x INTRODUCTION 
many and many a happy morning have I spent helping 
my dear old mother (God bless her) in doing these 
things. 
And yet they had not half the conveniences and 
advantages for preserving that we have —only big, 
awkward shaped bottles, a fish kettle, hay-bands, and 
bits of green bladder. We used nothing else in 1850. 
But the result! A few bottles failed, no doubt, for all 
depended on the quality of the bladder and the rapidity 
with which it was put on and tied down. But roughly 
speaking the result was fruit preserved in abundance 
for the winter and spring, with none of its flavour and 
delicacy wanting. To this very day—even from your 
own hands, dear lady—I have never tasted quite such 
raspberries as my mother and her sisters preserved—they 
were just like fresh gathered fruit. 
Well, I have seen the art as practised in our country 
houses die out amongst us—the lowest depths being 
reached about 1885, when I doubt whether there were 
a dozen ladies in the land who did their own bottling 
and preserving. Of late years the art has revived some- 
what, owing chiefly, I think, to the influence of the 
Royal Horticultural Society amongst public bodies, and 
to a considerable extent to the exertions of yourself and 
Miss Crooke. 
The work is essentially fitted for ladies—I mean ladies 
by birth and by education. It is by no means laborious, 
but interesting, pleasant, and healthy, though at the same 
time it demands the utmost nicety, cleanliness, and at- 
tention to details; and it is just in this minute attention 
to detail that an uneducated cook so often fails. 
All fruits (as no doubt in your little book you will 
not fail to emphasise) may be—nay, should be bottled. 
The method is admirably suited to those particular fruits 
which are least in favour when gathered fresh, as black 
currants and damsons. These, when bottled and kept 
