed two pecks of carrots per day. The grass, if cut and carried to the cows green, will economize full one-third.
Alderney cows yield rich milk, upon less food, than larger cows, but are seldom large milkers, and are particularly scanty of produce in the winter.
Wages from 8l. to 12l. a year.—Perquisites, 1d. per pound for butter; 1½d. for each chicken, or fowl killed; 2d. each, for ducks, geese, and turkeys; and 3d. a score for eggs.
TO PRESERVE MILK.
Provide bottles which must be perfectly clean, sweet, and dry; draw the milk from the cow into the bottles, and as they are filled, immediately cork them well up, and fasten the corks with pack-thread or wire. Then spread a little straw on the bottom of a boiler, on which place the bottles with straw between them, until the boiler contains a sufficient quantity. Fill it up with cold water; heat the water, and as soon as it begins to boil, draw the fire, and let the whole gradually cool. When quite cold take out the bottles, and pack them with straw or saw-dust in hampers, and stow them in the coolest part of the house. Milk preserved in this manner, although eighteen months in the bottles, will be as sweet as when first milked from the cow.
TO MANAGE YOUNG CHICKENS.
The chickens first hatched, are to be taken from the hen, lest she be tempted to leave her task unfinished. They may be secured in a basket of wool or soft hay, and kept in a moderate heat, if the weather be cold, near the fire. They will require no food for 24 hours, should it be necessary to keep them so long from the hen. The whole brood being hatched, place the hen under a coop abroad, upon a dry spot, and, if possible, not within reach of another hen, since the chickens will mix, and the hens are apt to destroy those which do not belong to them. Nor should they be placed near young fowls, which are likely to crush them, being always eager for their small meat.
The first food should be split grits, afterwards tail wheat, all watery food, soaked bread, or potatoes, being improper. Eggs boiled hard, or curd chopped small, is very suitable as first food. Their water should be pure and often renewed, and there are pans made in such forms, that the chickens may drink without getting into the water, which, by wetting their feet and feathers, numbs and injures them; a bason in the middle of a pan of water, will answer the end; the water running round it. There is no necessity for cooping the brood beyond two or three days, but they may be confined as occasion requires, or suffered to range, as they are much benefited by the foraging of the hen. They should not be let out too early in the morning, whilst the dew lies upon the ground, nor be suffered to range over wet grass, which is a common and fatal cause of disease in fowls. Another caution requisite is to guard them against unfavourable changes of the weather, particularly if rainy. Nearly all the diseases of fowls arise from cold moisture.
For the period of the chickens quitting the hen, there is no general rule; when she begins to roost, if sufficiently forward, they will follow her; if otherwise, they should be secured in a proper place, till the time arrives when they are to associate with the other young poultry, since the larger are sure to overrun and drive from their food the younger broods.
TO FATTEN POULTRY.
An experiment has lately been tried of feeding geese with turnips, cut in small pieces like dice, but less in size, and put into a trough of water; with this food alone, the effect was, that six geese, each when lean weighed only 9 lbs., actually gained 20 lbs. each in about three weeks fattening.
Malt is excellent food for geese and turkeys; grains are preferred for the sake of economy, unless for immediate and rapid fattening; the grains should be boiled afresh.
Other cheap articles for fattening, are oatmeal and treacle; barley-meal and milk; boiled oats, and ground malt.
Corn before being given to fowls should always be crushed and soaked in water. The food will thus go further, and it will help digestion. Hens fed thus have been known to lay during the whole of the winter months.
TO DETERMINE THE ECONOMY OF A COW.
The annual product of a good fair dairy cow, during several months after calving, either in summer or winter, if duly fed and kept in the latter season, will be an average of seven pounds of butter per week, and from five to three gallons of milk per day. Afterwards, a weekly average of three or four pounds of butter from barely half the quantity of milk. It depends on the constitution of the cow, how nearly she may be milked to the time of her calving, some giving good milk until within a week or two of that period, others requiring to be dried 8 or 9 weeks previously. I have heard (says Mr. Lawrence) of 20 lbs. of butter, and even 22 lbs. made from the milk of one long-horned cow in seven days; but I have never been fortunate enough to obtain one that would produce more than 12 lbs. per week, although I have had a Yorkshire cow which milked 7 gallons per day, yet never made 5 lbs. of butter in one week. On the average 3 gallons of good milk will make 1 lb. of butter.
TO MAKE SALT BUTTER FRESH.
To every pound of salt butter put a quart of new milk, and a little arnotto. Churn it an hour, then take it out and treat it as fresh butter, by washing it with water, and add the usual quantity of salt. The butter gains about three ounces in the pound.
SUBSTITUTE FOR MILK AND CREAM.
Beat up the whole of a fresh egg, in a basin, then pour boiling tea over it gradually, to prevent its curdling. It is difficult, from the taste, to distinguish the composition from rich cream.
TO PRESERVE EGGS.
Apply with a brush a solution of gum-arabic to the shells, or immerse the eggs therein; let them dry, and afterwards pack them in dry charcoal dust. This prevents their being affected by any alterations of temperature.
Another Way.
Immerse them for a short time in strong lime-water, and they may be kept two years, if required.
TO TEST THE PURITY OF FLOUR.
Grasp a handful briskly, and squeeze it half a minute: if genuine, it will preserve the form of the cavity of the hand, even though rudely placed on a table; if adulterated, it will almost immediately fall down.
TO PRODUCE ONE-THIRD MORE BREAD FROM A GIVEN QUANTITY OF CORN.
Boil 5 lbs. of the coarsest bran in four gallons and half of water, keep stirring it, that it may not stick to the bottom, till reduced to four gallons, then pour it off into a trough, or tub full of holes, over which lay a coarse cloth or sieve. On the top of the whole put a wooden cover, with a weight sufficiently heavy to press out the liquor from the bran, which will sink to the bottom of the tub in a thick pulp. This liquor will contain the essential oil of the corn, and when kneaded in with half a hundred weight of flour, and the usual quantity of salt and yeast, it will yield one-third more bread than the same quantity of flour would, made with water in the usual way. Divide into middle sized loaves and bake two hours and a half.
When ten days old put it into the oven for twenty minutes and it will appear quite new.
TO MAKE FLOUR PASTE.
Paste is made principally of wheaten flour boiled in water till it be of a glutinous or viscid consistence. It may be thus prepared simply for common purposes; but when it is required for paper hangings to rooms, it is usual to mix a fourth, fifth, or sixth of the weight of the flour of powdered resin; and where it is wanted still more tenacious, gum arabic, or any kind of size may be added.
THE CHAMBER NURSE.
Every experienced person, and every liberal physician and medical man, is sensible of the value of a careful, skilful, and kind-hearted nurse, and that the alleviation of sickness and the actual cure of diseases, depend as much on the anxious attention of the nurse, as on the efficacy of medicine itself. Good temper, patience, watchfulness, and sobriety, are the cardinal virtues of every good nurse, and when possessed by one who unites skill with those personal qualities, she is a treasure above all price.
Although the chamber nurse forms no part of the establishment of healthy families, yet as in every family she is a necessary auxiliary for longer or shorter periods, a brief notice of her qualifications and duties, will confer completeness on such a volume as the present.
The chamber or sick nurse should be qualified for her duty by some experience; and if her experience has been considerable, and she is a woman of good understanding, she will prove herself quite as important in the nursery of the sick, as medical practitioners, or all the drugs in an apothecary’s shop. She ought to be past the middle age, and if a married woman or widow, so much the better. She ought to be clean in her person, and neat in her dress, and free from habits of drinking or snuff-taking. She ought also to be a woman of cheerful and equable temper, and, above all things, free from superstition, or belief in charms, omens, signs, dreams, and other follies of gross ignorance.
The sick room should be clean, well aired, and free from noisome smells; and, on the contrary, the air should be purified by sprinkling vinegar or eau de cologne, and occasionally burning a little vinegar in a heated shovel.
Quietness, in every respect, is of the first consequence. Fire irons should be avoided: creaking doors and locks should be oiled; and list shoes constantly worn. Talking loud and whispering, so as to excite the suspicion of the patient, should be equally avoided; and a long feather should be pushed through the key-hole, as a signal on the outside, when the patient is asleep. The nurse should only sleep when the patient sleeps, as one means of preventing the patient being awoke by her frivolous activity.
In cases of contagion, whatever is sent out of the room, should be immersed in water, and the nurse should be careful not to receive the breath of the patient, nor to sit on the bed. She should also carry about her person a bag of camphor, and during such diseases, frequently fumigate the room with vinegar, and indulge occasionally in half a glass of brandy.
The sick chamber should be provided with a lamp and appurtenances, for heating whatever may be wanted; with a tea kettle, two or three saucepans, empty bottles for hot water, (to put to the feet,) some sal volatile and spirits, a bottle of salts, and of eau de cologne; some lambs-wool gloves to rub the patient, a bed-pan, a foot-bath, or a large tin bath; some lemonade, barley-water, and toast and water: oranges, lemons, and empty medicine bottles, which occasion smells that infect the air, should be kept in an adjoining room. There should also be a supply of flannel, old linen, and napkins, for every purpose. Different medicines should be carefully kept apart; lest pernicious ones be given, or proper ones, at improper times. A thermometer in the room is the only means of keeping an equal temperature, or increasing or diminishing it, as the medical attendants may direct.
The reports of the nurse to the physician, and the observations of the physician, should always be made in an adjoining room, and the mind of the patient not be distracted by details of symptoms, and of the nurse’s business. Changes which take place after the visit of the medical attendant, should be immediately reported, and in all that regards the administration of the medicines, and the general system of treatment, the nurse should scrupulously obey the instructions of the medical advisers, not only as the most likely means of promoting the speedy recovery of the patient, but to remove from herself all responsibility and blame. At the same time, she should not withhold her opinion, in regard to the effect of the medicines administered, and in her conferences with the medical advisers, should suggest whatever appears likely to be useful.
Nurses, according to the length of a disease, are paid by the day, week, or month; and as boarders in the family, they ought not to take advantage of the sympathy which induces the relatives of the sick to afford them every indulgence, so as to involve unnecessary or wanton expenses; but consider the interest of the family, whose affliction requires their attendance, as their own. The usual payment of a nurse in London, is from 10s. 6d. to 15s. per week, according to the circumstances of the parties, and of the case.
Nurses who have to compound and administer Family Medicines must be prepared with proper scales and weights; and with graduated glass measures, such as are used by Apothecaries; according to the following
TABLES OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.
Measure of Fluids.
| 1 gal. measure (cong.) contains | 8 | pints, |
| 1 pint (O.) | 16 | ounces, |
| 1 ounce (f. ℥.) | 8 | drams, |
| 1 dram (f. ʒ.) | 60 | minims, (m.) |
Weights of Dry Substances.
| 1 pound (lb.) contains | 12 | ounces, |
| 1 ounce (℥.) | 8 | drams, |
| 1 dram (ʒ.) | 60 | grains, (gr.) |
| 1 scruple (℈.) | 20 | grains, or 1-3d of a dram. |
It is customary to distinguish quantities of fluid from dry substances, by prefixing the letter f. (fluid) when an ounce or dram is mentioned in medical works, as may be seen in the first of these tables.
The following table of the gradations of doses of medicines for different ages, will in general be found pretty correct, and ought never to be deviated from, except by professional advice.
If at the age of maturity the dose be one dram, the proportion will be at
| From | 14 | to 21 years, | 2 scruples, |
| 7 | 14 | half a dram, | |
| 4 | 7 | 1 scruple, | |
| 4 | 15 grains, | ||
| 3 | half a scruple, | ||
| 2 | 8 grains, | ||
| 1 | 5 grains, | ||
| 6 | months | 3 grains, | |
| 3 | 2 grains, | ||
| 1 | 1 grain. |
TOAST AND WATER.
Cut a slice of fine and stale loaf bread, very thin, and let it be carefully toasted on both sides, until browned all over, but not blackened or burned. Put the toast into a deep stone or china jug, and pour over it, from the tea-kettle, as much boiling water as required to make into drink. Cover the jug with a saucer or plate, and let the drink become quite cold; it will then be fit for use. Toast and water is peculiarly grateful to the stomach, and excellent for carrying off the effects of any excess in drinking. It is also a most excellent drink at meals.
WATER-GRUEL.
Put a large spoonful of oatmeal into a pint of water, stir it well together, and let it boil three or four times, stirring it often. Then strain it through a sieve, put in some salt according to taste, and if necessary add a piece of fresh butter. Stir with a spoon until the butter is melted, when it will be fine and smooth.
BARLEY-WATER.
Take of pearl-barley, 2 oz.
water, 4 pints.
First wash off the mealy matter which adheres to the barley with some cold water; then extract the colouring matter, by boiling it a little with about half a pint of water. Throw this decoction away; and put the barley thus purified into four pints of boiling water; then boil down to one half and strain the decoction.
COMPOUND BARLEY WATER.
Take of the decoction of barley, 2 pints,
raisins, stoned, 2 oz.
figs, sliced, 2 do.
liquorice-root, sliced and bruised, ½ oz.
distilled water, 1 pint.
During the boiling, add the raisins first, and then the figs, and, lastly, the liquorice, a short time before it is finished, when the strained decoction ought to measure two pints.
These liquors are to be used freely, as diluting drinks in fevers and other acute disorders.
PANADA.
Put a blade of mace, a large piece of the crumb of bread, and a quart of water, in a clean saucepan. Let it boil two minutes, then take out the bread, and bruise it very fine in a bason. Mix with it as much of the warm water as it will require, pour away the rest and sweeten it to the taste of the patient. If necessary, put in a piece of butter the size of a walnut, but add no wine. Grate in a little nutmeg, if requisite.
BEEF TEA.
Take off the fat and skin from a pound of lean beef, and cut it into pieces. Then put it into a gallon of water, with the under crust of a penny loaf, and a small portion of salt. Let the whole boil till reduced to two quarts, and strain, when it will be fit for use.
MUTTON BROTH.
Take the fat off a pound of loin of mutton, and put the lean into a quart of water. Skim it well as it boils, and put in a piece of the upper crust of bread, with a large blade of mace. Having covered it up close, let it boil closely for half an hour, and then pour the broth clear off, without stirring. Season it with a little salt. Turnips should not be boiled with the meat.
MEDICINAL TEA.
This country affords herbs much more wholesome than either tea or coffee, and if they were all imported from a distant region, and sold at a high price, they would, no doubt, be held in great estimation. The following composition is very superior to tea or coffee, inasmuch as the infusion is very agreeable, will strengthen the stomach, and invigorate, instead of debilitate, the nervous system.
| Take of | rosemary leaves, dried, | 2 oz. | |||
| sage | do. | do. | 4 oz. | ||
| rose | do. | do. | 4 oz. | ||
| peach | do. | do. | 3 oz. | ||
| hyssop | do. | do. | 4 oz. | ||
| balm | do. | do. | 5 oz. | ||
| male speedwell, (veronica) | 4 oz. | ||||
A wine-glassful of these mixed herbs is sufficient to make 3 pints of infusion, which is made in the same manner as tea, sugar and milk being added. In London, where herbs are sold at a dearer rate than in the country, it may be obtained at the rate of 2s. per pound.—Either of the above ingredients may be diminished or augmented at pleasure. If too bitter, lessen the quantity of hyssop, and add dried mint leaves.
ISINGLASS JELLY, &c.
Put an ounce of isinglass, and a few cloves, into a quart of water. Boil it down to a pint, strain it upon a pound of loaf sugar, and when cold, add a little wine, when it will be fit for use.—A very nourishing beverage may be made by merely boiling the isinglass with milk, and sweetening with lump sugar.
SALOP.
Put a dessert spoonful of the powder of salop, into a pint of boiling water. Keep stirring it till it becomes of the consistence of jelly, and then add white wine and sugar, according to taste.
SUBSTITUTE FOR ASSES MILK.
Put an ounce of hartshorn shavings into a quart of boiling barley-water; boil down to a pint, add two ounces of candid eringo root, and a pint of new milk; boil for a quarter of an hour, when strain for use.
BROWN CAUDLE.
Boil four spoonsful of oatmeal, a blade or two of mace, and a piece of lemon peel, in two quarts of water, for about a quarter of an hour; taking care that it does not boil over. Then strain, and add a quart of good ale that is not bitter. Sweeten it to the palate, and add half a pint of white wine. When no white wine is used the caudle should consist of one half of ale.
WHITE CAUDLE.
Make the gruel as above, and strain through a sieve, but put no ale to it. When to be used, sweeten according to taste, grate in some nutmeg, and add a little white wine. Juice of lemon is sometimes added.
TRANSPARENT SOUP FOR CONVALESCENTS.
Cut the meat from a leg of veal into small pieces, and break the bone into several bits. Put the meat into a very large jug, and the bones at top, with a bunch of common sweet herbs, a quarter of an ounce of mace, and half a pound of Jordan almonds, finely blanched and beaten. Pour on it four quarts of boiling water, and let it stand all night, covered close by the fire-side. The next day put it into a well-tinned saucepan, and let it boil slowly, till it is reduced to two quarts. Be careful, at the time it is boiling, to skim it, and take off the fat as it rises. Strain into a punch-bowl, and when settled for two hours, pour it into a clean saucepan, clear from the sediment, if any.
EFFERVESCING DRAUGHT.
Pulverize 1 ounce of citric acid, and divide it into 24 parts; that is, 24 scruples, which are to be put into separate small blue papers. Pulverize, also, 1 ounce of the sub-carbonate of soda, and divide it into 24 like packages, in white paper. When the draught is to be prepared, put the carbonate into a tumbler, half filled with water: in another, dissolve the acid in an equal quantity; throw one into the other, and drink it while effervescing.
A similar preparation may be made by using tartaric acid instead of the citric.
TO PREVENT INFECTION.
Mix in a plate, a few ounces of pulverized black oxyde of manganese and common salt, which being placed in the house supposed to be infected, sprinkle oil of vitriol upon the mixture, and gas will arise which will render the place perfectly salubrious. The oil of vitriol should be carefully added by a few drops at a time, the face being turned from the mixture.
SALINE DRAUGHT.
Dissolve 20 grains of carbonate of potass in a table-spoonful of lemon juice, and three table-spoonsful of water, to which add a small quantity of lump sugar. This draught is very serviceable in sore throats, &c.
SEDLITZ POWDERS.
Take of Rochelle salt, 1 dram,
carbonate of soda, 25 grains,
tartaric acid, 20 do.
Dissolve the first two in a tumbler of water, then add the latter, and drink without loss of time.
TO DISTINGUISH GOOD RHUBARB FROM BAD.
The general characters of good rhubarb are, it having a whitish or clear yellow colour, being dry, solid, and compact; moderately heavy, and brittle; when recently broken appearing marked with yellow or reddish veins, mixed with white; being easily pulverizable; forming a powder of a fine bright yellow, having the peculiar, nauseous, aromatic smell of rhubarb, and a sub-acrid, bitterish, somewhat astringent taste, and when chewed feeling gritty under the teeth, speedily colouring the saliva, and not appearing very mucilaginous.
TAMARIND WATER.
This fruit very much resembles the nature of prunes, but is more acid, and enters as a useful ingredient into the lenitive electuary. It is found of the highest use in a sore throat, as a powerful cleanser; and, put into boiling water until moderately cold, is a delightful drink to persons parched under the heat of fever, and in the lowest state of putrid fever.
WATER-CRESSES.
Water-cresses act as a gentle stimulant and diuretic; for these purposes the expressed juice, which contains the peculiar taste and pungency of the herb, may be taken in doses of an ounce or two, and continued for a considerable time. It should be at the same time eaten at breakfast, also at dinner, and for supper, to experience benefit from the virtues of this herb.
WHITE COUGH MIXTURE.
Mix 1 dram of powdered spermaceti with the yolks of 2 eggs; then add 1 dram of tincture of opium, and 5 oz., of water.
To be taken in the quantity of a wine-glassful when the cough is troublesome.
FOR ALLAYING COUGH IN THE NIGHT, AND PROCURING REST.
Mix together a dessert spoonful of syrup of poppies, and 15 drops of antimonial wine. To be taken at a draught, with or without a little warm water, either at bed-time, or in the middle of the night. Half this quantity may be given to a child under the same circumstances.
Another.
Mix together in a wine-glass,
30 drops of laudanum,
4 tea-spoonsful of vinegar, and
6 tea-spoonsful of water, sweetened with a little lump sugar.
ALMOND MILK.
Take of sweet almonds, blanched, 1½ oz.
double-refined sugar, ¾ oz.
distilled water, 2½ pints.
Beat the almonds with the sugar; then rubbing them together, add by degrees the water, and strain the liquor.
Almost any quantity may be taken as a frequent drink to soften coughs, and to assuage urinary disorders.
MUCILAGE OF GUM ARABIC.
Take of gum-arabic, in powder, 4 oz.
boiling water, 8 oz.
Triturate the gum with a small portion of the water until it be dissolved.
It is necessary to pass the mucilage through linen, in order to free it from pieces of wood and other impurities, which always adhere to the gum: the linen may be placed in a funnel.
Mucilage of gum-arabic is very useful in making up medicines, &c. it also possesses the powers of a mucilaginous demulcent in a high degree; and is frequently given in diarrhœa, dysentery, chin-cough, hoarseness, strangury, &c.
GUM-ARABIC EMULSION.
Take of gum-arabic, in powder, 2 drams,
sweet almonds, blanched,
double refined sugar, each ½ dram,
decoction of barley, 1 pint.
Dissolve the gum in the warm decoction; and when it is almost cold, pour it upon the almonds, previously well beaten with the sugar, and at the same time triturate them together, so as to form an emulsion, and then filter.
The almonds are blanched by infusing them in boiling water, and peeling them. The success of the preparation depends upon beating the almonds to a smooth pulp, and triturating them with each portion of the watery fluid, so as to form an uniform mixture before another portion be added.
DECOCTION OF MARSHMALLOWS
Take of marshmallow roots, bruised, 4 oz.
sun raisins, stoned, 2 oz.
water, 7 pints.
Boil down to five pints; strain the decoction, and after the grounds have subsided, pour off the clear liquor.
Marshmallow roots contain nothing soluble in water except mucilage, which is very abundant in them. This decoction is therefore to be considered merely as an emollient, rendered more pleasant by the acidulous sweetness of the raisins.
COMPOUND ALOETIC PILLS.
Take of hepatic aloes, 1 oz.
ginger powder, 1 dram,
soap, ½ oz.
essential oil of peppermint, ½ a dram.
Let the aloes and ginger be rubbed well together, then add the soap and the oil so as to form a mass.
These pills may be advantageously used for obviating the habitual costiveness of sedentary persons. The dose is from 10 to 15 grains.
LADY WEBSTER’S ANTIBILIOUS PILLS.
Take of socotrine aloes, 6 drams,
gum mastic, 2 drams.
Reduce to powder separately; make into a mass with syrup of wormwood, and divide into one hundred pills, of which take one every night.
COMPOUND SOAP LINIMENT.
Take of camphor, 1 oz.
soap, 3 oz.
spirit of rosemary, 1 pint.
Digest the soap in the spirit of rosemary until it be dissolved, and add to it the camphor.
STEER’S OPODELDOC.
Dissolve 2 lbs. of white soap, and 1 lb. of yellow ditto, in 3 pints of water.
Now dissolve 4 oz. of camphor,
1 oz. of oil of rosemary, and
6 drams of oil of origanum, in
3 pints of spirit of wine.
Mix both solutions, and then add 3 oz. of water of ammonia.
This liniment is extensively used to allay the inflammation of bruises, sprains, &c.
CAJEPUT OPODELDOC.
Take of almond soap, 2 ounces,
alcohol, 1 pint,
camphor, 1 ounce,
cajeput oil, 2 ounces.
First dissolve the soap and camphor in the alcohol, and when the solution is about to congeal, or becomes nearly cold, add the oil of cajeput: shake them well together, and put it into bottles to congeal.
This composition is a great improvement on the opodeldocs in general use, and in cases of rheumatism, paralytic numbness, chilblains, enlargement of joints, and indolent tumours; where the object is to rouse the action of absorbent vessels, and to stimulate the nerves, it is a very valuable external remedy.
LINIMENT OF AMMONIA.
Take of water of ammonia, ½ an ounce,
olive oil, 1½ ounces.
Shake them together in a phial till they are mixed.
In the inflammatory quinsey, a piece of flannel, moistened with this mixture, applied to the throat, and renewed every four or five hours, is one of the most efficacious remedies.
LINIMENT OF LIME WATER.
Take of lime water, and olive oil, each three ounces.
Mix them by shaking in a phial.
This solution is thick, of a white colour, and devoid of acrimony. It is very advantageously applied to burns and scalds. The soapy matter separates from the water when it has been made some time, and therefore it is always better to prepare it only when it is wanted.
EAU-DE-LUCE.
Dissolve ten or twelve grains of white soap in four ounces of rectified spirit of wine; after which, strain the solution. A dram of rectified oil of amber is then added, and the whole filtered: with this solution should be mixed such a proportion of the strongest volatile spirit of ammonia, in a clear glass bottle, as will, when sufficiently shaken, produce a beautiful milk-white liquor. If a kind of cream should settle on the surface, it will be requisite to add a small quantity of the spirituous solution of soap. Those who may wish to have this liquor perfumed, may employ lavender or Hungary water, instead of the spirit of wine.
It is employed for curing the bites of adders, wasps, bees, gnats, ants, and other insects, and for burns.
RIGA BALSAM.
Mix together, 4 ounces of spirit of wine,
1 dram of Friar’s balsam,
2 do. of tincture of saffron.
This balsam is used for sprains and bruises.
OF FOMENTATIONS.
