SEPTEMBER 9 



out to E. ; but the butcher's book shows no proportionate 

 diminution. This has led me to reflect how much more 

 infectious extravagance is than economy.' 



One of my most complimentary letters was from an 

 old friend, Mrs. Roundell, asking me to allow her to quote 

 some of my receipts in a new cookery book she was com- 

 piling. This has since appeared under the name of ' A 

 Practical Cookery Book ' (Bickers & Son), and is so ex- 

 cellent that it thoroughly convinces me of my wisdom in 

 declining to write one myself. My praise of this book 

 almost suggests a mutual admiration society, as Mrs. 

 Boundell is very complimentary to me. She begins by 

 thanking me for my receipts, and ends by a quotation 

 from ' Pot-Pourri ' on hospitality and house-keeping. It 

 will be many a long year before her own book is super- 

 seded. The receipts are clear and economical, and its 

 only fault seems to be that at present it costs seven-and- 

 sixpence. 



A literary friend writes that he has a point of dissent 

 ' a bit of pedantic purism. You say " chickens." There is 

 no such word : chicken is a plural. Hose, hosen ; chick, 

 chicken ; and in old days many more as house, housen ; 

 place, pleasen. A farmer's wife, at least in the west, says 

 correctly that she is going to feed her chicken meaning 

 not one, but many.' It is difficult to know when custom 

 asserts itself sufficiently to change grammar, and my critic 

 himself admits that many of the words he quotes are ob- 

 solete. I fear I shall hardly have the courage to say 

 ' truss two fine chicken ' if I come across such a phrase in 

 a receipt. 



I received very few letters on the nurse question. 

 It had been a good deal discussed in periodicals just 

 before the book came out. 



An old friend, a doctor, wrote : ' Your chapter on 

 health I take some exception to ; on the question that 



