60 MORE POT-POURRI 



thirty-five years ago. The anonymous writer is ex- 

 tremely 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 compassion for 

 the poor father who has the task of providing a sufficient 

 dowry for each girl. His language must always have 

 been exaggerated, and it is certainly untrue in our day. 

 The ' Stores ' have replaced the old markets, and without 

 doubt ladies, and even gentlemen, do go to them tire- 

 some places though they are and the girls of the present 

 day are very few who do not look after and think about 

 their clothes. Fathers still find the same difficulty in 

 providing dowries for their daughters ; but the girls them- 

 selves among them those who have every right, from the 

 way they have been brought up, to look for dowries are 