Fomentations are applied externally, and as warm as the patient can conveniently bear, in the following manner: Two flannel cloths are dipped into the heated liquor, of one which is wrung as dry as the necessary speed will admit then immediately applied to the part affected. The flannel lies on, until the heat begins to go off, and the other is in readiness to apply at the instant in which the first is removed:—thus these flannels are alternately applied, so as to keep the affected part constantly warm. This is continued fifteen or twenty minutes, and repeated two or three times a day, or as often as occasion may require. The degree of heat should never exceed that of producing a pleasing sensation; great heat sometimes produces effects very opposite to that intended by the use of the fomentation.
DECOCTION FOR FOMENTATIONS.
Take of the leaves of southernwood, dried,
tops of sea-wormwood, do.
camomile flowers, ditto, each 1 oz.
bay leaves, do. ½ oz.
distilled water, 6 pints.
Boil them a little, and strain.
In making these decoctions the aromatic substances should not be added until the decoction is nearly completed, for otherwise their flavour would be entirely dissipated.
ANODYNE FOMENTATION.
Take two poppy heads, boil them in a quart of milk, and use this as a fomentation. It is excellent in inflamed eyes, also to relieve the pain of inflammation from a blister or other cause.
MUSTARD CATAPLASM.
Take of mustard-seed, powdered, ½ lb.
crumb of bread, ½ do.
vinegar, as much as is sufficient.
Mix, and make a cataplasm.
Cataplasms of this kind are employed as stimulants: they often inflame the part, and raise blisters, but not so perfectly as cautharides. They are frequently applied to the soles of the feet, in the low state of acute diseases, for raising the pulse and relieving the head.
SIMPLE OINTMENT.
Take of olive oil, 5 ounces,
white wax, 2 ounces.
This is an useful emollient ointment for softening the skin.
OINTMENT OF HOG’S LARD.
Take of prepared hog’s lard, 2 lbs.
rose water, 3 oz.
Beat the lard with the rose-water until they be mixed; then melt the mixture with a slow fire, and set it apart that the water may subside; after which, pour off the lard from the water, constantly stirring until it be cold.
This ointment may be used for softening the skin, and healing chaps.
WAX OINTMENT.
Take of white wax, 4 oz.
spermaceti, 3 oz.
olive oil, 1 pint.
Mix them together over a gentle fire, and then stir them very briskly, without ceasing, till they are cold.
SPERMACETI OINTMENT.
Take of spermaceti, 6 drams,
white wax, 2 do.
olive oil, 3 oz.
Melt all together over a gentle fire, stirring briskly, without intermission, till the ointment becomes cold.
These two ointments are supposed only to supple the parts, and hinder the rag or lint from sticking to the granulating flesh, and they also keep the air from wounds, which is known to irritate them, from the oxygen in the atmosphere; but they have, otherwise, no peculiar healing virtue.
LIP SALVE.
Melt together 2½ oz. of white wax,
3 oz. of spermaceti,
7 oz. of oil of almonds,
1 dram of balsam of Peru, and
1½ oz. of alkanet root, wrapped up in a linen bag.
Pour the salve into small gallipots or boxes, and cover with bladder and white leather.
COURT PLASTER.
Bruise a sufficient quantity of isinglass, and let it soak for twenty-four hours in a little warm water; expose it to heat over the fire, to dissipate the greater part of the water, and supply its place by colourless brandy, which will mix the gelatine of the glue. Strain the whole through a piece of open linen: on cooling, it will form a trembling jelly.
Now extend a piece of black silk on a wooden frame, and fix it in that position by means of tacks, or pack-thread. Then, with a brush made of badger’s hair, apply the glue, after it has been exposed to a gentle heat, to render it liquid. When this stratum is dry, which will soon be the case, apply a second, and then a third, if necessary, to give the plaster a certain thickness; as soon as the whole is dry, cover it with two or three strata of a strong tincture of balsam of Tolu.
This is the real English court plaster: it is pliable, and never breaks, characters which distinguish it from so many other preparations sold under the same name.
Application.
This plaster is generally used to cover slight abrasions and excoriations of the skin. When used for small cuts, from sharp instruments, bring the lips of the wound together, and lay over it a piece of goldbeater’s skin; then fix this by means of a piece of court plaster. The wound will generally heal without further trouble.
TINCTURE OF RHUBARB.
Take of rhubarb, sliced, 3 oz.
lesser cardamom seeds, bruised, ½ oz.
liquorice root, bruised, ½ oz.
saffron, 2 drams,
proof spirit of wine, 2 pints.
Digest for seven days, and strain. Dose, ½ an oz. as a purge, or 2 dr. as a stomachic.
COMPOUND TINCTURE OF RHUBARB.
Take of rhubarb, sliced, 2 oz.
liquorice root, bruised, ½ oz.
ginger, powdered,
saffron, each 2 drams;
distilled water, 1 pint,
proof spirit of wine, 12 oz. by measure.
Digest for 14 days, and strain. Dose, ½ an oz. as an aperient, or 1 oz. in violent diarrhœa.
AROMATIC TINCTURE, OR COMPOUND TINCTURE OF CINNAMON.
Take of cinnamon, bruised,
lesser cardamom seeds, each 1 oz.
long pepper, in powder, 2 drams,
diluted alcohol, 2½ lbs.
Digest for seven days, and filter through paper.
A tea-spoonful or two may be taken in wine, or any other convenient vehicle, in languors, weakness of the stomach, flatulencies, and other similar complaints; and in these cases it is often employed with advantage.
COMPOUND TINCTURE OF SENNA.
Take of senna leaves, 2 oz.
jalap root, 1 oz.
coriander seeds, ½ oz.
proof spirit, 2½ pints.
Digest for seven days, and to the strained liquor add 4 oz. of sugar-candy.
This tincture is an useful carminative and cathartic, especially to those who have accustomed themselves to the use of spirituous liquors; it often relieves flatulent complaints and colics, where the common cordials have little effect: the dose is from 1 to 2 ounces.
DAFFY’S ELIXIR.
Take of senna, 2 lbs.
rhubarb shavings, 2 lbs.
jalap root, 1 lb.
caraway seeds, 1 lb.
aniseeds, 2 lbs.
sugar, 4 lbs.
shavings of red sanders wood, ½ lb.
Digest these in 10 gallons of spirit of wine, for 14 days, and strain for use. This elixir possesses almost the same qualities as the Compound Tincture of Senna. The above quantities may be reduced to as small a scale as may be required.
GODFREY’S CORDIAL.
Dissolve ½ an oz. of opium,
1 dram of oil of sassafras, in
2 ounces of spirit of wine.
Now mix 4 lbs. of treacle, with
1 gallon of boiling water, and when cold, mix both solutions.
This is generally used to soothe the pains of children, &c.
BALSAM OF HONEY.
Take of balsam of tolu, 2 oz.
gum storax, 2 drams,
opium, 2 do.
honey, 8 oz.
Dissolve these in a quart of spirit of wine.
This balsam is useful in allaying the irritation of cough.
Dose, 1 or 2 tea-spoonsful in a little tea, or warm water.
TINCTURE OF THE BALSAM OF TOLU.
Take of balsam of Tolu, 1 oz.
alcohol, 1 pint.
Digest until the balsam be dissolved, and then strain the tincture through paper.
This solution of the balsam of Tolu possesses all the virtues of the balsam itself. It may be taken internally, with the several intentions for which that balsam is proper, to the quantity of a tea-spoonful or two, in any convenient vehicle.
Mixed with simple syrup, it forms an agreeable balsamic syrup.
TINCTURE OF PERUVIAN BARK.
Take of Peruvian bark, 4 oz.
proof spirit, 2 pints.
Digest for 10 days, and strain.
It may be given from a tea-spoonful to ½ an ounce, or an ounce, according to the different purposes it is intended to answer.
HUXHAM’S TINCTURE OF BARK.
Take of Peruvian bark, powdered, 2 oz.
the peel of Seville oranges, dried, 1½ do.
Virginian snake root, bruised, 3 drams,
saffron, 1 do.
cochineal, powdered, 2 scruples,
proof spirit, 20 oz.
Digest for 14 days, and strain.
As a corroborant and stomachic, it is given in doses of two or three drams; but when employed for the cure of intermittent fevers, it must be taken to a greater extent.
TINCTURE OF GUAIACUM.
Take of guaiacum, 4 oz.
rectified spirit of wine, 2 pints.
Digest for seven days, and filter.
This solution is a powerful stimulating sudorific, and may be given in doses, of about ½ an ounce, in rheumatic and asthmatic cases.
AMMONIATED TINCTURE OF GUAIACUM.
Take of resin of guaiacum, in powder, 4 oz.
ammoniated alcohol, in powder, 1½ lb.
Digest for seven days, and filter through paper.
In rheumatic cases, a tea, or even table-spoonful, taken every morning and evening, in any convenient vehicle, particularly in milk, has proved of singular service.
FRIAR’S BALSAM.
Take of benzoin, 3 oz.
purified storax, 2 oz.
balsam of Tolu, 1 oz.
socotrine aloes, ½ oz.
rectified spirit of wine, 2 pints.
Digest for seven days and filter.
The dose is a tea-spoonful in some warm water four times a day, in consumptions and spitting of blood. It is useful, also, when applied on lint, to recent wounds, and serves the purposes of a scab, but must not be soon removed.
TINCTURE OF CATECHU.
Take extract of catechu, 3 oz.
cinnamon, bruised, 2 oz.
diluted alcohol, 2 pints.
Digest for seven days, and strain through paper.
The cinnamon is a very useful addition to the catechu, not only as it warms the stomach, but likewise as it covers its roughness and astringency.
This tincture is of service in all kinds of defluxions, catarrhs, looseness, and other disorders where astringent medicines are indicated. Two or three tea-spoonsful may be taken occasionally.
IPECACUAN WINE.
Take of the root of ipecacuan, bruised, 2 oz.
Spanish white wine, 2 pints.
Digest for ten days and strain.
This wine is a very mild and safe emetic, and nearly equally serviceable in dysenteries, with the ipecacuan in substance; this root yielding nearly all its virtues to the Spanish white wine. The common dose is an ounce, more or less, according to the age and strength of the patient.
LAVENDER WATER.
The common mode of preparing this, is to put three drams of the essential oil of lavender, and a dram of the essence of ambergris, into 1 pint of spirit of wine.
SPIRIT OF ROSEMARY.
Take of the fresh tops of rosemary, 1½ lb.
proof spirit, 1 gallon.
Distil off in a water-bath, 5 pints.
COMPOUND SPIRIT OF ANISEED.
Take of aniseed,
angelica-seed, each bruised, ½ lb.
proof-spirit, 1 gallon,
water, sufficient to prevent a bad taste or flavour.
Draw off 1 gallon by distillation.
This compound is often employed with advantage, in cases of flatulent colic.
BLACK PECTORAL LOZENGES.
Take of extract of liquorice,
gum arabic, each 4 oz.
white sugar, 8 oz.
Dissolve them in warm water, and strain; then evaporate the mixture over a gentle fire, till it be of a proper consistence for being formed into lozenges, which are to be cut out of any shape.
WHITE PECTORAL LOZENGES.
Take of fine sugar, 1 lb.
gum arabic, 4 oz.
starch, 1 oz.
flowers of benzoin, ¾ dram.
Having beat them all in a powder, make them into a proper mass with rose-water, so as to form lozenges.
These compositions are calculated for softening acrimonious humours, and allaying the tickling in the throat which provokes coughing.
NITRE LOZENGES.
Take of nitre, purified, 3 oz.
double-refined sugar, 9 oz.
Make them into lozenges with mucilage of gum tragacanth.
This is a very agreeable form for the exhibition of nitre, as a diuretic or febrifuge, though, when the salt is thus taken, without any liquid (if the quantity be considerable), it is apt to occasion uneasiness about the stomach, which can only be prevented by a large dilution with aqueous liquors.
HONEY OF ROSES.
Take of dried red rose-buds, 4 oz.
boiling distilled water, 3 pints,
clarified honey, 5 lbs.
Macerate the rose-leaves in the water for six hours; then mix the honey with the strained liquor, and boil the mixture to the thickness of a syrup.
This preparation is not unfrequently used as a mild, cooling detergent, particularly in gargles for ulcerations and inflammation of the mouth and tonsils.
SYRUP OF POPPIES.
Take of the heads of white poppies, dried, 3½ lbs.
double-refined sugar, 6 lbs.
distilled water, 8 gallons.
Slice and bruise the heads, then boil them in the water to three gallons, and press out the decoction. Reduce this, by boiling, to about 4 pints, and strain it while hot through a sieve, then through a thin woollen cloth, and set it aside for twelve hours, that the grounds may subside. Boil the liquor poured off from the grounds to three pints, and dissolve the sugar in it, that it may be made a syrup.
This syrup, impregnated with the narcotic matter of the poppy-head, is given to children in doses of two or three drams, and to adults of from half an ounce to one ounce and upwards, for easing pain, procuring rest, and answering the other intentions of mild operations.
SYRUP OF VIOLETS.
Take of fresh flowers of the violet, 1 lb.
boiling distilled water, 3 pints.
Macerate for 25 hours, and strain the liquor through a cloth, without pressing, and add double-refined sugar, to make the syrup.
This is an agreeable laxative medicine for young children.
OXYMEL OF SQUILLS.
Take of clarified honey, 3 lbs.
vinegar of squills, 2 pints.
Boil them in a glass vessel, with a slow fire, to the thickness of a syrup.
Oxymel of squills is an useful aperient, detergent, and expectorant, and of great service in humoral asthmas, coughs, and other disorders where thick phlegm abounds. It is given in doses of two or three drachms, along with some aromatic water, as that of cinnamon, to prevent the great nausea which it would otherwise be apt to excite. In large doses it proves emetic.
VINEGAR OF SQUILLS.
Take of squills, recently dried, 1 pound,
vinegar, 6 pints,
proof spirit, ½ pint.
Macerate the squills with the vinegar, in a glass vessel, with a gentle heat, for 24 hours; then express the liquor, and set it aside until the fæces subside. To the decanted liquor add the spirit.
Vinegar of squills is a very powerful stimulant; and hence it is frequently used with great success as a diuretic and expectorant. The dose of this medicine is from a dram to half an ounce.
TAR-WATER.
Take of tar, 2 pints;
water, 1 gallon.
Mix, by stirring them with a wooden rod for a quarter of an hour, and, after the tar has subsided, strain the liquor, and keep it in well corked phials.
Tar-water should have the colour of white wine, and an empyreumatic taste. It is, in fact, a solution of empyreumatic oil, effected by means of acetous acid. It acts as a stimulant raising the pulse, and increasing the discharge by the skin and kidneys. It may be drank to the extent of a pint or two in the course of a day.
DECOCTION OF SARSAPARILLA.
Take of sarsaparilla root, cut, 6 oz.
distilled water, 8 pints.
After macerating for two hours, with a heat about 195 degrees, then take out the root, and bruise it; add it again to the liquor, and macerate it for two hours longer; then boil down the liquor to 4 pints, and strain it. The dose is from 4 oz. to half a pint, or more, daily.
COMPOUND DECOCTION OF SARSAPARILLA.
Take of sarsaparilla root, cut and bruised, 6 oz.
the bark of sassafras root,
the shavings of guaiacum wood,
liquorice root, each 1 oz.
the bark of mezereon root, 3 drams,
distilled water, 10 pints.
Digest with a gentle heat for six hours, then boil down the liquor to one half (or 5 pints) adding the bark of the mezereon root towards the end of boiling. Strain off the liquor. The dose is the same as the last, and for the same purposes.
DECOCTION OF THE WOODS.
Take of guaiacum raspings, 3 oz.
raisins, stoned, 2 oz.
sassafras root, sliced,
liquorice root, bruised, each 1 oz.
water, 10 lbs.
Boil the guaiacum and raisins with the water, over a gentle fire, to the consumption of one half, adding, towards the end, the sassafras and liquorice, and strain the decoction without expression.
INFUSION OF ROSES.
Take of dried red roses, ½ oz.
diluted vitriolic acid, 3 drams,
boiling distilled water, 2½ pints,
double refined sugar, 1½ oz.
First pour the water on the petals, in a close vessel, then add the diluted vitriolic acid, and macerate for half an hour. Strain the liquor when cold, and add the sugar.
EMETIC DRAUGHT.
Take of ipecacuan wine, 7 drams,
antimonial wine, 1 do.
syrup of violets, 1 do.
rose-water, 3 do.
Make into a draught to be taken at eight in the evening; or, for an infant, give a tea-spoonful every five minutes until it operates, and half of it for a child of ten or twelve years. It has no taste.
MILD APERIENT DRAUGHT.
Take senna leaves, an ounce and a half,
ginger, sliced, 1 dram,
boiling water, 1 pint.
Macerate for an hour, and strain the liquor.
Two or three tea-spoonsful of Epsom salts dissolved in a wine-glassful of warm water, with 3 table-spoonsful of the above infusion of senna, and a tea-spoonful of tincture of senna, or cardamoms, will act as a mild aperient. It should be taken early in the morning, and a plentiful supply of tea, afterwards, at breakfast.
MILD PURGATIVE FOR INFANTS.
Take of manna, 1 oz.
mucilage of gum arabic,
oil of almonds,
syrup of lemons, each 2 drams.
Of this mixture give a tea-spoonful to a child at bed-time.
CAMPHOR MIXTURE.
Take of camphor, 1 dram,
rectified spirit of wine, ten drops,
double-refined sugar, half an ounce,
boiling distilled water, one pint.
Rub the camphor first with the spirit of wine, then with the sugar; lastly, add the water by degrees, and strain the mixture.
In the common form of camphor emulsion the union is effected, by triturating the camphor with a few almonds, the unctuous quality of which serves in a considerable degree to cover the pungency of the camphor without diminishing its activity. Camphor under the present form, as well as that of emulsion, is very useful in fevers, taken to the extent of a table-spoonful every three or four hours.
CHALK MIXTURE.
Take of prepared chalk, 1 oz.
refined sugar, ½ an oz.
mucilage of gum arabic, 2 oz.
Rub them together and then add by degrees,
water, 2 pints,
spirituous cinnamon-water, 2 ounces.
This is a very elegant form of exhibiting chalk, and is a useful remedy in diseases arising from or accompanied with acidity in the stomach, &c. It is frequently employed in diarrhœa proceeding from that cause.
TO RELIEVE FAINTING AND OTHER FITS.
The person ought to be immediately carried into the open air, and the temples should be rubbed with strong vinegar and brandy, and volatile salts or spirits held to the nose. The patient should then be laid on the back with the head low, and have a little wine or other cordial poured into the mouth. If subject to hysteric fits, castor or assafœtida should be applied to the nose, or burnt feathers, horn, or leather.
TO RELIEVE SUDDEN BLEEDING.
Dry lint put up the nostrils, pledgets of lint dipped in spirits, or weak solution of blue vitriol, or from ten to twenty drops of oil of turpentine taken in water, generally stop discharges of blood.
TO MAKE A WARM BATH.
Water for a warm bath should be rather more than a blood heat, or from 90 to 100 of the thermometer, and if a portable tin bath is not at command, and a warm bath is suddenly wanted, the quickest mode of making one, is to knock in the head of a beer or wine cask, according to the size of the patient, and every neighbourhood will supply these, as well as sufficient quantities of hot water, clean or dirty.
TO RESTORE SUSPENDED ANIMATION.
In cases of substances being stopt between the mouth and the stomach, where they cannot be extracted by the fingers or otherwise, the person should swallow a piece of meat or tow tied to a thread, which should be immediately drawn up again. Emetics are sometimes serviceable, and injections of warm milk and water frequently remove the obstructions. When animation is suspended by noxious vapours, the usual methods in fainting should be employed, and lemonade or vinegar and water given to the patient as soon as he can swallow.
When it proceeds from extreme cold, the part affected should be immersed in cold water, or rubbed with snow till they recover their natural warmth.
TO RELIEVE AN APOPLECTIC FIT.
Every method should be taken to lessen the circulation of blood towards the head; the patient should be kept easy and cool, the head raised high, and the feet suffered to hang down. The clothes should be loosened and fresh air admitted into the room, and medical assistance procured immediately for bleeding.
Apoplexy is preceded by giddiness, pain, and swimming of the head, loss of memory, &c. and on the symptoms appearing, bleeding, slender diet, and opening medicines are advisable, and often act as preventives.
TO EASE OR CURE HEAD-ACHES.
Most head-aches arise from imperfect digestion, either from acidity, or from accumulations of bile. The first cause may be removed by half a tea-spoonful of carbonate of soda, or by a dessert spoonful of magnesia, in a small tumbler of water. But if the cause is bilious, then two or three antibilious pills, or a pill of from two to five grains of calomel, is the best remedy, and this may be assisted in its operation by half an ounce of salts in a large tumbler of water, in the morning. Washing the head with cold water, is always salutary in habitual head-aches, particularly at rising in the mornings.
FOR CANCER.
One part of red lead, in fine powder, and two parts of hog’s-lard.—Spread on lint, and dress the sore twice a day.
FOR THE GRAVEL.
Three drams of prepared natron (which may be obtained for three-pence) in a quart of soft cold water, and take half of it in the course of the day; continue it for a few days, and the complaint will subside. It may be taken at any hour, but it is best after a meal.
FOR A COLD AND COUGH.
A large tea-cupful of linseed, two pennyworth of stick-liquorice, and a quarter of a pound of sun raisins, put to two quarts of soft water, and simmered over a slow fire, till reduced one-third or more; add thereto a quarter of a pound of sugar-candy pounded, a table-spoonful of old rum, and a table-spoonful of white wine vinegar, or lemon-juice. Note—the rum and vinegar should be added only to the quantity which is about to be taken immediately. Drink half a pint at going to bed, or a small quantity at any time when the cough is troublesome.
FOR A CONSTITUTIONAL OR WINTER COUGH, BY SIR WILLIAM KNIGHTON, BART.
Take of almond emulsion, 7½ ounces; syrup of white poppies, oxymel of squills, of each two drams; compound powder of gum tragacanth, one dram. Two table-spoonsful to be taken frequently.
FOR A SORE THROAT.
Inhale the steam of hot vinegar, through the spout of a tea-pot, or a funnel, for about half an hour just before you go to bed:—also two or three times in the course of the day, and keep at home. A piece of flannel dipped in hartshorn will be serviceable, applied when going to bed. In a relaxed sore throat, a few lumps of sugar dipped in brandy, and gradually dissolved in the mouth, will be very efficacious.
FOR A COLD.
Bathe the legs and feet in warm water at night, and take, going into bed, a drink of hot whey, with 4 grains of nitre.
If a sore throat, tie round it three or four folds of flannel sprinkled with spirits.
BATHING THE FEET AND LEGS IN WARM WATER AT NIGHT.
This is an excellent remedy in all cases of colds, coughs, hoarseness, pains and head-aches; for in the above-mentioned complaints, inflammation, or undue determination of blood to the part affected, is present. After this operation the patient should instantly go to bed.
TO CLEAN THE TEETH AND GUMS, AND MAKE THE FLESH GROW CLOSE TO THE ROOT OF THE ENAMEL.
One ounce of myrrh, in fine powder, two spoonsful of the best honey, and a little sage, in fine powder, mixed together, with which rub the teeth and gums night and morning.
A PRESERVATIVE FROM THE TOOTH-ACHE.
After having washed your mouth with water, rinse the mouth with a tea-spoonful of lavender water mixed with an equal quantity of warm or cold water, to diminish its activity.
Another.
To a table-spoonful of any spirit, and the same quantity of vinegar, add a tea-spoonful of salt. When mixed, hold the liquid in your mouth, so as to enter the cavity of the tooth.
WARTS AND CORNS.
Red spurge destroys warts and corns.
WARTS.
Cut an apple, and rub it for a few minutes over the wart; the juice of the apple will loosen the wart, and in a few days it will drop off. Any strong acid, either vegetable or mineral, has the same tendency.
CORNS.
Mr. Cooper, in his Dictionary of Surgery, gives the following recipe as infallible for the cure of corns:—Take two ounces of gum ammoniac, two ounces of yellow wax, six drams of verdigris, melt them together, and spread the composition on a piece of soft leather or linen; cut away as much of the corn as you can with a knife before you apply the plaster, which must be renewed in a fortnight, if the corn is not by that time gone.
FOR BURNS OR SCALDS.
When the blisters are open, dress them with a simple white ointment spread thinly on the smooth side of lint, the first day, and every day after sprinkle a little powder of prepared chalk, and dress it as before. To alleviate the immediate pain, apply any quick evaporating fluid, as æther, spirits of wine, or brandy; or better than all, if at hand, spirits of turpentine, or rags dipped in vinegar and water, and often renewed.
Another.
Rub the part burnt every two or three hours with spirits of turpentine, or with vinegar if the skin be not broken, or vinegar and cold water. Half a pound of alum dissolved in a quart of water, likewise makes an admirable wash for a burn or scald; bathe the part with a linen rag dipped in the mixture, then bind the rag upon it with a slip of linen, and keep it moist with the alum water for two or three days, without removing the bandage.
TO EXTINGUISH FIRE WHICH MAY HAVE CAUGHT THE CLOTHES.
The mischief which arises from this accident is owing to the party standing in an erect position, because flame ascends, and feeds and accumulates in intensity during its ascent. The first remedy is, therefore, to lay the child or other person on the floor, in which position the flames will not only make no progress, but will do little or no harm to the person. The fatal consequences of this accident arise from the ascent of the flame to the throat, head, and sensitive organs, an effect which cannot take place if the body is instantly placed in an horizontal position. Sir Richard Phillips, who first promulgated this treatment, proved its efficacy by taking two strips of muslin, a yard long, and one of them, which was set on fire at the end, and held perpendicularly, burnt out with an intense flame in less than half a minute; but the other piece, laid hollow and horizontally, on being set on fire at the end, burnt even with difficulty, and twenty minutes elapsed before it was entirely consumed; the flame at the same time being inconsiderable and harmless.
