OCTOBER 61 



RECEIPTS 



I have two amusing little books by the same author 

 kind of 'Pot Pourris' of the early 'sixties one called 

 'Dinners and Dinner Parties' and the other 'The Gen- 

 tlewoman.' They are full of good advice and receipts, 

 some of which I think are worth copying, but the chief 

 amusement is to see how the advice they give has grown 

 and spread, and is so much less really wanted than it 

 was thirty -five years 'ago. The anonymous writer is 

 extremely sarcastic about the neglect of household duties 

 by women of all classes. Now, perhaps, the absorption 

 in domestic arrangements and refined luxuries is almost 

 carried to the extreme. Most newspapers have menus, 

 and the cookery books are innumerable. One paragraph 

 in ' The Gentlewoman' is headed, ' The Great Evil in 

 England,' and runs as follows : ' The great social evil is 

 not that which is talked of by gentlemen in black at 

 midnight meetings; but it is the great evil that besets 

 the English from the highest to the lowest. Every man, 

 woman, and child suffers from it, and thousands die or 

 only experience a lingering existence from its neglect. 

 The great social evil is the want of persons of education 

 and practical knowledge worthy to be entrusted in the 

 preparation of food with that care and nicety that is 

 practised in every nation in Europe except England, 

 whereby health would be no longer jeopardised, and 

 twenty millions of money would annually be saved. 

 There would be ample employment for every poor lady 

 who, for the want of domestic knowledge, is doomed to 

 life -long misery.' The writer further complains that 

 ladies do not go to market, that young gentlewomen do 

 not look after their own wardrobes, and is full of com- 

 passion for the poor father who has the task of provid- 

 ing a sufficient dowry for each girl. His language must 