After the person on fire has been laid horizontally, the best method of extinguishing the fire, is an immediate covering of any kind, and when every spark has been extinguished, spirits and water, or vinegar and water, should be applied to affected parts till the pain is removed. Adult females, whose clothes take fire, should have the presence of mind instantly to throw themselves on the floor, and in that case, no serious injury can ever arise, and if this precaution were generally known, many families would have been relieved from the unavailing affliction of the loss of dear connexions, and from the heart-rending scenes which, under other circumstances, they have been fated to witness.
FOR A BRUISED EYE.
Take conserve of red roses and rotten apple in equal quantities, wrap them in a fold of thin cambric, or old linen, and apply it to the eye; it will relieve the bruise and remove the blackness.
FOR A SPRAINED ANCLE OR WRIST.
Foment it with warm vinegar for five minutes every four hours, wet it afterwards with rectified spirit of wine, and rub it gently. Sit with the foot on a low stool, and occasionally rest upon the ancle, and move it gently backwards and forwards.
OXALIC ACID.
A heaped table-spoonful of magnesia, mixed in a middling sized tumbler of water, and drank immediately after oxalic acid has been swallowed, will save life.
FOR THE BITE OF A MAD DOG.
Take a spoonful of common salt, add as much water as will make it damp; apply it like a poultice every six hours, and it will be sure to stop the hydrophobia.
REMEDY FOR A WASP’S STING.
Over the spot where the sting has entered, apply the pipe of a key, press it for a minute or two, and the pain and swelling will disappear.
TO AVOID INJURY FROM BEES.
A wasp or bee swallowed, may be killed before it can do harm, by taking a tea-spoonful of common salt dissolved in water. It kills the insect and cures the sting. Salt, at all times, is the best cure for external stings; sweet oil, pounded mallows, or onions, or powdered chalk made into a paste with water, are also efficacious.
If bees swarm upon the head, smoke tobacco, and hold a empty hive over the head, and they will go into it.
FOR THE POISON OF THE ADDER.
Olive oil is an absolute specific for the bite (or sting, as it is erroneously called,) of the adder; the oil should be well rubbed upon the part bitten: in case of violent symptoms a glass or two should be taken inwardly. If olive oil is not at hand, common sweet oil will answer the purpose.
METHOD OF RESTORING LIFE TO THE APPARENTLY DROWNED.
Avoid all rough usage. Do not hold up the body by the feet, or roll it on casks, or rub it with salt, or spirits, or apply tobacco. Lose not a moment, carry the body, the head and shoulders raised, to the nearest house. Place it in a warm room. Let it be instantly stripped, dried, and wrapped in hot blankets, which are to be renewed when necessary. Keep the mouth, nostrils, and the throat free and clean. Apply warm substances to the back, spine, pit of the stomach, arm pits, and soles of the feet. Rub the body with heated flannel, or warm hands.—Attempt to restore breathing, by gently blowing with bellows into one nostril closing the mouth and the other nostril. Keep up the application of heat. Press down the breast carefully with both hands, and then let it rise again, and thus imitate natural breathing. Continue the rubbing, and increase it when life appears, and then give a tea-spoonful of warm water, or of very weak wine or spirits and warm water. Persevere for six hours. Send quickly for medical assistance.
THE LAND STEWARD AND BAILIFF.
To form a complete land steward, it is requisite that theory and practice should be combined. By consulting books we profit by the experience of other men, enlarge our own sphere of thinking, and add more, perhaps, to our stock of knowledge in a short space of time, than could be acquired by long and laborious practice. No land steward or even ordinary farmer should be without Young’s Farmer’s Calendar, the last edition of which, improved by Middleton, contains a body of valuable information; but Mr. Lawrence on this subject, with great propriety, recommends the reading of Tull and Miller, as the great originals on tillage; Ellis on sheep and other live stock; and the Surveys of the several Counties of the Kingdom, made, and published by the Board of Agriculture.
To these, for a further knowledge in the treatment of live stock, may be recommended a perusal of our best veterinary treatises. We must also recommend Sir John Sinclair’s Code of Agriculture, as a companion to Middleton’s edition of Young’s Calendar, and these, with Mackenzie’s Receipt Book, ought to be the standing literary furniture of every steward’s room.
The land steward should never undertake more business than he can faithfully and properly execute, and therefore should have no other occupation or profession to attend; the mere collecting of rents and giving discharges being the least considerable part of his duty.
On his first entering into office, he should make a general survey of all the estates and property entrusted to his care:—he should also form an inventory, and open a set of books on a clear and perspicuous plan, if not already done by his predecessor, taking care to enter in them a correct list of all the books, writings, deeds, schedules, court-rolls, &c. From this survey, whether left by his predecessor, or taken by himself, regular memorandums should be made in a book, of every thing necessary to be remarked or executed, of the places where deficiencies are found, or improvements may be made; of buildings and repairs necessary; insurances, dates of leases, rates, nuisances, trespasses, live and dead stock, game, timber, fencing, draining, paths, and roads, culture, commons, rivers, and sea coasts, and of every other specific article relative to his trust, which deserves attention, and therefore ought not to be committed to loose papers, or left to memory.
He should endeavour to gain a practical knowledge of the characters and conduct of inferior servants, taking nothing upon trust; but observing with his own eyes their performances early and late. A faithful steward will lose no time in detecting the peculations, and counteracting the combinations among those servants who are under his controul, which may be prejudicial to the estate of his principal; and of replacing them with servants of fair character, to whom ample wages should be allowed; and the job work, or more profitable kinds of labour, should be impartially dealt out to them, that so, all may be equally benefited, and equally satisfied.
Every farm, when surveyed, should be correctly described in a map, of which the tenant should have a copy. A Terrier should also be kept of the commonfield-lands, for the satisfaction of the tenant as well as the lord, and where the bounds of any parcel of land are dubious, they should be fixed, and properly marked out, by a jury impannelled at the manor court. The boundaries of the parish and precincts should also be ascertained, and the particular property of the lord kept entire, by the annual custom of perambulation on Holy Thursday, and its concomitant ceremonies. The steward should frequently ride round and make an eye survey of the estates, in order to obviate any disputes,—to prevent encroachments, and to afford timely advice and assistance if necessary. He should see that all repairs are duly and substantially performed according to covenant, ditches cast and scoured, water courses kept free, common rights fairly enjoyed, according to the custom of the manor, the commons not overstocked by one, in prejudice to others, observe that the underwood be cut at the stated periods, that the trees are properly lopped and topped without damage to the lord, that the wood-wards do watch and report all trespasses by cattle and otherwise, and to discourage poaching and the destruction of game, by all fair, moderate, and rational means.
The tenants should not be suffered to let their lands be over-run by moles—nor the commons and woodlands by swine unrung.
The strictest caution should be used to prevent all the produce of the estates, that is fit for manure or other useful purposes, from being alienated or carried off.
An eye ought always to be kept on the surveyor of the highways of the neighbouring parishes, to see that no nuisance exists, or bridge or highway be neglected.
Trespasses from stray cattle ought to be prevented, and if necessary punished, as well as the depredations of dogs, which often do much injury to the farmer.
It behoves the steward to support, and cause to be recognized, all the ancient manorial rights and privileges that are usually respected.
Heriots accruing from copyhold estates, ought not to be taken in kind, but a moderate fine should be levied in lieu thereof.
Encouragement should be given to improvements in cultivation. The best heads of cattle should be introduced, and any successful mode of culture recommended among the tenantry. They should also be stimulated to plant fruit-trees, as means of adding to the produce without encumbering the land.
The transactions of the steward should always be pure, incorruptible, and free even from suspicion. He ought not to sell preference, either for money or for any indirect consideration, such concession to him being in effect a robbery on the tenant, or on his employer, who is entitled to all the advantages which can accrue from his estate. If a sum of money is covertly given for preference in a lease, then the lease is worth so much more, and the proprietor is defrauded of the difference. Nothing can be more pernicious to an estate than such underhand transactions. Modest industry and merit are thereby subverted by the audacity of knaves, and the steward, from the moment he has thus sold himself becomes a dependent on the honour of the parties. Preference given to kin ought also to be avoided, and every nobleman and gentleman is justified in being jealous of the introduction of his steward’s kindred upon his estate, often to the great prejudice of his old and attached tenants.
Many stewards become the tyrants of their vicinity by an impertinent interference with the domestic economy of the families of the tenants, presuming to prescribe in regard to their dress, habits, and amusements, seeming thereby to consider them as vassals, instead of freemen, to whose industry their landlord is indebted for his ease and luxury. With these affairs the steward has no concern, and every farmer and his family should be left to their own discretion in such particulars, if they pay with regularity the average rent of their vicinity, and do not manifestly deteriorate the estate; they are, and ought to be, in all their domestic and personal concerns, and also in their opinions, religious and political, as independent of the steward, or of his employer, as these parties are of them. His interference has, in truth, tended to retard the civilization of the agricultural classes, and, in many districts, placed them one or two centuries behind the inhabitants of towns. The steward, therefore, who forbears to meddle with what does not properly concern him, will enjoy the love of tenantry, and that affection will always best promote the interest of his employers.
Whilst the steward is not unmindful of every possible improvement, he should keep in view every appearance of the existence of minerals or metals, that so the needful essays or experiments may be made under the superintendance of persons of experience and fidelity. Proximity to the sea coast, navigable rivers, canals, or great towns, will much enhance the value of such discoveries.
Every opportunity should be embraced of letting land on building leases, as a means of greatly improving the value of estates; the fitness by means of water and roads for the establishment of a manufactory, or a village, or, by being near the sea coast, for a fishery, are objects too important to be overlooked by a faithful and intelligent agent.
It has already been remarked, that the land steward should not be engaged in any business that would detract from that attention which is required in the faithful discharge of the duties of his office; and even in performing those engagements, he should occasionally be assisted, in cases of importance, where he may consider his own knowledge not sufficient, by an able professional adviser. He will most require this aid in the making of leases, deeds, agreements, and other legal instruments.
The balance of cash, which may often be considerable, ought not be allowed to lie idle in the house. All money is part of the vital blood of society, and should be kept in circulation. This may be effected either by lodging it at a country bank, where moderate interest will be allowed for it, or by discounting the notes of respectable tenants, who, at certain turns of the season, are often in want of ready money, and their notes will, in many cases, serve as cash payments for other purposes, or they may be made to fall due at periods when cash will be wanted, while it will thus be accumulating at five per cent. No risk need be incurred in such transactions, while the accommodation would add much to the prosperity of the estate. If the steward reside in London, spare cash may, in like manner, be employed at a full rate of interest, by discounting such good bills as are always to be met with at the principal brokers in and about Lombard Street; and these bills will be received by the bankers as they arrive at maturity. By this means 3 or 4 per cent may always be added to the income of a nobleman or gentleman, or sufficient to pay the wages of all the servants.
In the business of accounts, the first objects are, arrangement, perspicuity, and security. In all accounts of property, there are certain general rules which must be attended to, the chief of which are the following: 1st. Trust as little as possible to memory, but make memorandums of payments, receipts, bargains, agreements, &c. on the instant. 2d. Pay no money without receiving a proper discharge. 3d. Give up no security, lease, agreement, or other valuable property, without taking in return a written acknowledgement. 4th. Let all contingent, undecided, or uncertain transactions be forthwith entered, with every necessary remark, voucher, and reference. 5th. Post all the various transactions under their proper heads as soon as possible. 6th. Fold, label, date, and class all papers, the most valuable of which are to be deposited at the end of every year, in a secure place, with the date on the outside. Perhaps the two principal books necessary to be kept, are a day-book or journal, and a ledger, with two other books, to be called the memorandum-book, and general inventory. A portable pocket memorandum-book will also be found to be convenient. Every servant in trust under the land steward ought to be provided with an account book appropriately ruled: this book should be examined and passed monthly by the steward and an abstract of it transcribed into his journal.
FORM OF THE JOURNAL.
Journal belonging to the Right Hon. Lord Viscount A.
X. Y. Steward. 1825.
| Dr. | Cash | Cr. | ||||||
| Date 1825. | Fol. in Ledger | £ | s. | d. | £ | s. | d. | |
| Jan. 6 | Agreed this day with R. P. to accept as a compensation for a Heriot, due on the death of his father, £30. | |||||||
| 17 | Recd. of C. L. for half year’s rent, due at Christmas last | 25 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| 21 | Recd. of S. R. for one year’s rent in full, to do. | 75 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| 31 | Paid the following persons their bills:— | |||||||
| T. M. saddler, as pr. bill to Xmas. | 22 | 5 | 0 | |||||
| W. R. Smith do. do. | 29 | 6 | 0 | |||||
| —– | —– | —– | —– | —– | —– | |||
| 100 | 0 | 0 | 51 | 11 | 0 | |||
| 51 | 11 | 0 | ||||||
| —– | —– | —– | ||||||
| Balance this month. | £48 | 9 | 0 | |||||
The journal, spoken of, should be kept as a book of reference for every transaction that occurs, and which is to be entered daily, precisely as it occurs; and if it be afterwards found necessary, is to be entered in the ledger as a distinct and separate account—from all others. This journal will, of course, include every cash transaction, and save the trouble of keeping a separate cash-book. The cash account may be posted regularly in the ledger, under a general head, bearing that title.
In the ledger will, of course, be opened an account with every tenant, and as a consequence with Dr. and Cr.; also an account Dr. and Cr. of every article, the increase, decrease, and actual state of which, it is necessary to ascertain with precision.
The memorandum ledger being paged, and having an alphabet, is for the purpose of containing the head title of every memorandum of consequence, and pointing out the page, in the journal, where the particulars are to be found. This ought to be examined frequently, and the items that are become useless, marked out; those remaining unmarked, should, if numerous, be carried forward. The regular, or occasional deposits of leases, deeds, and other documents of importance, are invariably to be pointed out by a memorandum, as it may be of great import to successors and survivors.
From these original sources, transcripts may be made in any form required, for the use of the principal or lord. An account current of cash received and paid should be made out annually, half-yearly, or otherwise, to be examined, passed, and signed by the principal.
THE HOUSE STEWARD.
This is the most important officer in domestic establishments, and is seldom adopted except in the families of noblemen or gentlemen of great fortunes, by whom he is appointed as their locum tenens, not only to superintend such necessary business as, from their rank and condition, or other circumstances, they cannot undertake, but also to control and manage, generally, all the most important concerns of the household. It follows, therefore, that he ought to be a man of great experience in household affairs, steady and attentive in his conduct, and of approved principles and integrity. His character must be irreproachable and exemplary, that he may be regarded with confidence and satisfaction by his employers, and respected by those around him.
His chief business will be to hire, manage, and direct, and discharge every servant of every denomination. To appropriate to every domestic his proper and express business, and to see that it be done accordingly. He ought to make it a point never to take a servant without strict enquiry as to his moral character, orderly conduct, and abilities for his situation, nor ought he to withhold a fair character from any servant he discharges.
The House Steward, by the suavity of his manners, and equable deportment, has it in his power to sustain the reputation of his master in high estimation, and to make his whole household comfortable and happy.
For further hints respecting servants we refer to the Address to the Mistresses of Families, in the dedication, p. 10, 11, and 12; and to those given to the Housekeeper, p. 52, 53, and 54.
Ability to provide for the family in the best manner, is another qualification indispensably necessary in the House Steward. He is expected to be a competent judge of the nature and qualities of provisions, their comparative values, the best seasons for purchasing the several articles, and the cheapest and most economical markets or places to attend. The best way to go to market is with ready money; or to deal with tradesmen of probity, and to settle their accounts early and at regular and stated periods, but never to disappoint them, at the expected times, which makes his custom nearly equivalent to cash, and he will consequently be served with the best articles and on the lowest terms. A conscientious and honest discharge of his duty in this respect, will tend greatly to the satisfaction of his employers, and redound to his own credit. Other hints on the subject will be found under the head Housekeeper, p. 54 and 55; and directions for marketing, which may afford some hints, even to an expert and an adroit practitioner, may be found p. 75 to 88.
The abilities of the House Steward, as an accountant, are not required to be very considerable. He is merely to keep an account of monies received by him, on one page, and of monies paid or disbursed by him, on the opposite page; and these two pages being cast up, and the amount of one side being deducted from the amount of the other, will, if the account has been correctly kept, shew at once the exact balance, belonging to his employer, remaining in his hands. It will be the business of the housekeeper to examine, weigh, and compare the several articles, as they are brought in, with the tickets sent with them by the respective tradesmen, and these tickets, so examined and signed, will enable the Steward to check the tradesmen’s bills when brought in, previously to their being paid. An upright and trust-worthy Steward will discharge this part of his duty, as well as every other, with zeal, fidelity, impartiality, and integrity; bearing for ever on his mind this pleasing truth, that, “every man’s station is honourable or otherwise, as his own conduct makes it.”
Salary from 100l. to 250l. and upwards.
THE STEWARD’S ROOM BOY.
There is seldom a lad of this description kept, except in families where there is a house steward, or comptroller of the household, when the servant is appointed to attend on him, run on errands, carry messages, &c. He waits at table, or makes himself otherwise useful in the steward’s-room; trims the lamps that are in use below stairs, and cleans the servants’ boots and shoes. Wages from 8l. to 12l. per annum.
THE BUTLER.
At first rising, it is the duty of the Butler, where no valet is kept, to manage and arrange his master’s clothes, and carry them to his dressing-room, his boots and shoes being cleaned by the footman or under butler.
It is his proper business to see that the breakfast is duly set, the under butler or footman carrying up the tea urn, and the butler the eatables; he, or the under butler waiting during breakfast.19 On taking away, he removes the tea-tray, and the under butler or footman the urn, cloth, &c.
The breakfast things being taken away, and the plate, &c. cleaned and put away under his directions, the Butler then gets his own breakfast with the housekeeper, unless the servants all breakfast together at an earlier hour.
If no valet is kept, he then attends in his master’s dressing-room, sets it in order, carries down his clothes to be brushed by the under butler or footman, and attends to every thing connected with his master’s clothes, linen, &c. or sees that what is wanted is done by others.
He now cleans himself to attend company or visitors at the door, which he is to answer, receive cards, deliver messages, &c.
At luncheon time, the cloth being laid by the under butler or footman, it is the duty of the Butler to carry in the tray, or arrange the table, and when there is company, he waits in the room assisted by the other servants.
If wine is wanted for the luncheon, it is his duty to fetch it from the cellar; and if ale, to draw or bring it up when wanted.
The keys of the wine and ale cellars are specially kept by him, and the management of the wine, the keeping the stock book, and also of ale in stock, or in brewing, are in his particular charge. This duty he generally performs in the morning before he is drest to receive company, and he then brings out such wine as is wanted for the day’s use. It is his duty to fine wine as it comes in the pipe, and to superintend the bottling, sealing it himself, and disposing it in binns so as to know its age and character. While these duties and those of brewing are in hand, he leaves the parlour and waiting duties to the under butler and footman.
Where no steward is kept, he pays all bills for wine, spirits, ale, malt, coals, and in general, all bills not in the housekeeper’s or kitchen department. Sometimes, also, he pays the other male servants.
At dinner time, the under butler or footman lays the cloth, and carries up the articles wanted, under the direction of the Butler, who gives out the necessary plate, kept by him under lock, and generally in an iron chest.
He sets and displays the dinner on the table, carrying in the first dish, waits at the side-board, hands wine round or when called for; removes every course, and sets and arranges every fresh course on the table according to his bill of fare, which is placed on the side-board for reference; and does not leave the dinner room till the dessert and wine have been placed on the table by him or under his direction.20
It is then his business to see that the plate, glasses, &c. are carried to the pantry, cleaned, and wiped by the under butler and footman, and the whole carefully put in their proper places.
Having taken his own dinner with the other servants out of livery, generally at one o’clock, he gets his tea while the family in the parlour are taking their wine and dessert, and in the mean time, the under butler or footman prepares the tea things for the parlour.
If the bell rings during the dessert, the Butler answers, and does the same for the remainder of the evening.
The under butler is now engaged in cleaning the plate and arranging the pantry.
The tea tray is carried up by the Butler, assisted by the footman; and in waiting at tea, the Butler hands round the cups on the tray, the footman assisting with the eatables. The Butler removes the tea-tray, and the footman the urn, &c. The footman carries in coals, but the Butler manages the candles.
When tea is made below, it is done by the housekeeper, but carried up and handed round by the Butler and footman.
If there is company, the refreshments, wine, ices, &c. are carried up by the Butler, assisted and followed by the footman.
When there is supper, the under Butler or Butler arranges the same, and it is managed like the dinner.
Slippers, dressing gown, night candles, &c. are carried up and disposed by the Butler.
After his master has gone to bed, he goes to his dressing-room, takes down such things as want cleaning or brushing, and gives them to the footman. He then looks over the plate, locks it up, sees that all the men servants are gone to bed, the doors locked, and windows fastened, and then retires to rest himself.
This business is strictly domestic, but he goes out to order things in his department, and he is sometimes employed abroad in any confidential business, to which the under servants are considered unequal.
The wages of regular Butlers, in large families, are from 50 to 80l. per annum; but in smaller families, from 30 to 50l. The perquisites, if he perform the duty of valet, are his master’s cast off clothes; and as Butler, he gets the pieces of wax candles, the second hand cards, compliments on paying tradesman’s bills, or Christmas boxes and wine for his own use. He finds his own clothes, washing, &c. and is expected to be genteel and clean in his person.
In all things connected with the establishment, he is supposed, when no steward is kept, to represent his master; and as various accounts are under his direction, he ought to be able to write a fair hand, and to be ready in the first rules of arithmetic. From this display of his duties, it will appear that his office is no sinecure; and as the good order and economy of an establishment depends much on the vigilance of the Butler, when no steward is kept, so a Butler who knows his duties, and performs them with zeal, integrity, and ability, cannot be too highly prized by judicious heads of families.
To manage foreign Wines.
The principal object to be attended to in the management of foreign wine vaults, is to keep them of a temperate heat. Care must be taken, therefore, to close up every aperture or opening, that there may be no admission given to the external air. The floor of the vault should likewise be well covered with saw-dust, which must not be suffered to get too dry and dusty, but must receive now and then an addition of new, lest, when bottling or racking wine, some of the old dust should fly into it. At most vaults, in the winter, it is necessary to have a stove or chafing-dish, to keep up a proper degree of warmth. In the summer time it will be best to keep them as cool as possible.
To Fit up a Cellar of Wines and Spirits.
Provide a good rope and tackling, to let down the casks into the vault or cellar, and a slide, ladder, or pulley for the casks to slide or roll on;
A pair of strong slings;
A pair of can hooks and a pair of crate hooks;
A block of wood to put under the pipes when topping them over in a narrow passage, or in casing them;
A small valinch to taste wine;
A crane, and a small copper pump to rack off;
Two or three gallon cans, made of wood;
A large wooden funnel;
Two or three copper funnels from a quart to a gallon each;
Two racking cocks;
Two wine bottling cocks;
A brace and various bits;
Two small tubs;
A square basket to hold the corks;
Two small tin funnels;
A small strainer;
Two cork screws;
Two or three baskets;
A wisk to beat the finings;
Three flannel or linen bags;
A strong iron screw to raise the bungs;
A pair of pliers;
Bungs, corks, and vent pegs;
Two frets or middle sized gimblets;
Some sheet lead and tacks to put on broken staves;
Brown paper to put round cocks and under the lead, when stopping leaks;
A staff with a chain at one end to rumage the wines, &c.
Shots and lead canister, or bristle brush, and two cloths to wash bottles;
Two large tubs;
Some small racks that will hold six dozen each;
A cooper’s adze;
An iron and a wooden driver to tighten hoops;
Two dozen of wooden bungs of different sizes;
A thermometer, which is to be kept in the vault, a stove or chafing-dish, to keep the heat of the vault to a known temperature;
A few dozen of delf labels;
A cup-board to hold all the tools;
A spade, two good stiff birch brooms, and a rake to level the saw-dust.
To restore pricked British Wines.
Rack the wines down to the lees into another cask, where the lees of good wines are fresh; then put a pint of strong aqua vitæ, and scrape half a pound of yellow bees-wax into it, which by heating the spirit over a gentle fire, will melt; after which dip a piece of cloth into it, and when a little dry, set it on fire with a brimstone match, put it into the bung-hole, and stop it up close.
Another Method.
First prepare a fresh empty cask, that has had the same kind of wine in it which is about to be racked, then match it, and rack off the wine, putting to every ten gallons two ounces of oyster-shell powder, and half an ounce of bay salt, then get the staff and stir it well about, letting it stand till it is fine, which will be in a few days; after which rack it off into another cask, (previously matched) and if the lees of some wine of the same kind can be got, it will improve it much.—Put likewise a quart of brandy to every ten gallons, and if the cask has been emptied a long time, it will match better on that account; but if even a new cask, the matching must not be omitted. A fresh empty cask is to be preferred.
This method will answer for all made wines.
To rack Foreign Wine.
The vault or cellar should be of a temperate heat, and the casks sweet and clean. Should they have an acid or musty smell, it may be remedied by burning brimstone matches in them; and if not clean, rinse them well out with cold water, and after draining rinse with a quart of brandy, putting the brandy afterwards into the ullage cask. Then strain the lees or bottoms through a flannel or linen bag. But put the bottoms of port into the ullage cask without going through the filtering bag. In racking wine that is not on the stillage, a wine-pump is desirable.
To manage and improve poor Red Port.
If wanting in body, colour, and flavour, draw out thirty or forty gallons, and return the same quantity of young and rich wines. To a can of which put three gills of colouring, with a bottle of wine or brandy. Then wisk it well together, and put it into the cask stirring it well. If not bright in about a week or ten days, fine it for use; previous to which put in at different times a gallon of good brandy. If the wine is short of body, put a gallon or two of brandy in each pipe, by a quart or two at a time, as it feeds the wine better than putting it in all at once. But if the wines are in a bonded cellar, procure a funnel that will go to the bottom of the cask, that the brandy may be completely incorporated with the wine.
To manage Claret.
Claret is not a wine of a strong body, though it requires to be of a good age before it is used, and, therefore, it should be well managed; the best method is to feed it every two or three weeks with a pint or two of French brandy. Taste it frequently, to know what state it is in, and use the brandy accordingly, but never put much in at a time, while a little incorporates with the wine, and feeds and mellows it.
If the claret is faint, rack it into a fresh-emptied hogshead, upon the lees of good claret; and bung it up, putting the bottom downwards for two or three days, that the lees may run through it.
To colour Claret.
If the colour be not yet perfect, rack it off again into a hogshead that has been newly drawn off, with the lees; then take a pound of turnsole, and put it into a gallon or two of wine; let it lie a day or two, and then put it into the vessel; after which lay the bung downwards for a night, and the next day roll it about.
Or, take any quantity of damsons or black sloes, and strew them with some of the deepest coloured wine and as much sugar as will make it into a syrup. A pint of this will colour a hogshead of claret. It is also good for red port wines, and may be kept ready for use in glass bottles.
To restore Claret that drinks foul.
Rack it off from the dregs on some fresh lees of its own kind, and then take a dozen of new pippins, pare them, and take away the cores or hearts: then put them in the hogsheads, and if that is not sufficient, take a handful of the oak of Jerusalem, and bruise it; then put it into the wine, and stir it well.
To make Claret and Port rough.
Put in a quart of claret or port two quarts of sloes; bake them in a gentle oven, or over a fire, till a good part of their moisture is stewed out, then pour off the liquor, and squeeze out the rest. A pint of this will be sufficient for 30 or 40 gallons.
TO RECOVER PRICKED FOREIGN WINES.
Take a bottle of red port that is pricked, add to it half an ounce of tartarised spirit of wine, shake the liquor well together, and set it by for a few days, and it will be found much altered for the better. If this operation be dexterously performed, pricked wines may be absolutely recovered by it, and remain saleable for some time; and the same method may be used to malt liquors just turned sour.
To manage Hermitage and Burgundy.
Red hermitage must be managed in the same way as claret, and the white likewise, except the colouring, which it does not require. Burgundy should be managed in the same manner as red hermitage.
To manage Lisbon Wine.
If the Lisbon is dry, take out of the pipe thirty-five or forty gallons, and put in the same quantity of calcavella, stir it well about, and this will make a pipe of good mild Lisbon: or, if it be desired to convert mild into dry, take the same quantity out as above mentioned, before, and fill the pipe with Malaga sherry, stirring it about as the other. The same kind of fining used for Vidonia will answer for Lisbon wines; or it may be fined with the whites and shells of sixteen eggs, and a small handful of salt; beat it together to a froth, and mix it with a little of the wines; then pour it into the pipe, stir it about, and let it have vent for three days; after which bung it up, and in a few days it will be fine. Lisbon when bottled should be packed either in saw-dust or leather in a temperate place.
To manage Bucellas Wine.
In fining it, proceed in the same way as with the Madeira; only observe, that if not wanted very pale, keep the milk out of the finings. This tender wine should be fed with a little brandy, for if kept in a place that is either too hot or too cold, it will be in danger of turning foul.
To improve Sherry.
If the sherry be new and hot, rack it off into a sweet cask, add five gallons of mellow Lisbon, which will take off the hot taste, then give it a head, take a quart of honey, mix it with a can of wine, and put it into the cask when racking. By this method, Sherry for present use will be greatly improved, having much the same effect upon it as age.
To improve White Wines.
If the wine have an unpleasant taste, rack off one half; and to the remainder add a gallon of new milk, a handful of bay-salt, and as much rice; after which take a staff, beat them well together for half an hour, and fill up the cask, and when rolled well about, stillage it, and in a few days it will be much improved.
If the white wine is foul and has lost its colour, for a but or pipe take a gallon of new milk, put it into the cask, and stir it well about with a staff; and when it has settled, put in three ounces of isinglass made into a jelly, with a quarter of a pound of loaf sugar scraped fine, and stir it well about. On the day following, bung it up, and in a few days it will be fine and have a good colour.
TO IMPROVE WINE BY CHALK.
Add a little chalk to the must, when it is somewhat sour; for the acidity arising from citric and tartaric acids, there is thus formed a precipitate of citrate and tartrate of lime, while the must becomes sweeter, and yields a much finer wine. Too much chalk may render the wine insipid, since it is proper to leave a little excess of acid in the must. Concentrate the must by boiling, and add the proper quantity of chalk to the liquor, while it is still hot. Even acid wine may be benefited by the addition of chalk. Oyster-shells may be used with this view; and when calcined are a cleaner carbonate of lime than common chalk.
To Renovate Sick Wine.
Wines on the fret should be racked; if their own lees indicates decay they should be racked on the sound lees of another wine of similar, but stronger quality, to protract their decline; if this be done at an early period, it may renovate the sick wine; on these occasions, giving the sick wine a cooler place, will retard its progress to acidity; if convenient, such wines should be forced and bottled. Previous to bottling, or rather at the forcing, give it one, two, or three table-spoonsful of calcined gypsum finely pulverised. This will check its tendency to acidity, without exciting much intumescence, without injuring the colour of the red wine, and without retarding its coating to the bottle, which it rather promotes. The proper forcing for red wines are, the whites of ten or twelve eggs, beat up with one or two tea-spoonsful of salt per hogshead, and well worked into the wine with a forcing-rod; the gypsum should be first boiled in a little water. This is intended to check the acetous process. To retard the vinous, the French are in the habit of burning sulphur immediately under the cask, and possibly the sulphuric acid evolved by the combustion, may check its progress and prevent the necessity of an admixture.
To Mellow Wine.
Cover the orifices of the vessels containing it with bladders closely fastened instead of the usual materials, and an aqueous exhalation will pass through the bladder, leaving some fine crystallizations on the surface of the wine, which, when skimmed off, leaves the wine in a highly improved state of flavour. Remnants of wine covered in this manner, whether in bottles or casks, will not turn mouldy, as when stopped in the usual way, but will be improved instead of being deteriorated.
German method of restoring sour Wines.
Put a small quantity of powdered charcoal in the wine: shake it, and after it has remained still for forty-eight hours, decant steadily.
To Concentrate Wines by Cold.
If any kind of wine be exposed to a sufficient degree of cold in frosty weather, or be put into any place where ice continues all the year, as in ice-houses, and there suffered to freeze, the superfluous water contained in the wine will be frozen into ice, and will leave the proper and truly essential part of the wine unfrozen, unless the degree of cold should be very intense, or the wine but weak and poor. When the frost is moderate, the experiment has no difficulty, because not above a third or fourth part of the superfluous water will be frozen in a whole night; but if the cold be very intense, the best way is, at the end of a few hours, when a tolerable quantity of ice is formed, to pour out the remaining fluid liquor, and set it in another vessel to freeze again by itself.
The frozen part, or ice, consists only of the watery part of the wine, and may be thrown away, and the liquid part retains all the strength, and is to be preserved. This will never grow sour, musty, or mouldy, and may at any time be reduced to wine of the common strength, by adding to it as much water as will make it up to the former quantity.
TO FINE WHITE WINES.
Take an ounce of isinglass, beat it into thin shreds with a hammer, and dissolve it, by boiling in a pint of water; this, when cold, becomes a stiff jelly. Whisk up some of this jelly into a froth with a little of the wine intended to be fined, then stir it well among the rest in the cask, and bung it down tight; by this means it will become bright in eight or ten days.
TO FINE RED WINES.
Take whites of eggs beat up to a froth, and mix in the same manner as in white wines.
Another Method.
Put the shavings of green beech into the vessel, having first taken off all the rind, and boil them for an hour in water to extract their rankness, and afterwards dry them in the sun, or in an oven. A bushel serves for a tun of wine; and being mashed, they serve again and again.
Mortimer recommends to gather the grapes when very dry, pick them from the stalks, press them, and let the juice stand twenty-four hours in a covered vat. Afterwards to draw it off from the gross lees, then put it up in a cask, and to add a pint or quart of strong red or white port to every gallon of juice, and let the whole work, bunging it up close, and letting it stand till January; then bottling it in dry weather.
Bradley chooses to have the liquor when pressed, stand with the husks and stalks in the vat, to ferment for fifteen days.
To fine a hogshead of Claret.
Take the whites and shells of six fresh eggs, and proceed as with port finings. Claret requires to be kept warm in saw-dust when bottled.
To fine Sherry.
Take an ounce and a half of isinglass, beat it with a hammer till it can be pulled into small pieces, then put it into three pints of cider or perry, and let it remain twenty-four hours, till it becomes a jelly. After which mix it with a quart or two of wine, and whisk it well with the whites and shells of six fresh eggs. Take four or five gallons out to make room for the finings, and stir the wine well. Then nearly fill the can of finings with wine, whisk it well, and put it in the butt, stirring it well for about five minutes; afterwards fill it up, and put the bung in loose. In two days bung it up, and in eight or ten it will be fit for bottling.
To fine pale Sherry.
Put three pints of skim-milk with the whites of eight eggs, beat well together in a can; then put in finings, in the same manner as for common sherry. If the sherry be thin and poor, feed them with good brandy, as other wines.
To fine Madeira.
Take three ounces of isinglass, and dissolve it, but if old wine two ounces will be enough, also one quart of skim-milk, and half a pint of marble sand: whisk these in a can with some wine. If the pipe is full, take out a canful, and stir the pipe well; then put in the can of finings, and stir that with a staff for five minutes; after which, put the other can of wine into it, and let it have vent for three days. Then close it up, and in ten days or a fortnight it will be fine and fit for bottling and stowing with saw-dust in a warm place.
To improve Madeira which has been round to the Indies.
Madeira should be kept in a warmer place than port wine, and therefore requires a good body, and to be fed with brandy, but if deficient in flavour or mellowness, add to it a gallon or two of good Malmsey.
To fine Vidonia Wine.
When first imported, Vidonia has a harsh and acid taste; but if properly managed it more resembles Madeira wine than any other. To take off the harshness, fine it down, and then rack it off upon the lees of Madeira or white Port, fining it again with a light fining; and if 20 or 30 gallons of good Madeira wine be added, it will pass for Madeira. For the finings, dissolve two ounces of isinglass, and the whites and shells of six fresh eggs; beat them well up together with a whisk and add a gill of marble sand.
To fine Malmsey and other Wines.
Take 20 fresh eggs, beat the whites, yolks, and shells together, and manage it the same as other finings.—Calcavella, Sweet Mountain, Paxaretta, and Malaga, should be managed and fined in the same manner as Lisbon.—Tent, Muscadine, Sack, and Bastard, should be managed the same as Malmsey, and fined with 16 or 20 fresh eggs, and a quart or three pints of skim-milk. Old Hock, and Vin de Grave, are thin, but pleasant wines, and should be fed with a little good brandy, and fined, if necessary, with the whites and shells of six or eight eggs.
To fine Port Wine.
Take the whites and shells of eight fresh eggs, beat them in a wooden can or pail, with a whisk, till it becomes a thick froth; then add a little wine to it, and whisk it again. If the pipe is full take out four or five gallons of the wine to make room for the finings. If the weather be warmish, add a pint of fresh-water sand to the finings. Stir it well about; after which put in the finings, stirring it for five minutes; put in the can of wine, leaving the bung out for a few hours, that the froth may fall: then bung it up, and in eight or ten days it will be fine and fit for bottling.
To make and apply Finings.
Put the finings into a can or pail, with a little of the liquor about to be fined, whisk them altogether till they are perfectly mixed, and then nearly fill the can with the liquor, whisking it well about again; after which, if the cask be full, take out four or five gallons to make room; then take the staff, and give it a good stirring; next whisk the finings up, and put them in; afterwards stir it with the staff for five minutes. Then drive the bung in, and bore a hole with a gimblet, that it may have vent for three or four days, after which drive in a vent peg.
To convert White Wine into Red.
Put four ounces of turnesole rags into an earthen vessel, and pour upon them a pint of boiling water; cover the vessel close, and leave it to cool; strain off the liquor, which will be of a fine deep red inclining to purple. A small portion of this colours a large quantity of wine. This tincture may either be made in brandy, or mixed with it, or else made into a syrup, with sugar, for keeping.
In those countries which do not produce the tinging grape which affords a blood-red juice, wherewith the wines of France are often stained, in defect of this, the juice of elderberries is used, and sometimes logwood is used at Oporto.
To force down the Finings of all White Wines, Arracks, and Small Spirits.
Put a few quarts of skimmed milk into the cask.
To render Red Wine White.
If a few quarts of well-skimmed milk be put to a hogshead of red wine, it will soon precipitate the greater part of the colour, and leave the whole nearly white; and this is of known use in the turning red wines, when pricked, into white; in which a small degree of acidity is not so much perceived.
Milk is, from this quality of discharging colour from wines, of use also to the wine-coopers, for the whitening of wines that have acquired a brown colour from the cask, or from having been hastily boiled before fermenting; for the addition of a little skimmed milk, in these cases, precipitates the brown colour, and leaves the wines almost limped, or of what they call a water whiteness, which is much coveted abroad in wines as well as in brandies.
To preserve new Wine against Thunder.
Thunder will turn and often change wines. Cellars that are paved, and the walls of stone, are preferable to boarded floors. Before a tempest of thunder, it will be advisable to lay a plate of iron on the wine-vessels.
To make Wine settle well.
Take a pint of wheat, and boil it in a quart of water, till it burst and become soft; then squeeze it through a linen cloth, and put a pint of the liquor into a hogshead of unsettled white wine; stir it well about, and it will become fine.
To make a Match for sweetening Casks.
Melt some brimstone, and dip into it a piece of coarse linen cloth; of which, when cold, take a piece of about an inch broad and five inches long, and set fire to it, putting it into the bung-hole, with one end fastened under the bung, which must be driven in very tight: let it remain a few hours before removing it out.
To make Oyster Powder.
Get some fresh oyster-shells, wash them and scrape off the yellow part from the outside; lay them on a clear fire till they become red hot; then lay them to cool, and take off the softest part, powder it, and sift it through a fine sieve; after which use it immediately, or keep it in bottles well corked up, and laid in a dry place.
To make a Filtering Bag.
This bag is made of a yard of either linen or flannel, not too fine or close, and sloping, so as to have the bottom of it run to a point, and the top as broad as the cloth will allow. It must be well sewed up the side, and the upper part of it folded round a wooden hoop, and well fastened to it; then tie the hoop in three or four places with a cord to support it; and when used, put a can or pail under it to receive the liquor, filling the bag with the sediments; after it has ceased to run, wash out the bag in three or four clear waters, then hang it up to dry in an airy place, that it may not get musty. A wine dealer should always have two bags by him, one for red, and the other for white wines.
To bottle Wine.
When wine is made fine and pleasant, it may be bottled, taking care afterwards to pack it in a temperate place with saw-dust or leather. After which it will not be fit to drink for at least two months. Never use new deal saw-dust, as that causes the wine to fret, and often communicates a strong turpentine smell through the corks to the wine.
To Detect Adulterated Wine.
Heat equal parts of oyster-shells and sulphur together, and keep them in a white heat for fifteen minutes, and when cold, mix them with an equal quantity of cream of tartar; put this mixture into a strong bottle with common water to boil for one hour, and then decant into ounce phials, and add 20 drops of muriatic acid to each; this liquor precipitates the least quantity of lead, copper, &c. from wines in a very sensible black precipitate.
To Detect Alum in Wine.
Wine merchants add alum to red wine, to communicate to it a rough taste and deeper colour; but this mixture produces on the system the most serious effects. For the discovery of the fraud in question, adopt the following means:—The wine is to be discoloured by means of a concentrated solution of chlorine; the mixture is to be evaporated until reduced to nearly the fourth of its original volume; the liquor is to be filtered; it then possesses the following properties when it contains alum:—1st. It has a sweetish astringent taste; 2d. it furnishes a white precipitate (sulphate of barytes) with nitrate of barytes, insoluble in water and in nitric acid; 3d. caustic potass rise to a yellowish white precipitate of alumine, soluble in an excess of potass; 4th. the sub-carbonate of soda produces a yellowish white precipitate (sub-carbonate of alumine) decomposable by fire into carbonic acid gas, alumine, easily recognisable by its characters.
TO BOTTLE BEER.
When the briskness of small liquors in the cask fails, and they become vapid and dead, which they generally do soon after they are tilted, let them be bottled.
TO TRY THE GOODNESS OF SPIRITS.
Set fire to some in a spoon; if good it will burn brightly away, without leaving any moisture in the spoon.
TO COOL LIQUORS IN HOT WEATHER.
Dip a cloth in cold water and wrap it two or three times round the bottle and place it in the sun. Repeat this once or twice.
TO PACK GLASS OR CHINA.
Procure some soft straw or hay to pack them in, and if they are to be sent a long way, and are heavy, the hay or straw should be a little damp, which will prevent them slipping about. Let the largest and heaviest things be always put undermost in the box or hamper. Let there be plenty of straw, and pack the articles tight; but never attempt to pack up glass or china which is of much consequence, till you have seen it done by some used to the job. The expense will be but trifling to have a person to do it who understands it, and the loss may be great if articles of much value are packed up in an improper manner.
TO CLEAN WINE DECANTERS.
Cut some brown paper into very small bits, so as to go with ease into the decanters; then cut a few pieces of soap very small, and put some water, milk-warm, into the decanters, upon the soap and paper: put in also a little pearl ash; by well working this about in the decanters it will take off the crust of the wine, and give the glass a fine polish. Where the decanters have had wine left to stand in them a long time, take a small cane with a bit of sponge tied tight at one end: by putting this into the decanters any crust of the wine may be removed. When the decanters have been properly washed, let them be thoroughly dried, and turned down in a proper rack.
If the decanters have wine in them when put by, have some good corks always at hand to put in instead of stoppers; this will keep the wine much better.
TO DECANT WINE.
Be careful not to shake or disturb the crust when moving it about, or drawing the cork, particularly Port wine. Never decant wine without a wine-strainer, with some fine cambric in it, to prevent the crust, and bits of cork going into the decanter. In decanting Port wine do not drain it too near; there are generally two-thirds of a wine glass of thick dregs in each bottle, which ought not to be put in; but in white wine there is not much settling; pour it out however slowly, and raise the bottle up gradually, the wine should never be decanted in a hurry, therefore always do it before the family sit down to dinner. Do not jostle the decanters against each other when moving them about, as they easily break when full.
TO MIX A SALAD.
Always inquire before you mix a salad, how your master or mistress would like to have it done. If no particular method be pointed out to you, adopt the following, which has been much approved of. Let the salad be well washed and dried in a cloth before you cut it up; save a part of the celery with a little beet-root and endive for ornament in the middle of the dish: cut the rest small as well as the lettuce and mustard and cresses, and put to it the following mixture: take the yolk of an egg boiled hard, rub it quite smooth with a table-spoonful of oil and a little mustard; when they are well mixed together add six spoonsful of milk or cream, and when these are well mixed, put six or seven spoonsful of vinegar to the whole, and mix it all together with the salad. Never make the salad long before it is wanted, as it becomes flat with standing.
TO MAKE PUNCH.
Put 40 grains of citric acid, 7 full drops of essence of lemon, 7 oz. of lump sugar, in a quart mug; pour over 1 pint of boiling water, when the sugar is melted, stir; then add ½ pint of rum, and ¼ pint of brandy.
TO PREPARE SODA WATER.
Soda water is prepared (from powders) precisely in the same manner as ginger beer, except that, instead of the two powders there mentioned, the two following are used: for one glass, 30 grains of carbonate of soda; for the other, 25 grains of tartaric (or citric) acid.
TO MAKE GINGER BEER.
Take an ounce of powdered ginger, half an ounce of cream of tartar, a large lemon sliced, two pounds of lump sugar, and one gallon of water; mix all together, and let it simmer over the fire for half an hour, then put a table-spoonful of yeast to it, let it ferment a little time, and then put it into stone pint bottles, and cork it down closely for use.
TO PREPARE GINGER BEER POWDERS.
Take 2 drams of fine loaf sugar, 8 grains of ginger, and 26 grains of carbonate of potass, all in fine powder; mix them intimately in a Wedgwood’s-ware mortar. Take also 27 grains of citric or tartaric acid, (the first is the pleasantest but the last the cheapest.) The acid is to be kept separate from the mixture. The beer is prepared from the powders thus: take two tumbler glasses, each half filled with water, stir up the compound powder in one of them, and the acid powder in the other, then mix the two liquors, when an effervescence takes place, the beer is prepared and drank off immediately.
METHOD OF PRESERVING PEAS GREEN FOR WINTER.
Put into a kettle of hot water any quantity of fresh shelled green peas, and after just letting them boil up, pour them into a large thick cloth, cover them with another, make them quite dry, and set them once or twice in a cool oven to harden a little; after which put them into paper bags, and hang them up in the kitchen for use.—To prepare them when wanted, they are first to be soaked well for an hour or more, and then put into warm water, and boiled with a little butter.
TO MEND GLASS.
The juice of garlick, pounded in a stone mortar, is said to be the strongest cement to mend broken glass.
TO CONVEY FRESH FISH.
To ensure the sweetness of fish conveyed by land carriage, the belly of the fish should be opened, and the internal parts sprinkled with powdered charcoal. The same material will restore impure or even putrescent water to a state of perfect freshness.
TO PURIFY WATER BY CHARCOAL.
Nothing has been found so effectual for preserving water sweet as charring the insides of the casks well before they are filled. When the water becomes impure and offensive, from ignorance of the preservative effect produced on it by charring the casks previous to their being filled, it may be rendered perfectly sweet by putting a little fresh charcoal in powder into the cask, or by filtering it through fresh burnt and coarsely pulverized charcoal.
TO EXTINGUISH A RECENT FIRE.
A mop and a pail of water are generally the most efficacious remedies, but if it has gained head, then keep out the air, and remove all ascending or perpendicular combustibles, up which the fire creeps and increases in force as it rises.
TO EXTINGUISH FIRE IN A CHIMNEY.
Shut the doors and windows, throw water on the fire in the grate, and then stop up the bottom of the chimney.
Another Method.
The mephitic vapour produced by throwing a handful of flour of sulphur on the burning coals, where a chimney is on fire, will immediately extinguish the flames.
THE VALET.
The duties of this servant are not so various nor so important as those of the footman; indeed, they are very frequently, and particularly in small families, a part of the business of a footman. The particular province of the valet is to attend to the personal accommodation of his master. He waits on him when dressing and undressing, has the care of his wardrobe, brushes and keeps his clothes in good order and ready to put on when wanted. For this purpose every garment or other article of wearing apparel, should be carefully examined, cleaned or brushed on the first opportunity that offers, and then put away in its proper place.
He should chuse the earliest part of the morning to clean the boots and shoes, unless it be otherwise arranged, and brush the clothes, and to do all such work, so as to be able to get to his master’s dressing-room time enough to make the necessary arrangements there before he expects him to rise. He will see that the housemaid has lighted the fire, and cleaned out and dusted the rooms; will prepare the washing-stand, fill the ewer with clean soft water, and the caroft with fresh spring water.—The basin and towels, the hair, nail, and tooth-brushes clean, and in their proper places; hot water, and all the necessary apparatus for shaving, quite ready; his dressing-gown and slippers airing before the fire; and his clean linen perfectly well aired by himself, before it be considered as fit to be put on. The coat, trowsers, &c. intended to be worn must be taken out and placed at length across the backs of chairs, the sleeves and outsides turned inward, with a clean linen or brown Holland wrapper thrown over them, to save them from dust. Having once ascertained the way in which these things are to be done, he will find it easy in future, and will be sure to please. The best way to hang up a coat is, to fold it once at full length, with the inside outward, the sleeves put straight, and the two fronts together, and then hang it on a cloak-pin by the inside of the shoulder.
If the wardrobe be sufficiently large to hold each kind of garment separately, it will be so much the better, as the coats and other articles may then be laid in smoothly and at length, as soon as they are brushed and cleaned, and a brown Holland cloth may be spread over each drawer or shelf, to preserve them from the dust.
Gentlemen who shave themselves, usually strop their own razors immediately after the operation, whilst the metal is yet warm, which is the best way: but if it be left to the valet to do, the razor must be dipped in warm water and wiped dry with a clean cloth or rag; then laying it flat on the strop, draw it diagonally, from the heel to the point, the whole length of the strop, turning the elbow in and out every time the razor is turned; half a dozen or half a score strokes backwards and forwards, as often as it is used, will keep it in good order for a considerable time. Good razors are made concave, or hollow, between the back and the edge, on both sides, for the greater security in shaving, and for the purpose of giving them a better edge in setting or stropping.
Having attended his master while dressing, combed his hair, &c. the valet will take the first opportunity, after he is gone, to set the room in order, by looking over his things, folding away his night clothes, washing the brushes and combs occasionally, when necessary, with warm water and soap, wiping them clean, and drying them at an easy distance from the fire, and then putting them away in their places.—The dressing-stand must be wiped clean and dry, the basin washed and wiped, the ewer and caroft rinsed out and filled again with clean water, the towels taken away and replaced with clean ones, the fire stirred, the room dusted, and every thing put in order, as if immediately to be used again. This must always be done as soon as possible after his master is dressed or re-dressed, and every garment or other article that has been taken off, must be brushed, folded, and put away in its proper place.
In case of the master’s coming home wet from a ride, or otherwise, an immediate change of warm dry clothes must be provided, and the wet or damp things taken away and dried at a proper distance from the fire; after having wiped the coat, or other woollen garments, with a sponge, the way of the nap, or, if only spotted, with a silk handkerchief, in the same manner, which will effectually smooth the grain of the cloth, and remove all the spots.
When preparing for a journey, care should be taken to ascertain the probable time of absence, that sufficient change of linen, &c. may be provided—nor must the shaving and dressing apparatus be forgotten. When arrived at an inn, or visiting place, all his master’s things must be carried into his dressing-room, and set in order for dressing, or for the night, as nearly as possible in the same order as at home. If the footman be not there, the valet will have to attend to his master’s accommodation below stairs also.
The valet is to be always in attendance, in case of his master’s coming home unexpectedly—and he is to assist in waiting at table at all meal-times.
As the valet is much about his master’s person, and has the opportunity of hearing his off-at-hand opinions on many subjects, he should endeavour to have as short a memory as possible, and, above all, keep his master’s council; and he should be very cautious of mischief-making or tale-bearing, to the prejudice of other persons, as calculated to involve his master in disputes, and ruin himself, if by chance he is incorrect.
The usual salary is from 30l. to 60l. per annum, but in some situations much more. Perquisites, his master’s cast-off clothes.
TO CLEAN GOLD LACE.
Rub it with a soft brush dipped in roche alum burnt, sifted to a very fine powder.
TO REMOVE STAINS FROM MOURNING DRESSES.
Boil a good handful of fig-leaves in two quarts of water till reduced to a pint. Bombazine, crape, cloth, &c. need only be rubbed with a sponge dipped in the liquor, and the effect will be instantly produced.
NEW MODE OF SHAVING.
Mix up with the brush, in prepared lather, one tea-spoonful of finely pounded best lump whiting, without the smallest danger to the razor’s edge or the surface of the chin. Perhaps the very best edge may be given to the razor also, by throwing a pinch of whiting on a moderately oiled or soaped strop.
TO CLEAN GILT BUCKLES, CHAINS, &C.
Dip a soft brush in water, rub a little soap on it, and brush the article for a minute or two, then wash it clean, wipe it; place it near the fire till dry, and brush it with burnt bread finely powdered.
TO MANAGE RAZOR STROPS.
Keep them moderately moist with a drop or two of sweet oil; a little crocus martis and a few drops of sweet oil, rubbed well in with a glass bottle, will give the razor a fine edge; pass it afterwards on the inside of your hand when warm, and dip it in hot water just before using.
TO SCOUR CLOTHES, COATS, PELISSES, &C.
If a black, blue, or brown coat, dry 2 ounces of Fuller’s earth, and pour on it sufficient boiling water to dissolve it, and plaster with it the spots of grease; take a pennyworth of bullock’s gall, mix with it half a pint of stale urine; and a little boiling water; with a hard brush, dipped in this liquor, brush spotted places. Then dip the coat in a bucket of cold spring water. When nearly dry, lay the nap right, and pass a drop of oil of olives over the brush to finish it.
If grey, drab, fawns, or maroons, cut yellow soap into thin slices, and pour water upon it to moisten it. Rub the greasy and dirty spots of the coat. Let it dry a little, and then brush it with warm water, repeating, if necessary, as at first, and use water a little hotter; rinse several times, in warm water, and finish as before.
TO CLEAN GLOVES WITHOUT WETTING.
Lay the gloves upon a clean board, make a mixture of dried fulling-earth and powdered alum, and pass them over on each side with a common stiff brush: then sweep it off, and sprinkle them well with dry bran and whiting, and dust them well; this, if they be not exceedingly greasy, will render them quite clean; but if they are much soiled, take out the grease with crumbs of toasted bread, and powder of burnt bone: then pass them over with a woollen cloth, dipped in fulling-earth or alum powder; and in this manner they can be cleaned without wetting, which frequently shrinks and spoils them.
FULLER’S PURIFIER FOR WOOLLEN CLOTHS.
Dry, pulverize, and sift the following ingredients:
6 lbs. of fuller’s earth,
1 lb. of pipe-clay, and
4 oz. of French chalk.
Make a paste of the above with the following:—
1 oz. of rectified oil of turpentine,
2 oz. of spirit of wine, and
1½ lbs. of melted oil soap.
Make up the compound into cakes, which are to be kept in water, or in small wooden boxes.
TO DRIVE AWAY, OR PREVENT THE APPROACH OF MOTHS.
Wrap up yellow or turpentine soap in paper, or place an open bottle, containing spirits of turpentine within the wardrobe. But as the smell of the latter may be unpleasant, sprinkle bay leaves, lavender, or walnut-leaves, black pepper in grains, or Russia leather shavings.
TO REVIVE FADED BLACK CLOTH.
Having cleaned it well, boil two or three ounces of logwood for half a hour. Dip it in warm water and squeeze it dry, then put it into the copper, and boil half an hour. Take it out and add a small piece of green copperas, and boil it another half hour. Hang it in the air for an hour or two, then rinse it in two or three cold waters, dry it and let it be regularly brushed over with a soft brush, over which a drop or two of oil of olives has been rubbed.
TO DRY-CLEAN CLOTH.
Dip a brush in warm gall, apply it to greasy places, and rinse it off in cold water; dry by the fire, then lay the coat flat, strew damp sand over it, and with a brush beat the sand into the cloth; then brush it out with a hard brush, and the sand will bring away the dirt. Rub a drop of oil of olives over a soft brush, to brighten the colours.
TO MAKE BREECHES BALL.
Mix 1 pound of Bath brick, 2 pounds of pipe-clay, 4 ounces of pumice stone powder, and six ounces of ox gall; colour them with rose pink, yellow ochre, umber, Irish slate, &c. to the desired shade.
CLOTHES’ BALL.
Mix 2 pounds of pipe clay, 4 ounces of Fuller’s earth, 4 ounces of whiting, and a quarter of a pint of ox galls.
TO TAKE GREASE OUT OF LEATHER BREECHES.
The white of an egg applied to the injured part, and dried in the sun, will effectually answer this purpose.
Another Method.
To two table spoonsful of spirit of turpentine, put half an ounce of mealy potatoes, add some of the best Durham mustard, with a little vinegar; let them dry, and when well rubbed, the spots will be entirely removed.
TO CLEAN LEATHER.
Take of French yellow ochre, 1 lb.
sweet oil, a dessert spoonful
Mix well together, so that the oil may not be seen: then
take of pipe-clay, 1 lb.
starch, ¼ lb.
Mix with boiling water, when cold, lay it on the leather; and rub and brush it well when dry.
TO MAKE SCOURING BALLS.
Portable balls for removing spots from clothes, may be thus prepared. Fuller’s earth perfectly dried, (so that it crumbles into a powder,) is to be moistened with the clear juice of lemons, and a small quantity of pure pearl-ashes is to be added. Knead the whole carefully together, till it acquires the consistence of a thick elastic paste: form it into convenient small balls, and dry them in the sun. To be used, first moisten the spot on the clothes with water, then rub it with the ball, and let the spot dry in the sun; after having washed it with pure water, the spot will entirely disappear.
TO CLEAN GOLD LACE AND EMBROIDERY.
For this purpose alkaline liquors are not to be used; for while they clean the gold they corrode the silk, and change or discharge its colour. Soap also alters the shade, and even the species of certain colours. But, spirit of wine may be used without any danger of its injuring either colour or quality; and, in many cases, proves as effectual for restoring the lustre of gold, as the corrosive detergents. But, though spirit of wine is the most innocent material employed for this purpose, it is not in all cases proper. The golden covering may be in some parts worn off; or the base metal, with which it has been alloyed, may be corroded by the air, so as to leave the particles of gold disunited; while the silver underneath, tarnished to a yellow hue, may continue a tolerable colour to the whole: so it is apparent that the removal of the tarnish would be prejudicial, and make the lace or embroidery less like gold than it was before.
TO TAKE STAINS OUT OF SCARLET CLOTH.
Take soap wort, bruise it, strain out the juice, and add to it a small quantity of black soap; wash the stains a few times with this liquor, suffering it to dry between whiles, and in a day or two they will disappear.
TO TAKE STAINS OUT OF BLACK CLOTH, SILK, CRAPE, &c.
Boil a large handful of fig-leaves in two quarts of water until reduced to a pint. Squeeze the leaves, and put the liquor into a bottle for use. The articles need only be rubbed with a sponge in the liquor, and the stains will instantly disappear.
THE MAN COOK.
The man Cook, now become a requisite member in the establishment of a man of fashion, is in all respects the same as that of a female Cook. He is generally a foreigner, or if an Englishman, possesses a peculiar tact in manufacturing many fashionable foreign delicacies, or of introducing certain seasonings and flavours in his dishes, which render them more inviting to the palate of his employer, than those produced by the simply healthful modes of modern English Cooks.
The man Cook has the entire superintendance of the kitchen, while his several female assistants are employed in roasting, boiling, and all the ordinary manual operations of the kitchen. His attention is chiefly directed to the stew-pan, in the manufacture of stews, fricassees, fricandeaux, &c. At the same time, his situation is one of great labour and fatigue, which, with the superior skill requisite for excellence in his art, procures him a liberal salary, frequently twice or thrice the sum given to the most experienced female English Cook.
As the scientific preparations of the man cook would themselves fill a large volume, and are not generally useful in English families, it is not deemed necessary to give place to them in this work; but the following useful receipts having, inadvertently, been omitted under the head Cook, they are inserted in this place rather than omitted altogether.
As the art of Cookery, or gourmanderie, is reduced to a regular science in France, where an egg may be cooked half a hundred ways, so those who can afford large families of servants, and give frequent entertainments, consider a man-cook as economical, because he produces an inexhaustible variety without any waste of materials, and that elegance and piquancy of flavours which are necessary to stimulate the appetites of the luxurious. In France, all culinary business is conducted by men, and there are, at least, as many men cooks as considerable kitchens; but in England, men cooks are kept only in about 3 or 400 great and wealthy families, and in about 40 or 50 London hotels. But it is usual in smaller establishments to engage a man cook for a day or two before an entertainment.21
METHOD OF PREPARING AN EAST INDIA CURRY, WITH THE ARTICLES USED THEREIN.
Let the fowl, duck, rabbit, meat, fish, or vegetable, &c. be cut up into small pieces, sprinkling a little flour thereon, fried in butter, (with two middle-sized onions sliced fine,) or what is called drawn in a pan, then stewed in the gravy from a pound of beef (though water is as frequently used) over a brisk fire, for about twenty minutes, with two or three table-spoonsful of the mixture, as below, stirring the whole occasionally; or the powder may be rubbed well over the fowl, &c. and fried with it, adding two ounces of butter, the juice of a fine lemon, or half a wine glass of lemon juice, or lemon pickle,—two cloves of garlic, chopped very fine, and one tea-spoonful of salt. If any of the ingredients predominate too much, or an insufficiency prevail, subtract or add according to taste. For a larger quantify of meat than the weight of a large fowl, use more of the mixture in proportion. The curry will be much improved by the mixture being made into a thin paste with a few spoonsful of cream, and then rubbed over the meat, previously to its being put into the stew-pan.
CURRY POWDER.
Thirteen ounces coriander seed, three ounces cumin seed, two ounces black pepper, four ounces China turmeric, or curcuma root, half an ounce Cayenne pepper, one quarter of an ounce powdered cassia, one quarter of an ounce powdered white ginger, also one half of an ounce of cardamums, one quarter of an ounce of cloves, and one quarter of an ounce of allspice.
The above quantities are enough for twenty curries, but it should be kept dry in a tin canister.
The curried fowl, &c. as above, will require three quarters of a pound of rice to be a sufficiency for curry eaters. The curry and the rice should be served in separate dishes, with covers, the dishes having heaters, or in hot water dishes, such as those used for beef-steaks.
N. B.—Two or three sour apples cut into quarters, as well as a few fresh mushrooms, are great improvements to all curries; as are truffles. If the latter are used, the liquor in which they are boiled should be added to the curry.
MODE OF PREPARING MULGA-TAWNEY, AS AT MADRAS.
Cut up a fowl, duck, rabbit, beef, or mutton, boil the same in two quarts of water for a quarter of an hour; then mix the under-mentioned therein, previously bruising the spices in a mortar, rejecting the husk. For a larger quantity of meat than the weight of a large fowl, use more of the mixture in proportion.
Two table spoons over-filled of the curry powder or ingredients, answers the purpose, and better, adding the butter, onions, garlic, pease-flour, acid, &c.
One quarter of an ounce China turmeric, one sixth of an ounce Cayenne pepper, one ounce and a quarter coriander seed, one third of an ounce of powdered cassia, two drams two scruples black pepper.
One table-spoon of butter; juice from a fine lemon, or equal quantity of lemon-pickle, three middle sized onions cut fine, six cloves of garlic chopped very fine, six tea-spoons of pease-flour, high-dried or baked; then pour thereon half a pint of boiling-water, strain the ingredients through a fine cloth or sieve, then put the same with fowl, &c. over the fire, adding at this time the butter and onions previously fried together, boil the same for half an hour, adding, in the last five minutes, the acid, when the Mulga-tawney will be ready for the table; which eaten as soup and bouilli, mixing rice therein, will prove not only palatable, but an excellent stomachic. The Mulga-tawney, or soup, when done, should be nearly the consistency of cream; if it should prove otherwise, when proceeding as above, more or less water should be used on the onset, but not afterwards added. The soup with the meat to be served in a tureen, and sent to table quite hot; the rice in a dish having hot water below and a cover.
A prejudice may exist against Curry and Mulga-tawney, but there can be no doubt of both being perfectly wholesome; as, to wit, throughout the East Indies, it is the daily food of millions of all ages.
METHOD OF BOILING RICE.
The following is different from that adopted generally in England, but was followed by an old Indian officer when here, and found to answer perfectly well; but the object to be accomplished is, that the rice should be well done, as white as possible, and perfectly free from water: the rice used should be Patna; the Carolina, though much whiter, is not so good either for Curry or Mulga-tawney.
Take a pound of Patna rice, have the same well washed, looking over each grain for small stones, husks, &c. then put the rice into a saucepan, and pour thereon boiling water, put on the cover, and let the saucepan remain off the fire about a quarter of an hour; in that time, if the water was full boiling, the rice will be sufficiently softened for use; pour the water off, and to dry the rice, set it over the fire for a couple of minutes, stirring it well during the time with a fork. Proceeding as above the rice will be as dry and as well cooked as that prepared by the natives in the East Indies; great care to be taken that it does not become hard by the heat.
Another way of boiling the rice is, to soak it an hour in cold water, then put it into a saucepan and cover it with hot water, adding one tea-spoonful of salt to every tea-cup full of rice. Place it over the fire, and when it has boiled about ten minutes, the water should be poured off. Then cover the saucepan close down, and let it stand by the fire for a few minutes, when the rice will become dry, and fit to serve up with your curry.
THE HEAD COACHMAN.
On the sobriety, steady conduct, and respectable appearance of this important servant, depend the exterior appearance of the family with which he resides. Every genuine Coachman has his characteristic costume. His flaxen curls or wig, his low cocked hat, his plush breeches, and his benjamin surtout, his clothes being also well brushed, and the lace and buttons in a state of high polish. Care in driving his horses so as to preserve his own family and not injure other passengers on horse or foot, that he may not involve his master in law-suits, and wound the feelings of those he is driving, is of the utmost consequence. It is his business to have the carriage kept in repair, and to prevent his master being imposed upon by wanton charges; and in like manner to advise and assist in the purchase of horses, and in this delicate business, protect the interest of his employer. Much depends on his zeal, as to the annual expenditure of a carriage, with reference to the coach-maker, the horse-dealer, and the farrier; and he will do well always to make special contract, and leave as little as possible to the conscience of others. When only one coachman is kept, his duties generally include the whole of the stable business, as well as the cleaning, greasing, and examining the carriage; about which latter, he should never trust to chance; and consult the smith or coach-maker as often as he apprehends a possibility of danger. The following instructions apply to the coachman’s duty when assisted by an establishment, but they apply to the coachman alone when there is no stable establishment, and whether the horses are jobbed or not, his anxious attention to their welfare is equally required.
If not fatigued by late hours on the preceding night, he rises to take care of his horses, at the same hour as the other men on the establishment, and they are attended in the same manner, by himself and his assistants, as is hereafter described, under the head Groom.
The necessary morning business of the stable usually occupies the servants till breakfast time, after which they all return to the stable, shake down the litter on each side of the horses, and put the stable in good order, in expectation of their master, who probably, pays them a visit after breakfast to inspect the horses, give orders, or make enquiries.
The helpers and assistants are now busily employed in looking over and cleaning such of the harness as was last used, and remains uncleaned. This, having been washed from the wet dirt, and clean sponged over-night, after the arrival of the carriage, and being now dry, is first brushed with a dry hard brush, and the brass ornaments cleaned, for which purpose see the receipts; or the silver ornaments may be cleaned with finely-powdered charcoal, and polished off with a soft brush.
The ornaments being cleaned, the leathers are to be blacked with the liquid mixture, which is a very valuable and excellent receipt for that purpose; the brushes to be used are, 1, a hard brush for taking off the dirt; 2, a soft brush for laying on the mixture; and 3, a polishing brush.
After breakfast, the coachmen, with their assistants, or each, if more than one, proceed to clean their respective coaches; first, well washing the carriage part and wheels with a mop and a water brush. The back straps and straps of the springs are to be blacked, and in short, all the parts, that are of leather, are to be blacked in the same way as the harness, the brass or other ornaments being first cleaned. The wheels and bed of the carriage are next to be greased or oiled, and the linch-pins securely put in.
The inside of the coach is then to be brushed, the glasses cleaned, and the lamps cleaned and trimmed.
The carriage, horses, harness, and the whole equipage being now ready, the coachman attends his master or mistress for orders, if not previously received.
When the time is nearly arrived at which the coach is ordered, the helper or assistants harness the horses and put them to, while the coachman is dressing himself. He then narrowly inspects the whole equipage—sees that the coach, horses, harness, and all things are in order; when taking his whip and the reins in his left hand, a man standing at the heads of the horses, he mounts the box, on the near side, and drives off to the door.
In due time, the coach and other carriages, as well as the saddle horses, return, when the coachman alights, unbuckles the reins, and giving the horses into the care of the helpers, takes his whip with him into the stable, and deposits it in its proper place. He then, if there be time and day-light, washes and cleans his coach.
At eight o’clock, if not otherwise engaged, he attends the regular stable duties, and waters, feeds, rubs down, litters, and racks up his horses, in the usual manner.
The wages of the head or upper coachman, is from 25 to 36 guineas per annum, with generally two suits of livery—a box coat once in two or three years, two hats, and two pair of boots; also one or two stable dresses, consisting of overalls, jackets, waistcoats, and undress frock coat.
TO CLEAN BRASS ORNAMENTS ON CARRIAGES AND HARNESS.
Take half a pint of turpentine, ¼ of a pound of rotten stone, ¼ of a pound of charcoal, finely powdered, and ½ a pint of the drippings of sweet oil. Mix them, and apply the paste with leather, and polish it off with powdered charcoal.
BLACK DYE FOR HARNESS.
The colour of harness that has become rusty or brown by wear, may be restored to a fine black after the dirt has been sponged and brushed off, by using the following mixture: viz.
Boil logwood chips in three quarts of soft water, to which add three oz. of nut-galls, finely powdered, and one oz. of alum; simmer the whole together for half an hour, and it will be fit for use.
LIQUID BLACKING FOR HARNESS.
Take two oz. of mutton suet, melted, 6 oz. of purified bees wax, melted; ¼ lb. lamp black; 1 gill of turpentine; 2 oz. of Prussian blue, powdered; 1 oz. of indigo blue, ground; 6 oz. of sugar-candy, melted in a little water; and 2 oz. of soft soap. Mix, and simmer over the fire 15 minutes, when add a gill of turpentine. Lay it on the harness with a sponge, and then polish it.
TO BRING HORSES OUT OF A STABLE IN CASE OF FIRE.
Throw the saddle or harness to which it has been used over its back, and it will come out of the stable as tractably as usual.
THE FOOTMAN.
The business of the Footman is so multifarious and incessant, that in most families, if he be industrious, attentive, and disposed to make himself useful, he will find full employment in the affairs of the house, and the more useful he can make himself, in a general way, the more acceptable will be his services to the whole house, the greater will be his reward, and the more comfortable he will be himself.
In many genteel small families, the footman is the only man servant, in which case he is expected to make himself generally useful; but his particular departments are, the cleaning of the knives, shoes, plate, and furniture; answering the door, going of errands, waiting at table, and answering the parlour bell. The footman finds himself merely in linen, stockings, shoes, and washing; but if silk stockings, or any extra articles are expected to be worn, they are found by the family. On quitting service, every livery servant is expected to leave behind him any livery had within six months; the last new livery is usually reserved for Sundays and dress occasions.
For the better dispatch of his own particular business, it is indispensably necessary that the footman should rise early, and as every moment of his time will be appropriated, he must endeavour to get that part of his business, which depends upon himself, done before the family are stirring, as interruptions may then occur, and his necessary labours be unavoidably delayed, or made to interfere with other business, not less necessary.
The footman should endeavour to get the dirtiest part of his work done first; such as cleaning the shoes and boots, knives and forks, brushing and cleaning clothes, hats and gloves, and cleaning the furniture, &c. &c. For these purposes, his working dress should be generally a pair of overalls, a waistcoat and fustian jacket, and a leather apron, with a white apron to put on occasionally, when called from these duties.22
The business of the footman below stairs being done, he next proceeds to clean the lamps in the best rooms. The oil in them should be fine and good, and changed once a week or ten days, and the cottons should be thick and closely woven, always kept dry, and cut even at the top, and soaked a little when fresh put in, by letting down the oil to them for a short time.
For cleaning boots and shoes, he takes care to provide himself with proper brushes and good blacking. In boots he will not clean the tops till he has finished the feet and legs, when it will be necessary to cover the legs whilst he is cleaning the tops.
Ladies’ shoes are to be cleaned with milk, and other liquids, according to their colour, and merely the edges of the soles are to be blacked and polished, but in cleaning these and gentlemen’s dress shoes, great care must be taken not to soil the inside linings.
Afterwards, the next business in rotation in the morning, will be to clean the mahogany and other furniture, in the parlour and best rooms. Whether the tables, side-boards, cellerets, chairs, &c. be of a light or dark colour, they must be cleaned with a preparation or oil of an appropriate colour.
In using the different compositions, have two pieces of woollen cloth for each, one to put it on with, and the other for polishing. Sometimes a hard brush will be required to lay on the paste, and a piece of soft cork to rub out the stains. Always rub the wood the way of the grain, and remember to dust the furniture before you begin to clean it.
If oil be used, let it be rubbed off as quickly as possible, and then polished with another cloth. When wax is used, let it be applied very sparingly, and polished off with another cloth.
The brass rods or other ornaments to side-boards, cellarets, &c. should be cleaned before the mahogany is touched. The dirt on these ornaments may be removed with flannel well soaped, and polished off with the plate leather. If any brass work has the lacquer worn off, it may be cleaned with brick-dust and leather.
Every article of furniture should be cleaned and rubbed in the middle of the room, when convenient, to prevent smearing and injuring the walls.
Looking Glasses being very costly, should be cleaned with great care. First, take a clean soft sponge, just squeezed out of water, and then dipped in spirits of wine; rub the glass over with this, and then polish it off with fine powder blue, or whiting tied up in muslin, quickly laid on, and then well rubbed off, with a clean cloth, and afterwards with a silk handkerchief. If the glass be very large, no more of it should be wetted with the spirit at a time, than can be cleaned off quickly.
The frames must never be touched with any thing wet or damp. Cotton-wool is the best thing to rub them with, as it will take off the stains and dirt without doing any injury;23 or, if the frames are varnished, they may be rubbed with the spirits of wine, which will at once take out the spots and dirt, after which they may be re-varnished.
Pictures are best cleaned lightly with a wet sponge, but should never be touched with a cloth.
The attendance of the footman will now be required in the breakfast parlour, for which purpose, he must prepare by washing himself, and throwing off his working dress.
In the directions to the butler, we have given sufficiently at large, setting out the breakfast table, and waiting at breakfast, which in small families becomes solely the business of the footman.
After breakfast, he sets the parlour to rights by sweeping up the crumbs, shaking the green cloth, and laying it again on the table, making up the fire and sweeping up the hearth.
The footman now carries out such messages and cards as he is charged to deliver.
When the footman is obliged to go out with the carriage, the butler or under butler usually undertakes to do such things in his absence, as he necessarily leaves undone.
In large families, the footman lays the cloth for dinner, and the knives and forks and glasses, and the butler arranges the silver articles, and sees that the whole is correctly laid out. When the hour of dinner approaches, notice is usually given, by the ringing of a bell by the footman, ten or fifteen minutes before the time; and during this time he is busy in carrying up every thing that he thinks may or can be wanted during dinner, so as to have every thing at hand, at that time. Again he rings the dinner bell, to announce to the family that dinner is going up, when the butler takes the first dish, and is followed by the under butler and footman with the remainder of the fish and soups, which the butler places on the table, and removing the covers, gives them to the footman and under butler, who convey them out of the room. The servants then take their respective stations,—the butler at the side-board, to serve the wines or beer when called for; the footman at the back of his master’s chair, and the lady’s footman, if any, behind his lady. When the soups and fish have been served round, the butler rings the dining-room bell to warn the cook to be ready with the removes, which are generally, solid joints of meat, or the first course, if no removes; the butler then removes the dishes from the table, and hands them to the footman or under butler, who carries them away. If wine or beer is asked for, the footman or under butler puts the empty glasses on a waiter, and the butler fills them. When a clean plate is wanted, the butler hands it to the footman, with a clean knife and fork, and the footman puts the dirty one in the proper place to be taken away.
When the butler sees that the first course is nearly done with, he again gives notice to the cook, and proceeds to take all the dishes off the table, and the footman and under butler take them away, and fetch the second course. The butler being employed, in the mean time, in setting the table in order, laying the mats, clean spoons, glasses, &c. The footman, with the assistance of the house-maids and others, having brought up the next course, the butler places the dishes on the table, takes off the covers, hands them to the footman, to be taken away, and again takes his station at the side-board, and during the whole dinner, the same kind of etiquette as before, is observed by every servant in attendance, (of which, in some cases, there are several besides the butler, under butler, and footman; namely, the lady’s footman, valet, and on particular occasions, waiters hired for the purpose.) The third course, (consisting of pastry, viz. pies, tarts, &c. with game at the top and bottom of the table, and the cheese and salads placed on the side-board) which being removed, as before, the butler with a napkin wipes off the stains and marks of the hot dishes on the tables, and places the dessert, as it is brought up by the footman and under butler. He also puts the wine on the table, and the under butler the wine-glasses, while the footman places the finger glasses before each person, and a plate, with a knife and fork and spoon on each plate, the butler putting other spoons for serving the fruits, jellies, &c. The butler takes his place behind his master’s chair, at the foot of the table, and the lady’s footman, behind his lady’s chair at the head, to hand the wines, &c. and all the other servants leave the room, taking with them all the things that have been used.
The footman, as soon as all the things are carried down, repairs to the drawing-room, makes up the fire, sweeps up the hearth, and otherwise prepares that room. The butler also taking occasion to see that the lamps and candles are lighted, and the card tables set out, with candles and two packs of cards on each, and the chairs and sofas properly arranged by the footman.
The butler and footman then retire to their several avocations in the butler’s pantry, where the footman is employed in washing and wiping the glasses, and the under butler cleaning the plate, (which the kitchen maid generally washes.) When the ladies have retired from the dining-room, and the drawing-room bell rings for coffee, the footman enters with the tray, the coffee being made below stairs, and the bread and butter, cakes, toast, &c. the under butler, or some other servant following, to take away the empty cups and saucers on a waiter or tray. At tea time, the butler carries up the tea-tray, and the footman the toast, muffins, &c. (which are prepared by the kitchen maid). Tea is announced to the gentlemen by the footman, and the gentlemen having joined the ladies, the tea and coffee is handed round by the butler, bread and butter, toast, &c. by the footman, the under butler following to take away the cups and saucers.
If there be no supper, the wine, when ordered, is carried in by the butler, and the glasses, &c. on a tray, by the footman; if sandwiches are introduced, they are carried up on a tray, covered with a clean cloth, by the footman, the butler attending in the room to hand the wines, &c.
The company being gone, the bed-room candlesticks are brought by the footman, and are handed to each person respectively as he wishes to retire to bed.
The footman then shuts up all the lower part of the house, if not before done, and retires to bed himself. The butler follows last, sees all safe, and retires also.
In going out with the carriage, the footman should be dressed in his best livery, his shoes and stockings being very clean, and his hat, great coat, &c. being well brushed; nothing being so disgraceful as a slovenly exterior. He should be ready at receiving directions at the carriage door, and accurate in delivering them to the coachman, and though he may indicate the importance of his family by his style of knocking at a door, he ought to have some regard to the nerves of the family and the peace of the neighbourhood. When the carriage waits at routs or public places, he should abstain from drinking with other servants, and take care to be within call when wanted. His expertness in letting down the steps and putting them up again, and his caution in shutting the door, so as not to injure any one, or the dresses of the ladies, are expected.
When he walks out behind his mistress, he should preserve a modest demeanour, and protect her, if necessary, from intrusion or insult; and on this duty he is expected to be particularly attentive to every part of his dress. In answering the door it is his duty to behave respectfully to all enquirers after his master or mistress, and never to presume on his knowledge of persons whom they ought to see or ought not to see, except in obedience to positive instructions.
The Footman’s wages are from 20 to 30 guineas, with two suits of livery, and two undress suits.
LIQUID FOR CLEANSING BOOT TOPS, &c.
Mix in a phial, one drachm of oxy-muriate of potass, with two ounces of distilled water; and when the salt is dissolved, add two ounces of muriatic acid. Then shake well together, mix in another phial, three ounces of rectified spirit of wine with half an ounce of the essential oil of lemon, unite the contents of the two phials, and keep the liquid thus prepared, closely corked for use. This chemical liquid should be applied with a clean sponge, and dried in a gentle heat; after which, the boot-tops may be polished with a proper brush, so as to appear like new leather.
Another Method of Cleaning Boot-Tops.
Take of white vitriol, powdered, one ounce,
acid of sugar one ounce,
water, one quart.
Mix together.
Put a label on it, “Rank Poison.”
Sponge the tops with water first: then mix with the liquid, and then with water again.
TO CLEAN MAHOGANY FURNITURE.
Take two ounces of bees’ wax, scrape it fine, put it into a pot or jar, and pour over it enough of spirits of turpentine to cover it; let it stand a little while, and it will be ready for use. If the furniture is to be kept a dark colour, mix a very small quantity of alkanet root or rose-pink, with it.
TO CLEAN FURNITURE WITH OIL.
Take a pint of cold-drawn linseed oil, and if you wish to colour it, take a little alkanet root or rose-pink, and mix with it: put a little on the furniture, and rub it well with a woollen cloth; do not let the oil stand long on the table before it is rubbed off.
GERMAN POLISH FOR FURNITURE.
Melt a quarter of a pound of yellow wax and an ounce of black resin, well beaten, in an earthen pipkin. Then pour in by degrees two ounces of spirit of turpentine. When the whole is thoroughly mixed, put it into an earthen jar, and keep it covered for use. Spread a little of it on the furniture with a woollen cloth, rub it well in, and in a few days the polish will be as hard and as bright as varnish.
TO WARM A CARRIAGE.
Convey into it a stone bottle of boiling water, or for the feet a single glass bottle of boiled water, wrapped in flannel.
TO PRESERVE BRASS ORNAMENTS.
Brass ornaments, when not gilt or lackered, may be cleaned, and a fine colour may be given to them by two simple processes. The first is to beat sal ammoniac into a fine powder, then to moisten it with soft water, rubbing it on the ornaments, which must be heated over charcoal, and rubbed dry with bran and whiting. The second is to wash the brass work with roche alum boiled in strong ley, in the proportion of an ounce to a pint; when dry it must be rubbed with fine tripoli. Either of these processes will give to brass the brilliancy of gold.
TO PREVENT THE SMOKING OF A LAMP.
Soak the wick in strong vinegar, and dry it well before you use it; it will then burn both sweet and pleasant, and give much satisfaction for the trifling trouble in preparing it.
If for want of the above mentioned preparation any should escape, a wet sponge suspended by a string or wire over the flame of a lamp, at a few inches distance, will absorb all the smoke and disagreeable effluvia. Rinse it in warm water when wanted the next day.
TO CLEAN WATER CASKS.
Scour the inside well out with water and sand, and afterwards apply a quantity of charcoal dust. Another and better method is, to rinse them with a pretty strong solution of oil of vitriol and water, which will entirely deprive them of their foulness.
TO TAKE STAINS OUT OF MAHOGANY.
Mix 6 ounces of spirit of salts, and ½ an ounce of rock salt of lemons (powdered) together. Drop a little on the stains, and rub it with a cork till it disappear. Wash off with cold water.
TO REMOVE SPOTS OF GREASE FROM CLOTH.
Spots of grease may be removed by a diluted solution of potash, but this must be cautiously applied, to prevent injury to the cloth. Stains of white wax, which sometimes fall upon clothes from wax-candles, are removed by spirits of turpentine, or sulphuric ether. The marks of white paint may also be discharged by the above-mentioned agents.
TO CLEAN CANDLESTICKS AND SNUFFERS.
If silver or plated, care must be taken that they are not scratched in getting off the wax or grease; therefore never use a knife for that purpose, nor hold them before the fire to melt the wax or grease, as in general the hollow part of the candlesticks, towards the bottom, is filled with a composition that will melt if made too hot. Pour boiling water over them; this will take all the grease off without injury, if wiped directly with an old cloth, and save the brushes from being greased: let them in all other respects be cleaned like the rest of the plate.
TO CLEAN JAPANNED CANDLESTICKS.
Never hold them near the fire, nor scrape them with a knife; the best way is to pour water upon them just hot enough to melt the grease; then wipe them with a cloth, and if they look smeared, sprinkle a little whiting or flour upon them, and rub it clean off.
Be very particular in cleaning the patent snuffers, as they go with a spring, and are easily broken. The part which shuts up the snuffings has in general a small hole in it, where a pin can be put in to keep it open while cleaning it; be sure to have them well cleaned, that the snuff may not drop about when using them. The extinguishers likewise must be cleaned in the inside, and put ready with the snuffers, that the candlesticks may not be taken up without them.
TO CLEAN FURNITURE.
Keep the furniture paste or oil in a proper can or jar, that there may be no danger of upsetting when using it. Have two pieces of woollen cloth, one for rubbing it on, the other for rubbing it dry and polishing; also an old linen cloth to finish with, and a piece of smooth soft cork to rub out the stains: use a brush if the paste be hard. Always dust the table well before the oil or paste is put on; and if it should be stained rub it with a damp sponge, and then with a dry cloth. If the stain does not disappear, rub it well with the cork, or a brush the way of the grain, for if rubbed cross-grained, it will be sure to scratch it. Be careful to keep the cork and brush free from dust and dirt. When the dust is cleaned off and the stains have been got out, put on the oil or paste, but not too much at a time; rub it well into the wood; if oil, be as quick as possible in rubbing it over the table, and then polish it with another woollen cloth. If wax, put a little bit on the woollen cloth, with the finger, or a small stick; rub it well with this till the table has a high polish, then have another cloth to finish it with. Be very careful to have the edges of the tables well cleaned, and the oil and wax well rubbed off.
TO BRUSH CLOTHES.
Have a wooden horse to put the clothes on, and a small cane or small hand-whip to beat the dust out of them; also a board or table long enough for them to be put their whole length when brushing them. Have two brushes, one hard and the other soft: use the hardest for the great coats, and the others when spotted with dirt. Fine cloth coats should never be brushed with too hard a brush, as this will take off the nap, and make them look bare in a little time. Be careful in the choice of your cane; do not have it too large, and be particular not to hit too hard; be careful also not to hit the buttons, for it will scratch, if not break them.
If a coat be wet, and spotted with dirt, let it be quite dry before you brush it; then rub out the spots with the hands, taking care not to rumple it. If it want beating, do it as before directed; then lay the coat at its full length on a board; let the collar be towards the left hand, and the brush in the right; brush the back of the collar first, between the two shoulders next, and then the sleeves, &c. observing to brush the cloth the same way that the nap goes, which is towards the bottom of the coat. When both sides are properly done, fold them together; then brush the inside, and last of all the collar.
TO TAKE OUT GREASE FROM CLOTHES.
Have a hot iron with some thick brown paper: lay the paper on the part where the grease is, then put the iron upon the spot; if the grease comes through the paper, put on another piece, till it does not soil the paper. If not all out, wrap a little bit of cloth or flannel round the finger, dip it into spirit of wine, and rub the grease spot; this will take it entirely out. Be careful not to have the iron too hot; but try it on a piece of white paper, and if it turn the paper brown, or scorch in the least, it is too hot. If paint should get on the coats, always have spirit of wine or turpentine ready, which, with a piece of flannel or cloth, will easily take it off, if not left to get quite dry.
TO CLEAN TEA TRAYS.
Do not pour boiling water over them, particularly on japanned ones, as it will make the varnish crack and peel off; but have a sponge wetted with warm water and a little soap, if the tray be very dirty, then rub it with a cloth; if it looks smeary, dust on a little flour, then rub it with a dry cloth. If the paper tray gets marked, take a piece of woollen cloth, with a little sweet oil, and rub it over the marks; if any thing will take them out this will. Let the urn be emptied, and the top wiped dry, particularly the outside, for if any wet be suffered to dry on, it will leave a mark.
METHOD OF DARKENING MAHOGANY.
Nothing more is necessary than to wash the mahogany with lime-water, which may be readily made by dropping a nodule of lime into a bason of water.
TO WASH AND CLEAN GENTLEMEN’S GLOVES.
Wash them in soap and water till the dirt is got out, then stretch them on wooden hands, or pull them out in their proper shape. Never wring them as that puts them out of form and makes them shrink; put them one upon another and press the water out. Then rub the following mixture over the outside of the gloves. If wanted quite yellow, take yellow ochre; if quite white, pipe clay; if between the two, mix a little of each together. By proper mixture of these any shade may be produced. Mix the colour with beer or vinegar.
Let them dry gradually, not too near the fire nor in too hot a sun; when they are about half dried rub them well, and stretch them out to keep them from shrinking and to soften them. When they are well rubbed and dried take a small cane and beat them, then brush them; when this is done iron them rather warm, with a piece of paper over them, but do not let the iron be too hot.
TO MANAGE WATER-PIPES IN WINTER.
When the frost begins to set in, cover the water-pipes with hay or straw bands, twisted tight round them. Let the cisterns and water butts be washed out occasionally; this will keep the water pure and fresh.
In pumping up water into the cistern for the water-closet, be very particular, in winter-time, as in general the pipes go up the outside of the house. Let all the water be let out of the pipe when you have done pumping; but if this be forgotten, and it should get frozen, take a small gimblet and bore a hole in the pipe, a little distance from the place where it is let off, which will prevent its bursting. Put a peg in to the hole when the water is let off. Pump the water up into the cistern, for the closet every morning, and once a week take a pail of water, and cast it into the basin, having first opened the trap at the bottom; this will clear the soil out of the pipe.
TO PRESERVE HATS.
Hats require great care, or they will soon look shabby. Brush them with a soft camel-hair brush, which will keep the fur smooth. Have a stick for each hat, to keep it in its proper shape, especially if the hat be wet: put the stick in as soon as the hat is taken off, and when dry put it into a hat-box, particularly if not in constant use, as the air and dust soon turn hats brown. If the hat is very wet, handle it as lightly as possible; wipe it dry with a cloth or silk handkerchief; then brush it with the soft brush.
VARNISH FOR WAINSCOTTING, SMALL ARTICLES OF FURNITURE, BALUSTRADES, AND INSIDE RAILING.
Take gum sandarac, 6 oz.
shell lac, 2 oz.
colophonium, or resin,
white glass pounded,
clear turpentine, each 4 oz.
pure alcohol, 32 oz.
Dissolve the varnish according to the directions given for compound mastic varnish.
This varnish is sufficiently durable to be applied to articles destined to daily and continual use. Varnishes composed with copal ought, however, in these cases, to be preferred.
Another.
Melt over a moderate fire, in a very clean vessel, two ounces of white or yellow wax; and, when liquefied, add four ounces of oil of turpentine. Stir the whole until it is entirely cool, and the result will be a kind of pomade fit for waxing furniture, and which must be rubbed over them according to the usual method. The oil of turpentine is soon dissipated; but the wax, which by its mixture is reduced to a state of very great division, may be extended with more ease, and in a more uniform manner. The essence soon penetrates the pores of the wood, calls forth the colour of it, causes the wax to adhere better, and the lustre which thence results is equal to that of varnish, without having any of its inconveniences.
COLOURED VARNISH FOR PLUM-TREE, MAHOGANY, AND ROSE-WOOD.
Take of gum sandarac, 4 oz.
seed lac, 2 oz.
mastic,
Benjamin in tears, each 1 oz.
pounded glass, 4 oz.
Venice turpentine, 2 oz.
pure alcohol, 32 oz.
The gum sandarac and lac render this varnish durable; it may be coloured with a little saffron or dragon’s blood.
TO MAKE BLACKING.
Take of ivory-black and treacle, each 12 oz.
spermaceti oil, 4 oz.
white wine vinegar, 4 pints.
Mix.
This blacking, (recommended by Mr. Gray, lecturer on the materia medica,) is superior in giving leather a finer polish than any of those that are advertised, as they all contain sulphuric acid, (oil of vitriol,) which is necessary, to give it the polishing quality, but it renders leather rotten and very liable to crack.
Another.
Take of vinegar, No. 18, (the common,) 1 quart,
ivory-black, and treacle, each 6 oz.
vitriolic acid, and spermaceti, (or common oil,)
each 1½ oz.
Mix the acid and oil first, afterwards add the other ingredients; if, when it is used, it does not dry quick enough on the leather, add a little more of the vitriol, a little at a time. When there is too much of the vitriolic acid, which is various in its strength, the mixture will give it a brown colour.
Liquid Japan Blacking.
Take 3 ounces of ivory-black, 2 ounces of coarse sugar, one ounce of sulphuric acid, one ounce of muriatic acid, one table-spoonful of sweet oil and lemon acid, and one pint of vinegar. First mix the ivory-black and sweet oil together, then the lemon and sugar, with a little vinegar, to qualify the blacking; next add the sulphuric and muriatic acids, and mix them all well together.
A Cheap Method.
Ivory-black, two ounces; brown sugar, one ounce and a half; and sweet oil, half a table spoonful. Mix them well, and then gradually add half a pint of small beer.
Another Method.
A quarter of a pound of ivory-black, a quarter of a pound of moist sugar, a table spoonful of flour, a piece of tallow about the size of a walnut, and a small piece of gum arabic. Make a paste of the flour, and whilst hot, put in the tallow, then the sugar, and afterwards mix the whole well together in a quart of water.
Bailey’s Composition for Blacking Cakes.
Take gum tragacanth, one ounce; neat’s-foot oil, super-fine ivory-black, deep blue, prepared from iron and copper, each two ounces; brown sugar-candy, river water, each four ounces. Having mixed well these ingredients, evaporate the water, and form it into cakes.
Blacking Balls for Shoes.
Take mutton suet, four ounces; bees’ wax, one ounce; sweet oil, one ounce; sugar-candy and gum arabic, one dram each in fine powder; melt these well together over a gentle fire, and add thereto about a spoonful of turpentine, and lamp black sufficient to give it a good black colour. While hot enough to run, make it into a ball, by pouring the liquor into a thin mould; or let it stand till almost cold; when it may be moulded by the hand.
TO RENDER LEATHER WATER PROOF.
This is done by rubbing or brushing into the leather a mixture of drying oils, and any of the oxides or calxes of lead, copper, or iron: or by substituting any of the gummy resins, in the room of the metallic oxides.
FURNITURE PASTE.
Scrape four ounces of bees’-wax into a basin, and add as much oil of turpentine as will moisten it through. Then powder a quarter of an ounce of resin, and add as much Indian red as will bring it to a deep mahogany colour. When the composition is properly stirred up, it will prove an excellent cement or paste for blemishes in mahogany, and other furniture.
Another Method.
Scrape four ounces of bees’-wax, as before. To a pint of oil of turpentine, in a glazed pipkin, add an ounce of alkanet-root. Cover it close, and put it over a slow fire, attending it carefully that it may not boil over, or catch fire. When the liquid is of a deep red, add as much of it to the wax as will moisten it through, also a quarter of an ounce of powdered resin. Cover the whole close, and let it stand six hours, when it will be fit for use.
Furniture Oil.
Put some linseed-oil into a glazed pipkin, with as much alkanet root as it will cover. Let it boil gently, and it will become of a strong red colour: when cool it will be fit for use.
TO REMOVE FLIES FROM ROOMS.
Take half a tea-spoonful of black pepper, in powder, one tea-spoonful of brown sugar, and one table-spoonful of cream; mix them well together, and place them in the room, on a plate, where the flies are troublesome, and they will soon disappear.
Another Way.
Dissolve two drams of extract of quassia in half a pint of boiling water, sweeten it, and pour it into plates to be set about the room. This mixture, though fatal to the flies, is not otherwise pernicious.
TO EXTINGUISH FIRE IN A CHIMNEY.
Put a wet blanket over the whole front of the fire-place, which will stop the current of air, and thus extinguish the flames.
TO CLEAN BOOT TOPS WHITE.
Take an ounce of oxalic acid, dissolve it in a pint of soft water, and keep it in a bottle well corked; dip a soft sponge into the mixture to clean the tops with, and if there are any spots which refuse to disappear, rub them with a little fine Bath brick dust: sponge the tops afterwards with clean water. Take particular care always to have any mixtures, or powders for boot-tops, labelled with the word poison in large letters, as fatal accidents have arisen from oxalic acid, being so like Epsom salts in appearance, as to be often taken for them in mistake.
TO CLEAN BOOT TOPS BROWN.
Take a pint of skimmed milk, half an ounce of spirits of salt, half an ounce of spirits of lavender, one ounce of gum Arabic, and the juice of two lemons; mix them well together, and keep them in a bottle closely corked; rub the tops with a sponge, but use no brick dust; and when they are dry, polish them with a brush or piece of flannel.
TO REMOVE UNPLEASANT ODOURS.
The unpleasant smell of new paint is best removed by time, and atmospheric ventilation: but tubs of water placed in the apartment will act more rapidly; with this inconvenience, however, that the gloss of the paint will be destroyed. Unpleasant smells from water-closets, or all articles of furniture connected with them, may be modified by the application of quick-lime, to which may be added the soap-suds that have been used in washing, which neutralize the pungently offensive salts. A little quick-lime put into a night-chair will destroy all disagreeable effluvia.
Aromatic pastiles of the following composition may be burned with great success: take of camphor, flowers of benzoin, powdered charcoal, powdered cascarilla bark, powdered Turkey myrrh, and powdered nitre, each equal quantities; beat them with syrup sufficient to form a mass, and divide into pastiles of conical shape. They may be mixed up with spirit of turpentine, or any thing inflammable.
TO CLEAN KNIVES AND FORKS.
Procure a smooth board, free from knots, or one covered with leather. If the latter, melt a sufficient quantity of mutton suet, and put it hot upon the leather with a piece of flannel; then take two pieces of soft Flanders brick, and rub them one against the other over the leather till it is covered with the powder, which rub in until no grease comes through, when a knife is passed over the leather, which may easily be known by the knife keeping its polish.
If only a plain board, rub the brick two or three times over it; for if too much be put on at once it will make the blades of the knives look rough and scratched. Let the board be of a proper height, and set so that you may be in a sloping position while cleaning the knives. Take a knife in each hand, holding them back to back; stand opposite the middle of the board; lay the knives flat upon it, and do not bear too hard upon them; by this method it will be easier to clean two knives at a time than one, and they will be less liable to be snapped or broken, when pressed on too heavily.
Be careful to keep a good edge on the knives. Carving knives in particular ought to be kept sharp, which may easily be done by taking one in each hand, back to back when cleaning, scarcely letting them touch the board when expanding the arms, but when drawing the hands together again, bearing a little hard on the edge of the knives; this will give them not only a good edge and a fine polish, but is much better than sharpening them with a steel.
The best way to clean steel forks is to fill a small oyster barrel with fine gravel, brick dust, or sand, mixed with a little hay or moss: make it moderately damp, press it well down, and let it always be kept damp. By running the prongs of the forks a few times into this, all the stains on them will be removed. Then have a small stick, shaped like a knife, with leather round it to polish between the prongs, &c. having first carefully brushed off the dust from them as soon as they are taken out of the tub. A knife board is often spoiled by cleaning forks, and the backs of the knives, upon it; to prevent this, fasten a piece of old hat or leather on the board where the forks and backs of knives are to be cleaned.
Always turn the back of the knives towards the palm of the hand in wiping them, which will prevent all danger from cutting. In wiping the forks put the corner of the cloth between the prongs, to remove any dirt or dust that may not have been thoroughly brushed out; and if there be silver ferules on the knives and forks, or silver handles, they must be rubbed with a piece of leather and plate powder, keeping the blades covered while the handles are cleaning.
Wipe the knives and folks as soon as possible after being used, as the longer they are left with grease and stains on them the harder they will be to clean; particularly if they have been used for acids, salads, tarts, &c. Have then a jug of hot water ready to put them into as soon as done with, and wipe them as before directed.
In order to keep knives and forks in good condition when they are not in use, rub the steel part with a flannel dipped in oil; wipe the oil off after a few hours, as there is often water in it; or dust the blades and prongs with quick-lime, finely powdered, and kept in a muslin bag.
TO CLEAN PLATED ARTICLES.
Plated articles require even more care than silver ones; they should be cleaned with soft brushes, not too often, and never with any thing but plate powder, not even whiting by itself; do not wet them more than can be helped or they will tarnish; nor brush them more than is necessary, or the silver will come off; the best thing for them is spirit of wine or oil, and take care that no plated articles remain long dirty or damp, for if they do they will rust, in case they are plated on steel, and canker if plated on copper.
Wash the brushes after the plate is cleaned with warm water and soap, and then set them to dry, with the wooden side uppermost.
THE UNDER BUTLER.
Is entirely under the controul and direction of the Butler. He cleans all the plate—the parlour knives and forks—lays the cloths—sets out the side-board, and assists to wait at table. As he is supposed to be busily employed, after dinner, in the Butler’s pantry, cleaning the plate, he is not usually expected to answer the bells at that period. He trims the lamps belonging to the dining and drawing-rooms, and is frequently required to assist the Butler in cleaning his master’s clothes and shoes. The Under Butler, generally looking to the situation of Butler, and as even in his present station he will have occasion for more particular directions, he will do well frequently to refer to the hints to the Butler, where he will find the immediate duties of the Butler and himself more particularly given.
A chief part of his duty consists in assisting in the rough work of the butler, such as brewing, bottling, and cellar business in general, in all which he should be as expert as the butler himself.
Wages 16 to 25 guineas.
TO CLEAN CHINA AND GLASS.
The best material for cleaning either porcelain or glass-ware is fullers’ earth, but it must be beaten into a fine powder, and carefully cleared from all rough or hard particles, which might endanger the polish of the brilliant surface.
TO CLEAN PLATE.
Wash the plate in boiling water to free it from grease, and if it has wrought edges, brush it well before you begin to clean it. The leathers ought to be soft and very thick, and the sponges well soaked in water.
Another Way.
Boil an ounce of prepared hartshorn-powder in a quart of water. While on the fire, put as much plate into it as the vessel will hold; let it boil a little time, then take it out, drain it over the saucepan, dry it before the fire, and rub it bright with leather. Then put more into the pan in the same manner until it is all boiled. Put clean linen rags into the pan to soak up the remainder, and when dry, they will give a beautiful polish to the plate merely by rubbing it with them. They are likewise admirable for cleaning brass locks, and the finger-plates of doors.—This method will only suit small articles of plate.
TO CLEAN PLATED ARTICLES.
Take an ounce of killed quicksilver, which you may buy at the chemist’s, and half a pound of the best whiting sifted; mix them with spirits of wine when used. Hartshorn-powder may be used instead of whiting; but whiting is quite as good, when dried and pounded.
TO GIVE SILVER PLATE A LUSTRE.
Dissolve alum in strong ley, skim it carefully, mix it with soap and wash your silver utensils with it, using a linen rag.
TO TAKE STAINS OUT OF SILVER PLATE.
Steep the plate in soap leys for the space of four hours; then cover it over with whiting wet with vinegar, so that it may stick thick upon it, and dry it by a fire; after which, rub off the whiting, and pass it over with dry bran, and the spots will not only disappear, but the plate will look exceedingly bright.
TO MAKE PLATE LOOK LIKE NEW.
Take of unslaked lime and alum, a pound each, of aqua vitæ and vinegar, each a pint, and of beer grounds, two quarts; boil the plate in these, and they will set a beautiful gloss upon it.
TO TAKE FRUIT SPOTS OUT OF CLOTH.
Let the spotted part of the cloth imbibe a little water without dipping, and hold the part over a lighted common brimstone match at a proper distance. The sulphurous gas which is discharged, will soon cause the spot to disappear.
Whiting properly purified from sand, applied wet, and rubbed till dry, is one of the easiest, safest, and, certainly the cheapest, of all plate powders.
THE UNDER, SECOND, OR LADY’S COACHMAN.
The business of the Under Coachman, is precisely the same as that of the Head Coachman, as before detailed. He attends with the assistance of the helper, to the care and dressing of his horses, washing and cleaning the harness and the coach, which is always the second best, and is driven by him at night; whereas the best coach and the best horses, are driven by the Head Coachman by day.
Wages from 20l. to 24 guineas, with two suits of livery, a box coat occasionally, hat and boots—also one or two stable dresses.
He is sometimes required to ride as postillion, or as courier, when the family travel post.
THE UNDER COACHMAN.
If there be other Coachmen kept, their duties are similar to those of the first and second Coachmen, but their wages are somewhat lower, and the liveries, &c. not always quite so costly.
THE LADY’S FOOTMAN.
The chief business of this servant is to wait on his lady only, for whom he performs all the offices of a footman. He carries out all her messages and cards of invitation. He prepares the breakfast, and waits behind her chair both at breakfast and dinner—must be ready at all times to go out with his lady, either behind her carriage or on foot. For his more general duties, see the Directions to the Footman.
A genteel exterior and a good figure are principal recommendations of this servant; to which he should add great cleanliness in his person, and studied neatness in his dress. He is, of course, expected to assist the other servants in waiting at the dinner table, and to receive instructions through the lady’s maid, in whose out-door concerns he must officiate when required.
Wages 18l. to 25 Guineas—two liveries and a working dress.
THE UNDER FOOTMAN.
In families where two or more footmen are kept, the under footman is expected, and indeed, engages to do that part of the business of a footman, which is deemed the most laborious; that is, he cleans knives and forks—boots and shoes—carries up the coals and attends all the fires above stairs during the day. He likewise carries out cards, messages, &c. and assists to carry up and wait at dinner, &c. &c. Wages, 16 to 20 guineas, with liveries.
THE HALL PORTER.
The duties of this servant are confined to the entrance-hall, and the door, where he is continually stationed. He answers every knock and ring, takes in all messages, parcels, letters, cards, &c. and immediately hands them to the butler, who conveys them to his master or mistress.
He trims the great hall and passage lamps, and opens and fastens up the doors and shutters every morning and night.
The public character of a nobleman or gentleman often depends on this servant. Rude or contemptuous language, to the meanest applicant, will frequently prove injurious to the interests of his master, in ways of which he cannot be a competent judge; and, therefore, his best qualities are patience and good temper, to which may be added, secrecy in regard to the affairs, connexions, and intercourse of the family. A close tongue, and an inflexible countenance, are, therefore, indispensable, and he should practise the maxim of hearing and seeing all, but saying nothing. It is recorded of the porter of a minister of state, who died in the morning, that, on being asked in the afternoon if the fact were true, he replied that really he could not tell, but if the party would give him his card, he would make enquiry, and let him know. This was a well-trained porter, and such should be the system of all porters.
Wages from 24l. to 30l. per annum.
THE GROOM.
This, and indeed, every other person in the stable department, must rise about five in the summer, and six in the winter.
When the Groom has two or more horses under his care, with a chaise, or other vehicle or vehicles, he is generally allowed a boy to assist him in the stable.
We shall here insert the general care and management of horses, because in every stable establishment, however small, or however large, a Groom is to be found; and he ought to be fully competent to this branch of stable experience. In order to avoid repetition, we shall refer every other servant in this department, to this description of the usual care and management of horses.
The first thing, on entering the stable, is to give to each horse about a gallon of clean water in a clean bucket; then to shake up the best litter, under the manger, sweep out each stall, and clean out the whole stable. Every Coachman and Groom feeds his own horses;24 and during the time of their feeding, he proceeds to dress them: thus each horse is first curried all over, with the curry-comb, to loosen the dirt and dust on its skin; then brushed with a whalebone brush, to take the dust off; next whisped with straw, to smooth and cleanse its coat; and again brushed with the brush and curry-comb, to take off what dust may remain; after which the horse is whisped again with a damp lock of hay, and finally, rubbed down with a woollen rubber, or a clean cloth. The horse is then turned round in the stall, and his head is next brushed well and whisped clean and smooth, with a damp lock of hay. After this, his ears are drawn through the hands, for several minutes, till made warm, and then the insides of the ears are wiped out with a damp sponge, to remove such dust and filth as may have accumulated there. The sponge after being washed clean, is then applied to the eyes, to cleanse them from dust, and any exudation that may have arisen in them. The nostrils are also sponged clean, and the whole head is afterwards finished by rubbing it with a cloth, in the same manner as the body had previously been cleaned. The horse is then turned round into its proper situation, the head stall put on, and the dirt and filth that may have accumulated under its tail, are then washed away with a sponge. The mane and tail are next cleaned and laid with a mane comb and water brush, used alternately with both hands; the head and body are again wiped over, and the body clothes are put on and fastened with a surcingle.
The Groom next examines the horse’s heels, picks out the dirt from the feet, and washes its heels, with a water brush and plenty of water. If any horse has bad feet, they are then to be dressed and stuffed. Lastly, a due portion of hay,25 (about three or four pounds) is shaken into the rack, and then the horse is considered as completely dressed.
This is a summary of the whole process of cleaning and dressing horses of every description.
Horses thus attended to, and regularly managed, under the humane superintendance of a diligent and conscientious Groom or Coachman, will have healthy and beautiful appearance, and in a great measure escape from many diseases to which they would otherwise be liable.
When the master rides out before breakfast, the Groom rises so much the earlier, so as to be able to get the horses for himself and master ready, and at the time appointed. In this case, he gives the horses not more than two quarts of water each, and about half their usual feed of corn. On their return from the morning ride, the Groom sponges the eyes and nostrils of the horses, and under their tails; picks out their feet, washes their feet and heels, and then otherwise cleans and dresses them in the usual way, as already described. When thus far dressed, it is necessary to hand-rub their legs, downwards, for about ten minutes, to prevent wind-galls, and to strengthen the back sinews.
When horses have been ridden hard, or have been a long journey, bandages must be wrapped round their legs, (from the knee to the fetlock joint) to prevent their swelling.
If their feet are heated, they must be stopped with the following mixture, called stopping: viz.
Mix equal quantities of cow-dung, clay, tar, and kitchen grease with urine, to the consistency of a stiff paste. This is usually kept in a small tub, or box, with a handle, to be ready when wanted.
The horses are then watered, fed, and littered down.
All horses when they come in, if they have sweated, or are very hot, must have their feet and legs first washed, and then be walked about ten or fifteen minutes, in the open air, till they are properly cool and dry; when they are to be well rubbed, and afterwards cleaned in the usual way. They should be encouraged to stale as soon as may be, by shaking a little straw under them, and whistling to them.
The saddles and bridles, with the bits and stirrups, are to be wiped when they are taken off, and are so left till the first opportunity, when they are to be thoroughly cleaned and put away.
If a gig, chaise, or other carriage has been used in the morning, it will require to be cleaned and got ready as soon as possible.
Such horses as are at home at twelve o’clock, are, at that hour, to be watered and fed again, and just wiped over, but not thoroughly cleaned, as in the morning; their manes and tails are, however, to be combed and properly laid with the mane-comb and water brush.
When the Groom’s horses and carriages come in, in the evening, he attends to his horses first, washes their feet and legs and rubs them quite dry, before he cleans them. He afterwards cleans his gig, or whatever it may be by day-light, if there be time, or at any rate, he has to get his harness cleaned. About eight o’clock the stable man repairs to the stable, for the last time, cleans it out, waters, feeds, and rubs down the horses, litters them up, bandages their legs, stops their feet, (if necessary) and racks them up for the night.
Wages 22l. to 25l. with, generally, two livery suits, and two stable dresses a year.
TO MAKE OATS PROVE DOUBLY NUTRITIOUS TO HORSES.
Instead of grinding the oats, break them in a mill; and the same quantity will prove doubly nutritious. Another method is, to boil the corn, and give the horses the liquor in which it has been boiled; the result will be, that instead of six bushels in a crude state, three bushels, so prepared, will be found to answer, and to keep the animals in superior vigour and condition.
SORES AND BRUISES.
Over the whole sore, or where the part is bruised, or where there is a tendency to suppuration, a poultice should be applied and kept on by suitable bandages. The poultice may be made of any kind of meal, fine bran, bruised linseed, or of mashed turnips, carrots, &c. The following has been found useful as a common poultice: Fine bran, 1 quart; pour on it a sufficient quantity of boiling water to make a thin paste; to this add of linseed powder enough to give it a proper consistence. The poultice may be kept on for a week or ten days, or even longer, if necessary, changing it once or twice a day; and cleaning the wound, when the poultice is removed, by washing it by means of a soft rag or linen cloth, with water not more than blood warm, (some sponge is too rough for this purpose); or, where the wound is deep, the water may be injected into it by a syringe, in order to clean it from the bottom.
Ointment.
In the course of a few days, when the wound, by care and proper management with the poultices, begins to put on a healthy appearance, and seems to be clean and of a reddish colour, not black or bloody; then there may be applied an ointment made of tallow, linseed oil, bees’ wax, and hog’s lard, in such proportion as to make it of a consistence somewhat firmer than butter. The ointment should be spread on some soft clean tow, and when applied to the sore, it ought never to be tied hard upon it, (which is done too frequently and very improperly,) but only fixed by a bandage of proper length and breadth, (for a mere cord is often improper,) so close and securely as to keep it from slipping off. This application may be changed once a day; or when nearly well, and discharging but little, once in two days.
Treatment according to the appearance of the part.
When the wounded part begins to discharge a whitish, thick matter, and is observed to fill up, the general treatment and dressings to the sore, now mentioned, should be continued; and in the course of the cure, the animal, when free of fever, may be allowed better provision, and may take gentle exercise. If the animal be feeble, from the loss of blood originally, or from the long continuance of a feverish state produced by the inflammation attending the wound, or from weakness arising from confinement, or connected with its constitution naturally; and if the wound appear to be in a stationary state, very pale and flabby on its edges, with a thin discharge, then better food may be given to it; and if still no change should be observed, with the better food, the wound may be treated somewhat differently from what has been already advised. The ointment may be made more stimulant, by adding to it some resin and less bees’ wax, or what would be still more stimulant, some common turpentine; for it is only in very rare cases that oil of turpentine can be requisite. The effects of an alteration in the mode of treatment should be particularly remarked, and stimulants should be laid aside, continued or increased, according as may be judged proper. Before changing the dressings applied to the wound, or before rendering them more stimulant and active by using heating applications, the effect of closer bandaging may be tried; for sometimes by keeping the parts a little more firmly together, the cure is promoted.
Food and Regimen.
In the case of severe wounds, attention should be paid to the condition of the animal in other respects. There being always when such happen, a tendency to violent inflammation and fever, that may end fatally, means should be employed to moderate both. The apartment should be cool and airy, and so quiet that the animal should not be disturbed; the drink should not be warm, but rather cold, and given freely, though not in too large quantities at a time; the food should be sparingly given and of a poorer quality than usual, and should be rather succulent and laxative, than dry or apt to produce costiveness; bleeding may be employed either generally from a vein, or, in some cases, when it can be done, by cupping from the injured part, as in the case of a bruise (though this last will be seldom requisite or found convenient,) and it may be done more than once or twice, as may seem proper; laxative medicines also ought to be given and repeated, as there may be occasion.
BLEEDING IN GENERAL.
Bleeding is often the most useful and efficacious means of curing diseases in horses, &c. In inflammatory affections, it is generally the first remedy resorted to, and its immediate salutary effects are often surprising.
When it is necessary to lessen the whole quantity of blood in the system, open the jugular or neck vein. If the inflammation is local, bleed where it can be conveniently done, either from the part affected, or in its vicinity, as by opening the plate vein, superficial vein of the thigh, or temporal arteries.
In fevers of all kinds, and when inflammation attacks any important organ, as the brain, eyes, lungs, stomach, intestines, liver, kidneys, bladder, &c. bleeding is of the greatest use. It diminishes the quantity of blood in the body; and by this means prevents the ill effects of inflammation. The quantity of blood to be taken varies according to the age, size, condition, and constitution of the horse, and urgency of the symptoms.
From a large or strong horse, four or six quarts will be requisite, and may be repeated in smaller quantities if symptoms demand it. The blood, in these diseases, must flow from a large orifice made in the vein. A horse should never be suffered to bleed upon the ground, but into a measure, in order that the proper quantity may be taken. Young horses, also, while shedding their teeth, have sometimes much constitutional irritation, which bleeding relieves. But in these affections it is very rarely necessary to bleed to the same extent as in fevers, &c.; two or three quarts generally suffice to be taken away.
Fulness of Blood.
Moderate bleeding, from two to three or four quarts, is also used to remove fulness of habit, or plethora, attended with slight inflammatory symptoms. In this case the eyes appear heavy, dull, red or inflamed, frequently closed as if asleep; the pulse small and oppressed; the heat of the body somewhat increased; the legs swell; and the hairs rub off. Horses that are removed from grass to a warm stable, and full fed on hay and corn, and not sufficiently exercised, are very subject to one or more of these symptoms. Regulating the quantity of food given to him, proper exercise and occasional laxatives, as the following powder, will be commonly found sufficient after the first bleeding, and operation of an aloetic purge. In slight affections of this kind, a brisk purge will often alone be sufficient.
Laxative and Diaphoretic Powder.
Take of crocus of antimony, finely levigated,
nitre, cream of tartar, and flour of sulphur, of each, 4 ounces:
Powder and mix them well together for use.
One table-spoonful of this mixture may be given every night and morning, in a mash of scalded bran, or a feed of corn moistened with water, that the powders may adhere thereto.
This powder will be found excellent for such horses as are kept on dry meat, whether they be in the stable, or travel on the road; also for stallions in the spring of the year, as they not only keep the body cool and open, but cause them to cast their coat, and make the skin appear as bright as silk.
PURGING.
In obstinate grease and swellings of the legs, accompanied with lameness of the joints, dry coughs, worms, diseases of the skin, farcy, apoplexy or staggers, affections of the liver, &c. &c., mercurial purges are of the greatest service. They purge; destroy worms; generally increase the flow of urine; operate upon the skin, liver, and other viscera in a peculiar manner; cause a healthful action in these parts; and remove many chronic complaints incident to the horse. Great caution is necessary during their operation, lest the horse take cold. The water given him must be warm, and when exercised he should be properly clothed.
Horses that are kept on dry meat, and are full fed, with little or no exercise, require regular purging every six months, with two or three doses each time, allowing proper intervals between each.
THE GROOM AND VALET, OR FOOTMAN.
In small families, a servant is sometimes hired in the capacities of groom and valet, or groom and footman. The duties of this servant are given under the respective heads of Groom, Valet, and Footman. The wages out of the house, about 50l. a year, with the cast off clothes.
THE POSTILLION.
When the family travels post, the helper in the stables, and the stable-boy, generally ride as postillions: on other occasions, the boy or helper, rides and drives the chariot and other carriages; or if he be a regular servant, he has the care of a pair of horses. Wages from 16 to 20 guineas.—His clothing is nearly the same as the grooms, only that he has a cap, and generally a jacket instead of a frock coat.
THE COURIERS, OR OUTRIDERS.
Are generally selected from some of the persons employed in the stables—Often, the under coachman and groom. Their business is to ride with the family when travelling, to guard them on the road—to ride forward with orders, and to pay the turnpikes, &c. &c.
The outriders always take care of their own horses.
THE STABLE BOY.
Assists the coachman and groom, under whose direction he is occupied in cleaning out the stables, cleaning the horses, washing and cleaning the harness and carriages, and making himself generally useful. The wages, when in the house, is from 8 to 12l. per annum, and clothing, as may be agreed.
HELPERS IN THE STABLES.
The helpers are subordinate to the regular stable servants, and their business is to assist in cleaning the horses, harness, saddles, and carriages, cleaning out the stables, and assisting the coachman and groom in all the business of the stable that may be required of them. They are generally hired by the week, at from 16 to 21 shillings, out of doors, and have no liveries. If hired as regular stable servants, they are boarded in the house, and their wages and clothing are nearly the same as the groom’s.
When the family travels, the helper is sometimes taken either as postillion or outrider.
THE HEAD GARDENER.
The gardener, to understand his business well, and to be capable of undertaking the management of a gentleman’s garden and grounds, should not only be perfect in the ordinary business, and the regular routine of digging, cropping, and managing a kitchen garden, but should be also well versed in the nature of soils, manures, and composts, the best methods of propagating plants, shrubs, and trees, the management of the hot-house, green-house, conservatory, hot-beds; and the culture, not only of indigenous, but also of foreign and exotic productions.
The gardener, on first coming to his situation, will endeavour to ascertain the nature and present state of the soil. There are scarcely any of the ordinary esculent or culinary vegetables that will not require, at least, a depth of two spits of well cultivated earth; shrubs and trees much more; and this depth he should accordingly give it by proper digging, trenching, and other means. The sub-strata, or under soil, must also be considered, and articles fond of moisture should be planted where the sub-stratum is of a clayey nature, and will not suffer the moisture imbibed from above to pass off; while those which require warm and dry situations, should be planted where the under soil consists of sand or gravel, and will the more readily absorb the moisture from above.
In small families, or in gardens not exceeding an acre, with a paddock of three or four acres for a horse or cow, it is usual to keep but one gardener, who, at an out-door salary of a guinea a week, performs all the necessary work in the garden, milks the cow, feeds the poultry, and, sometimes, takes care of the horse, his assistant being a jobbing labourer during a few weeks of particular duty. These gardeners generally consist of under gardeners from large establishments, or from market gardeners near large towns; and the only questions which arise between them and their employer, are the difficulties which they feel at first in accommodating the practice on a large scale to that on a small and economical one; but, when reconciled to this, no situation is more independent and comfortable than that of the solitary and accommodating gardener.
Gardeners generally prefer a sandy loam, of a nature not too binding in summer, nor too retentive in winter.
Perhaps the best practical rules that can be given are the following, from the best Treatise on Gardening.
1. Perform every operation in the proper season.
2. Perform every operation in the best manner.
This is to be acquired in part by practice, and partly also by reflection. For example, in digging over a piece of ground, it is a common practice with slovens, to throw the weeds and stones on the dug ground, or on the adjoining alley or walk, with the intention of gathering them off afterwards. A better way is to have a wheelbarrow, or a large basket, into which to put the weeds and extraneous matters, as they are picked out of the ground. Some persons in planting or weeding, whether in the open air, or in hothouses, throw down all seeds, stones, and extraneous matters on the paths or alleys, with a view to pick them up, or sweep or rake them together afterwards; it is better to carry a basket or other utensil, either common or subdivided, in which to hold in one part the plants to be planted, in another the extraneous matters, &c.
3. Complete every part of an operation as you proceed.
4. Finish one job before beginning another.
5. In leaving off working at any job, leave the work and tools in an orderly manner.
6. In leaving off work for the day, make a temporary finish, and carry the tools to the tool-house.
7. In passing to and from the work, or on any occasion, through any part of what is considered under the charge of the gardener, keep a vigilant look out for weeds, decayed leaves, or any other deformity, and remove them.
8. In gathering a crop, remove at the same time, the roots, leaves, stems, or whatever else is of no farther use, or may appear slovenly, decaying, or offensive.
9. Let no crop of fruit, or herbaceous vegetables, go to waste on the spot.
10. Cut down the flower-stalks of all plants.
11. Keep every part of what is under your care, perfect in its kind.
Attend in spring and autumn to walls and buildings, and get them repaired, jointed, glazed, and painted, where wanted. Attend at all times to machines, implements, and tools, keeping them clean, sharp, and in perfect repair. See particularly that they are placed in their proper situations in the tool-house. House every implement, utensil, or machine not in use, both in winter and summer. Allow no blanks in edgings, rows, single specimens, drills, beds, and even where practicable, in broad-cast sown pieces. Keep edgings and edges cut to the utmost nicety. Keep the shapes of the wall-trees filled with wood according to their kinds, and let their training be in the first style of perfection. Keep all walks in perfect form, (whether raised or flat,) free from weeds, dry, and well rolled. Keep all the lawns by every means, of a close texture, and dark-green velvet appearance. Keep water clear and free from weeds, and let not ponds, lakes, or artificial rivers, rise to the brim in winter, nor sink very far under it in summer.
TO SOW SEEDS WITH ADVANTAGE.
This is the first operation of rearing. Where seeds are deposited singly, as in rows of beans, or large ruts, they are said to be planted; where dropt in numbers together, to be sown. The operation of sowing is either performed in drills, patches, or broadcast. Drills are small excavations formed with the draw-hoe, generally in straight lines parallel to each other, and in depth and distance apart, varying according to the size of the seeds. In these drills, the seeds are strewed from the hand of the operator, who, taking a small quantity in the palm of his hand and fingers, regulates its emission by the thumb. Some seeds are very thinly sown, as the pea, and spinage; others thick, as the cress, and small salad.
Patches are small circular excavations made with the trowel; in these seeds are either sown or planted, thicker or thinner, and covered more or less, according to their nature. This is the mode adopted in sowing in pots, and generally in flower-borders.
In broad-cast sowing, the operator scatters the seed over a considerable breadth of surface, previously prepared by digging, or otherwise being minutely pulverized. The seed is taken up in portions in the hand, and dispersed by a horizontal movement of the arm, to the extent of a semi-circle, opening the hand at the same time, and scattering the seeds in the air, so as they may fall as equally as possible over the breadth taken in by the sower at once, and which is generally six feet; that being the diameter of the circle in which his hand moves through half the circumference. In sowing broad-cast on beds, and narrow’ strips or borders, the seeds are dispersed between the thumb and fingers, by horizontal movements of the hand in segments of smaller circles.
Dry weather is essentially requisite for sowing, and more especially for the operation of covering in the seed, which in broad-cast sowing, is done by treading or gently rolling the surface, and then raking it; and in drill-sowing, by treading in the larger seeds, as peas, and covering with the rake; smaller seeds, sown in drills, are covered with the same implement, without treading.
TO PLANT SHRUBS AND TREES.
Planting, as applied to seeds, or seed-like roots, as potatoes, bulbs, &c. is most frequently performed in drills, or in separate holes made with the dibber; in these, the seed or bulb is dropped from the hand, and covered with or without treading, according to its nature. Sometimes planting is performed in patches, as in pots or borders, in which case, the trowel is the chief instrument used.
Quincunx is a mode of planting in rows, by which the plants in one row are always opposed to the blanks in the other, so that when a plot of ground is planted in this way, the plants appear in rows in four directions.
Planting, as applied to plants already originated, consists generally in inserting them in the soil of the same depth, and in the same position as they were before removal, but with various exceptions. The principal object is to preserve the fibrous roots entire; to distribute them equally around the stem among the mould or finer soil, and to preserve the plant upright. The plant should not be planted deeper than it stood in the soil before removal, and commonly the same side should be kept towards the sun. Planting should, as much as possible, be accompanied by abundant watering, in order to consolidate the soil about the roots; and where the soil is dry, or not a stiff clay, it may be performed in the beginning of wet weather, in gardens; and in forest planting, on dry soils, in all open weather during autumn, winter, and spring.
TO WATER GARDENS.
Watering becomes requisite in gardens for various purposes, as aliment to plants in a growing state, to support newly transplanted plants, for keeping under insects, and keeping clean the leaves of vegetables. One general rule must be ever kept in mind during the employment of watering a garden; that is, never to water the top or leaves of a plant when the sun shines. All watering should be carried on in the evening or early in the morning, unless it be confined to watering the roots, in which case, transplanted plants, and others in a growing state, may be watered at any time; and if they are shaded from the sun, they may also be watered over their tops. Watering over the tops is performed with the rose, or dispenser attached to the spout of the watering-pot, or by the syringe or engine. Watering the roots is best done with the rose; but in the case of watering-pots in haste, and where the earth is hardened, it is done with the naked spout.
Many kitchen-crops are lost, or produced of very inferior quality, for want of watering. Lettuces and cabbages are often hard and stringy; turnips and radishes do not swell, onions decay, cauliflowers die off, and, in general, in dry soils. Copious waterings in the evenings, during the dry season, would produce that fulness of succulency, which are found in the vegetables produced in the low countries, and in the Marsh Gardens at Paris; and in this country at the beginning and latter end of the season.
Watering the foliage of small trees to prevent the insects, and of strawberries, and fruit shrubs, to swell the fruit, is also of importance.
The principal tools used by gardeners are, a light handy spade, a shovel, rake, with iron teeth, hoe, three-pronged fork, dibber, or setting-stick, line and reel, usually called a skillet, wheelbarrow, baskets, trowel, a pair of shears, scythe, hay-rake, hook, ladder, besom, or broom, beater, garden-roller, turfing-iron, hatchet, and hammer. The gardener usually wears a blue woollen apron, which, when he is pruning, he ties up before him, and then serves to hold his nails, shreds, scissors, hammer, and pruning-knife. He should also be provided with a light measuring rod, flat and narrow, painted and divided on one side into feet and half feet, and on the other into yards and half yards; with this he will be able to measure distances, to lay out his beds for sowing and planting, and to measure and lay down his gravel-walks, grass-plats, &c. A table, that will be very useful to him in laying out beds, or any quantity of ground, large or small, will be found in the Appendix.
THE GARDENER’S CALENDAR.
Containing useful Information for every Month in the Year.
January. If the weather be open and dry, sow, upon warm compartments, small portions of peas, beans, cabbage, spinage, carrots, parsley, radish, lettuce, and onions, and preserve them from the cold by mats. Also, in hot-beds, cucumbers, melons, small salading, best early and red cabbage, kidney beans, and cauliflowers. Plant cabbages, horse-radish, beans, and mint roots. The cucumbers and melons this month require particular attention. They ought to receive air by small degrees, as often as possible.
February. Sow small salading, radishes, onions, parsley, spinage, lettuce, peas, beans, cabbage, cauliflowers, carrots, parsnips, fennel, &c. Plant cabbages, &c. as last month. The cucumber and melon plants raised last month, should be transplanted about the middle of this into new hot-beds. The ground should be prepared for planting asparagus next month.
March. Sow, in this month, principal crops of carrots, early turnips, radishes, onions, cabbage, celery, cauliflowers, spinage, lettuce, asparagus, peas, and beans. Sow asparagus for the new plantations of the next year. Make new asparagus beds, and fork the old ones.
April. Sow and plant, as in the former month, for a later crop. Towards the middle of the month dung should be prepared for ridges of melons and cucumbers. Snails and slugs ought to be killed, and weeds kept down; otherwise they will increase so fast as to render their destruction difficult.
May. The principal crops sowed and planted in the spring will now require weeding, hoeing, and thinning, and some transplanting. The melon beds require an equal degree of heat; and the glasses must be covered every night through the month with mats; but in the middle of the day they must be raised to the breadth of two or three fingers. Cucumbers in frames must receive a moderate supply of water, and be planted out under hand-glasses.
June. Particular attention is now required in weeding, hoeing, thinning, and watering the principal crops, and pricking out and transplanting for autumn and winter. Sow savoys, brocoli, borecole, cabbages, turnips, carrots, spinage, coleworts, kidney beans, lettuce, endive, celery, cucumbers, radishes, peas, beans, and small salading. Plant cabbages, colewort, savoys, brocoli, borecole, leeks, beans, lettuce, endive, celery, cucumbers, radishes, peas, and beans. Melon plants must be shaded in the heat of the day, and receive a large portion of fresh air. Transplant endive for blanching, and prick out young brocoli plants, which were sown in April or May.
July. Prepare ground for the reception of succession crops, and some main crops for autumn and winter, and sow turnips, &c. as at the beginning of the year. The common radishes sown now will be fit to draw the beginning of September; and the cauliflowers sown in May must be planted out in spots where they are to remain. The beds of carrots sown now will be fit to draw early in April. Spinage for winter may now be sown, and onions taken up if the leaves wither.
August. Asparagus beds planted in March must now be cleared; celery transplanted and earthed, and the heads or suckers taken from the March artichokes. The early cabbage seed must not be sown later than the 12th of this month; but lettuce seed may be put in as late as the 24th. The cauliflower seed will not do without covering, and the spinage sown last month will require hoeing.
September. Sow spinage, lettuce, onions, radishes, cabbages, colewort, chervil, corn-salad, borage, coriander, turnips, and successions of small salading. Plant savoys, cabbages, coleworts, brocoli, borecole, lettuces, leeks, celery, endive, and perennial, aromatic, and pot-herbs. Make mushroom beds, and cut down the haulm of asparagus, clean the beds and dung them if necessary. Hoe your turnips, and weed onions. The cauliflowers of last month must be weeded out, and cabbage-plants pricked. Of the lettuces sown last month some may be put into warm borders for spring use, and others planted under frames for pulling in December and January. The different seeds must be gathered as they ripen.
October. Sow a small crop of radishes and lettuces, successions of small salading, and a few early peas to come in next summer. Plant crops of cabbage, cauliflowers, late brocoli, celery, lettuce, early beans. Keep uncovered night and day, for the greater part of this month, such cauliflowers as are planted in frames. All spare ground should be dunged and trenched.
November. Most of the processes used last month will also be appropriate for this. Such as giving air to lettuce and cauliflower plants that are under frames. Cut down the leaves of artichokes and earth up the plants.
December. Forward the digging, manuring, or trenching vacant ground, preparing hot dung, making hot-beds, and earthing and tying up plants. Sow a few early peas and radishes on warm borders, and small salading and cucumbers in hot-beds. Plant early beans, strong cabbage-plants, and coleworts; and plant in hot-beds, cucumbers, mint, tarragon, and asparagus. The small salads may be sown every ten days, under frames; and such radish seed as may be put into the ground this month, should be covered on cold nights with fern, or long litter.
Salary from 50l. to 100l. a year,—a cottage, generally, and vegetables and fuel allowed.
THE UNDER GARDENERS.
These men are entirely under the controul and direction of the head gardener, and are employed by him, for the most part, in digging and trenching, wheeling, dunging, gravelling, hoeing, mowing, and other laborious work.
They are engaged as weekly servants, and are paid according to their abilities, from 16 to 20 or 21 shillings per week, and vegetables. Some under gardeners have a cottage assigned for themselves and families, and others have also fuel allowed them for their fires.
THE SERVANTS’ HALL.
In large establishments, the housekeeper, the lady’s maid, and the men servants out of livery, usually take their meals by themselves, in the housekeeper’s or steward’s room; but when they take their dinner together, they preserve an order at table like the following:—The housekeeper usually takes her seat at the head, and the butler at the lower end of the table; the cook at the right of the housekeeper, and the lady’s maid on her left; the under butler on the right, and the coachman on the left of the butler; the house-maid next to the cook, and the kitchen-maid next to the lady’s-maid; and the men servants always occupying the lower end of the table. The dinner is set on the table by the cook, and the beer is drawn by the under butler.
The servants’ table is usually provided with solid dishes, and with ale and table beer; and it is the business of the superior servants to see that their accommodation is comfortable and in plenty, but without extravagance, or waste and riot. In well-regulated families, the servants’ hall is distinguished by its decorum, good order, and even good manners, which the servants who wait in the parlour imbibe, and convey to the kitchen. Servants of coarse manners, vulgar habits, or profane discourse, and malicious dispositions, are shunned by others, and never make good their footing or rise in first-rate families, where all the good and bad qualities which belong to the superior ranks of society operate as much to their advantage or disadvantage as in any station of life. In truth, the servants’ hall is a little world by itself, in which the passions, tempers, vices, and virtues, are brought into play, and contribute their full share in promoting that welfare and happiness, which it is the object of this work to fix and improve.
APPRENTICES.
When a youth in the City of London is bound apprentice he is presented to the Chamberlain, who puts into his hands for his guide, the following instructions, and as they proceed from such high authority, they are thought worthy of being preserved in this volume as a body of instruction to apprentices generally.
A COPY OF INDENTURE OF APPRENTICESHIP.
A FAMILIAR EXPLANATION OF AN INDENTURE OF APPRENTICESHIP.
This Indenture witnesseth, That__R. B.__ Son of__J. B.__, Citizen of London, doth put himself (that is, by his own free and voluntary choice) apprentice to __A. A.__ Citizen and ____ of London, to learn his Art, and with him after the manner of an Apprentice to serve (that is, to live with him in the capacity of a learner and servant, doing all such work as belongs to his trade, and as Apprentices by custom are obliged to do) from the date hereof, unto the full end and term of ____ years from thence next following to be fully complete and ended; that is, not at the beginning only, or for part of the time, but so long as his Indenture shall continue in force, which must be for seven years at least.
During which term the said Apprentice his said Master faithfully shall serve; that is, he shall be true and just to his Master in all his dealings, both in word and deed; he must not only keep his hands from picking and stealing, and his tongue from lying and slandering; he must not only abstain from doing him any manner of injury, by idleness, negligence, or carelessness; by deceiving, defaming, or any kind of evil speaking: but, he must learn and labour to do him true and real service.
Ye must be faithful in all things. 1 Tim. i.
In all your labours let no iniquity be found. Hosea xii. 8.
Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another. Lev. xix. 11.
Speak every man truth to his neighbour. Eph. iv. 25.
All that do unrighteously are an abomination to the Lord thy God. Deut. xxv. 16.
He that uttereth a slander is a fool. Prov. x. 18.
The lip of truth shall be established for ever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment; for the mouth of them who speak lies shall be stopped. Chap. xii. 19.
To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice; (for) they who deal truly are his delight. Chap. xxi. 3, chap. xii. 22.
His secrets keep; that is, conceal the particular secrets of his art, trade, or science, without divulging or making any one privy to them to the detriment of his Master, whose interest may very much depend on a peculiar management and knowledge of his business. To behave thus, is to serve faithfully; and fidelity is the glory and perfection of a Servant, as his want of it is his greatest discredit and reproach.
Discover not a secret to another, lest he that heareth it putteth thee to shame, and the infamy turn not away. Prov. xxv. 9, 10.
His lawful commands every where gladly do; that is, he shall readily and cheerfully obey him in all things lawful, without murmuring, hesitation, or reluctance; for obedience from a Servant to his Master, is a duty established by all laws, human and divine; and is founded likewise in the very nature of things; it being impossible to preserve any superiority in the one over the other, unless the inferior submits himself to the direction of his superior in all such things as he has a right to command him to do; that is, all things lawful: he is indeed, properly speaking, no longer a Servant than while he obeys his Master’s commands; so that the covenanted obedience of an Apprentice is on all accounts indispensably necessary; and the more cheerfully he performs it, the more perfectly he fulfils his duty, and the greater will be the reward as well as pleasure of his obedience; for his Master will doubtless take all opportunities of encouraging him on account of his willingness; he will contrive to make his work as easy to him as he can; he will treat him with all the kindness, and shew him all the favour that is consistent with the relation between them; whereby his servitude will be rendered a kind of freedom; the necessary labours of it a delight; and the time of its duration short and pleasant: he will beside gain the advantage of being trusted and confided in by his Master, which must necessarily give him a quick and thorough insight into his trade, whereby he will become duly qualified for the power and dignity of a Master himself, and establish such a reputation and character as will gain him the esteem and friendship of all who know him; and can therefore have no other than a comfortable prospect of advancing his station and fortune in the world. The quite contrary of all which must be the lot of the disobedient, churlish, and murmuring Servant; who will, in all probability, end his days as a Master (if ever he arrives at that honour) in the same discontented, uneasy, and disregarded manner, in which he lived as a Servant; feared by very few, beloved by none.
Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own Masters, and to please them well in all things, not answering again. Titus ii. 9.
His servants ye are whom ye obey. Rom. vi. 16.
Servants, obey in all things your Masters, according to the flesh; not only to the good and gentle, but also the froward. Col. iii. 22.
And when ye be buffeted for well-doing, take it patiently; for this is thank-worthy and acceptable with God. 1 Pet. ii. 20.
With good-will doing service. Ephes. vi. 7.
Not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. Col. iii. 22.
If any would not work, neither should he eat. 2 Thes. iii. 10.
In all labour there is profit; and the thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness. Prov. xiv. 23.
The hand of the diligent maketh rich.—An idle soul shall suffer hunger. Chap. x. 4.
—Chap. xix. 15.
Seest thou a man diligent, he shall stand before kings, he shall not stand before mean men. A slothful man is compared to a filthy stone, and every one will hiss him out to his disgrace. Chap. xxii. 29. Eccl. xxii. 1.
They that plough iniquity, and sow wickedness, shall reap the same. Job iv. 8.
The Lord will make them contemptible and base, before all the people, according as they have not kept his ways. Malachi ii. 9.
He shall do no damage to his said Master, nor see it to be done of others, but that he to his power shall let (that is, prevent or hinder) or forthwith give warning to his said Master of the same. He shall not waste the goods of his said Master, or lend them unlawfully to any. It is not sufficient that the Apprentice does not wrong his Master himself, by cheating, pilfering, purloining, wasting, spoiling, lending, or giving away any of his goods; by sloth and idleness, by neglecting his business, and loitering away his time; it is not enough that he does his Master no kind of damage himself; but he must be watchful that he is not injured in any kind by his fellow-servants and others; and be sure to do what in him lies to prevent or discover it to his Master; for he cannot be indifferent or careless in such a case, or connive and conceal any thing of this kind, without breach of covenant, and incurring the guilt and shame that is due to unfaithfulness.
Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. Ephes. v. 11.
Beware of evil workers, and be not thou partaker with them.
Thou shalt not suffer sin in thy brother, but by any means reprove him. Phil. iii. 2.
When thou sawest a thief thou consentedst with him. Psalm l. 18.
He shall not commit fornication. This vice has been the bane of so many young men in all ages and places, that every one’s memory must furnish him with divers instances of its fatal effects; the Sessions papers are filled with numberless accounts of unhappy persons who are brought by it to public shame and infamous ends; and indeed nothing is so destructive to the morals and happiness of youth, as the having any kind of commerce with lewd and shameless women; for such conversation infallibly destroys the health, consumes the fortune, blasts the credit, and extinguishes that modesty which is the principal ornament and surest preservative of youth from the vices and dangers they are most exposed to.
Flee fornication: He that committeth fornication, sinneth against his own body. 1 Cor. vi. 18.
Keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of the strange woman: lust not after her beauty in thy heart, neither let her take thee with her eye-lids; lest thou give thine honour to others: lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed. Prov. vi. 24, 25.—Prov. v. 10, 11.
Let not thy heart decline to her ways, for her house is the way to hell. Thou goest after her as an ox goeth to the slaughter, till a dart strike through thy liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life. Prov. vii. 25, 27, 22, 23.
Neither fornicators nor adulterers shall inherit the kingdom of God. 1 Cor. vi. 9.
Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. Heb. xiii. 4.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Matt. v. 8.
Nor contract matrimony within the said term. Marriage is a very improper state for Apprentices, but is too often entered into rashly without consideration, or the consent of friends and relations; and therefore is very seldom advantageous, and generally unhappy. The necessary expense and charge which attends a growing family, must quite consume a small fortune, very much lessen a good one, and entail heavy debts and lasting misery on the generality of married Apprentices, who cannot hope to avoid a jail; and it is well if that is their worst misfortune. At best such a marriage is an act of great disobedience and contempt towards parents and friends, of injustice towards the Master, and must be attended with the loss of their esteem and friendship, if not with their heavy displeasure. It is a direct violation of this covenant, a forfeiture of their right to the freedom of London, and tends to unsettle and alienate the mind from business, and to disable the Apprentice from ever becoming a complete master of his trade.
He shall not play at cards, dice, tables, or any other unlawful game, whereby his said Master may have any loss. All sorts of gaming for money is prohibited by this covenant; it being a habit of the most pernicious consequence. Those who have an itch for gaming, very rarely have any relish for business; the dispositions and qualifications for the one, being quite inconsistent with the other. Modesty, caution, industry, frugality, and strict integrity, are indispensably necessary to the forming a good and successful tradesman; but no man ever made his fortune by play, without corrupting his morals and forfeiting his character; for the gamester must be bold and adventurous, extravagant and profuse, fraudulent, tricking, and deceitful, of scandalous life, and infamous reputation; and such will the unwary and thoughtless Apprentice soon become, who is addicted to this vice; who begins with it under pretence of amusement, but suffers the love of it to grow on him till it becomes habitual; and what assurance has he, that the loss of his own money, and the flattering hopes of better fortune, will not tempt him to steal and hazard what is his Master’s? What hopes can he have that he shall escape the rock on which so many have perished? The Apprentice therefore who would not expose himself to guilt, to shame, punishment, and ruin, must religiously observe this prohibition.
Wo onto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong. Jer. xxii. 13.
Wo unto them that have made dishonest gain of their neighbours, by extortion, or by the iniquity of their traffic. Ezek. xxii. 12.
My soul come not thou into their secrets, unto their assemblies my honour be not thou united. Gen. xlix.
We have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, therefore let us not walk in craftiness. (For) better is a little with righteousness, than great revenues without right. 2 Cor. iv.
Wealth got by vanity shall be diminished: but he that gathereth by labour shall increase. Prov. xiii. 11.
If sinners entice thee, consent thou not. Walk not then in the way with them; lest thou learn their ways, and get a snare to thy soul. Prov. i. 10, 15.
—Chap. xxii.
With his own goods, or others, during the said term, without license of his said Master, he shall neither buy nor sell. The apprenticeship is a time of labour and improvement, not of gain; it is the season wherein youth are to acquire a thorough knowledge of trade, and to establish in themselves such habits as will enable them to carry it on hereafter with pleasure and profit. A liberty for the Apprentice to trade on his own account, would, in most instances, be rather a snare than an advantage to him; it would oftener increase his acquaintance and expenses than his fortune; it would furnish him with excuses for absenting himself from his Master’s house and business, under pretence of promoting his own; and lead him into company-keeping, and a large acquaintance, before he hath judgment to make a proper choice; and it is to be feared, would sometimes be the occasion of his being unfaithful, and create continual jealousies and misunderstandings between him and his Master. Upon all which accounts this prohibition is for their mutual advantage; and the breach of it on no account to be connived at by the Master, nor practised by the Apprentice.
If ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own?
He shall not haunt taverns or play-houses, nor absent himself from his said Master’s service day or night unlawfully. I have joined these three prohibitions together, because of the connexion they have; the Apprentice cannot commit the two first without being guilty of the last, which is a great act of injustice; for the Master has not a better title to his own money or goods than to the time of his Apprentice. He therefore must not upon any pretence whatsoever absent himself day or night from his Master’s house, without his consent. He must not, when the common business of the day is over, think himself at his own disposal, and take the liberty of going on his pleasure, without permission. Many things may occur which require his presence: business sometimes offers very unexpectedly; and the Apprentice should be always ready for his Master’s service. Add to this, that the house, the shop, and effects of his Master, are continually under his care, and the looking well after them a duty always incumbent on him; which such a one can never faithfully discharge who lists himself in clubs, or haunts taverns, or any other kind of tippling houses, or who frequents play-houses, and such like diversions. These habits are not only attended with a great waste of the Master’s time, but with an expense which few Apprentices can afford, and will probably lead him from wrong to robbery, when the Master’s money becomes as necessary to his pleasures as his time; for, he who scruples not to waste the one, will not be long before he makes free with the other. It is therefore the interest and happiness of youth, to be restrained from frequenting these places, where they can only associate themselves with the young and giddy, the raw and inexperienced, the loose and disorderly; for discreet and prudent persons will not encourage Apprentices in such unlawful haunts, by keeping them company. And what must be the fruits of such society? what, but noisy empty mirth; loose and licentious discourse, riot, intemperance, and disorder; of the same pernicious kind are the pleasures they receive from plays, interludes, and such like diversions. These, to youthful and unsettled judgments, are but vain and airy entertainments, which fill the head with romantic and unnatural ideas of life and the world, and tend only to alienate the mind from business, which is its proper, and ought to be its chief entertainment; and to expose youth to the danger of being corrupted by lewd and vicious persons of both sexes, who always crowd such places. Upon the whole, then, it is evident, the Apprentice cannot haunt taverns, that is, any kind of public tippling-houses, or frequent play-houses, nor absent himself day or night from his Master’s service, without breach of covenant, nor indeed without exposing himself to the loss of reputation (for such as his companions and pleasures are, such will his character be) and contracting vicious and expensive habits, which will probably bring him to want and misery, to shame and punishment.
He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much; and he that is unjust in the least, is unjust also in much. Luke vi. 10.
That which is altogether just shalt thou follow. Deut. xvi. 20.
Blessed are those servants, whom their Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching. Luke xii. 37.
Be ye therefore ready also. Luke xii. 40.
I wrote unto you not to accompany with fornicators. 1 Cor. v. 9, 11.
If a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such a one eat not.
Be not among wine bibbers, amongst riotous eaters of flesh. Prov. xxiii. 20.
He that is a companion of riotous men, shameth his father. Prov. xxviii. 7.
Look not thou on the wine when it is red, when it giveth its colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright; at the last it biteth as a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Prov. xxiii. 31.
Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging. Prov. xx. 1.
Withdraw yourself from every brother that walketh disorderly. Thes. iii. 6.
He that followeth vain persons is void of understanding.
Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil. Exod. xxiii. 2.
Cease to hear instructions that causeth to err from the words of knowledge. Prov. xix. 27.
He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man: he that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich. Prov. xxi. 17.
Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contention? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without a cause? who hath redness of eyes? they who tarry long at the wine! they who go to seek mixed wine: and men of strength to mingle strong drink: that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink.
It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools. Prov. xxiii. 29.
—Isaiah v. 22.
But in all things, as a faithful Apprentice, he shall behave himself towards his said Master, and all his, during the said term.
That is, he shall faithfully and diligently perform the covenants in this Indenture, and demean himself humbly, dutifully, and obligingly to his Master and Mistress, with civility and respect to their children, friends, relations, and customers, and all who belong to them.
And the said Master in consideration of ____ being the money given with the said Apprentice, his said Apprentice, in the same art and mystery which he useth, by the best means that he can, shall teach, or instruct, or cause to be taught and instructed, finding unto his said Apprentice, meat, drink, apparel, lodging, and all other necessaries, according to the custom of the City of London, during the said term.
The end and design of Apprenticeship, is for the training up of youth to the knowledge and practice of some art or business; whereby they may learn to get their own living, and become useful to the public; and for the promoting this good and laudable design, the Master here covenants to furnish the Apprentice with all necessaries during the term of his Indenture, and to take especial care of his instruction and improvement in the trade he follows. It is, therefore, the indispensable duty of every Master to use his best means, that is, to take all proper methods for performance of these covenants. He must endeavour to render his Apprentice skilful and industrious, by due information and constant employment: he must enforce the duties of diligence, frugality, and honesty, by his own example, by kind and gentle usage, and by instilling into his mind the necessity and usefulness of these and all other good and virtuous habits. He must restrain him from whatever interferes with his duty or obstructs his improvement, by advice, by exhortation, by reproof, and (if need be) by moderate and reasonable correction; and if all these prove ineffectual, he must apply to the magistrate, and call to his assistance the authority of the Chamberlain, who will judge indifferently between the Master and the Apprentice, and oblige both parties to perform the covenants of their Indentures.
Let as many servants as are under the yoke, count their own masters worthy of all honour. 1 Tim.
Let not the child behave proudly against the ancients, nor the base against the honourable. For by pride cometh contention. Isai. iii. 5.
Honour widows. 1 Tim. v. 3.
A soft answer turneth away wrath, and yielding pacifieth great offences; (but) grievous words stir up anger. Prov. xv. 1.
—Eccl. x. 4.
Please them well in all things, not answering again.
Whereas thy servant worketh truly, treat him not evil. Eccl. vii. 20.
Let my soul love a good servant. Ver. 21.
Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal, forbearing threatening; knowing that ye have also a Master in Heaven: neither is there respect of persons with him. Gal. iv. 1.
—Eph. vi. 9.
Despise not the cause of thy servants when they contend with thee. Did not He that made thee in the womb, make him: And did not one fashion us all in the womb? Job. xxxi. 13.
—Ver. 15.
Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry. Eccl. vii. 9.
Ye shall not rule over one another with rigour, for ye are brethren. Lev. xxv. 49.
Be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in faith, in purity. 1 Tim. iv. 12.
Six days in the week shalt thou labour, and do all thy work.
Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy. In it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy servant, &c.
Why is the house of God forsaken?
Unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither shall ye come, ye and your households.
That ye may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the Lord their God, and observe to do all the words of his law.
According to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do: thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall shew thee, to the right hand or to the left. Deut. xxxi. 12.
And for the true performance of all and every the said covenants and agreements, either of the said parties bindeth himself unto the other by these presents. In witness whereof, the parties above named of these Indentures, interchangeably have put their hands and seals, the ____ of ____ in the ____ year of the Reign of our Sovereign, ____ of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, ____ Defender of the Faith, and in the year of our Lord, &c.