do their utmost to regain their lost reputation. Were it necessary, I could give many instances of their destruction of coals. Footmen have been seen to throw on large scuttles of coals, when they heard their mistress putting up the cinders in the drawing-room. "Ay, here go the coals; that shall save her nothing." A cook, who had left her place on account of this, was asked how the mistress tolerated it, as she was a very careful person? "She is not careful, madam," replied the cook, "but narrow ;" an excellent distinction! Three servants, charged with this fault, had their option either to leave their places, or to follow the plough for three days, to pick up the coals that had been thrown out on the land amongst the ashes. They had a day to think of it, as their master said, to bring down their pride. Upon the day appointed, having finished their work very early, they went out with little baskets; and having cheerfully worked all day, and gathered a great quantity of coals, they were forgiven in consideration of their prompt obedience.

Butter is another very great expense which might unquestionably be reduced one-half, if top-pot and other fats that come in were properly rendered and used.

The cook ought to consult Beauvillier, who will give her as much sage counsel in economy as in cookery.* Candles are also expensive, and the cook should never allow three or four to burn at a time; but to see sometimes seven or eight blazing upon a kitchen or hall table is really shameful. There ought to be an extinguisher at the doors of the kitchen, hall, pantry, housekeeper's room, &c., and every person that enters should be obliged to extinguish his candle: when extinguished properly, it will light in a moment. There may be seen also in children's apartments five or six candles brought by servants, and each of them have their excuse; the dairy-maid with milk, the laundry-maid with linen, the under-cook with pans, the house-maid with her work,

&c.

A mother going into her nursery to have something done for her, the child's dinner coming in, and he

Beauvillier, as he does not suppose that any one could misuse candles, gives instructions of what use may be made of the ends. The economy of the French, of the highest orders, has ever been conspicuous, and this was their main support, not only through the Revolution, but also through five bad years that followed it. In the south of France, in 1817, the whole people, excepting the children, had only two meals a day, and they all looked healthy, thankful, and happy.

growing impatient, she took him into her lap to give it to him, but to her astonishment he shuddered at the sight of the prunes, and called them nasty things.

The child having been dieted by a physician, the mother took the alarm, and she determined to take the child to her own chamber, and give him his victuals herself, the child's ailment requiring nourishment. He ate voraciously the first evening, and next morning half a chicken was prepared for him; but to the mother's astonishment, the child pointed out the largest piece first to belong to the nurse, and so on throughout the dish. The child reco vered in a very short time to his former health from attention and proper food. This child had been declining nine months, and would, in all probability, in a few more, have been left in such a state of debility as never to have recovered.

Any servant in whom a master places trust, particularly that of his children, ought to have a watchful eye over every thing connected with them. What a return to a good master, to destroy the hope of his future life, leaving the misery entailed upon the child out of the question! I have known so many instances of this, that I suppose servants cannot be ignorant themselves of such abuses.

Let not cooks, therefore, after what has been said, plead ignorance. If they have the charge of the children's diet, they then become more responsible.

When they prepare rice for them in any form, they ought to be particularly careful not to pour the gluten from it, nor sweeten it too sparingly; sugar is very nourishing for children. A good cook ought to be able to direct children's diet. When currants, prunes, or raisins are ordered, let them not be thrown carelessly into boiling water to clean them, for by that they lose all their flavour and substance; but after rubbing them well in a nice cloth, let them be also well picked; or if they require washing, let it be in cold water, without soaking them in it, and put into the food. When she makes pastry (should it not be the custom to bake the bread), let her make some bread for the children's tea with a little sugar and a few currants. They will eat that bread when it is eight days old, rather than new bread with butter, and it will be much better for them, as children should never eat bread till it is two days old at least. When boys

have to go to day-schools, the cook may make small rolls, with an egg baked in the shell in the middle, with the bread crossed over it, or with two or three prunes or a fig, as these fruits are much better baked than raw for them they thus learn also to eat bread and fruit together, which is the only safe way of eating much of it. If apples or plums are used in this way, they are not to be pared, but bedded in sugar; but pears require to be pared, as the skin is unpleasant. If the cook had any idea how much those little attentions attach the mistress, she would not grudge an hour earlier or later; nor would she find any difficulty in carrying up the children's dinner herself: she should see it go safe to the nursery, and then if it is not given she cannot help it. Some children have such long and good memories, as to remember the nurse eating the greatest part of their dinner; and whether it is nursery-maid or cook that is intrusted with cooking their food, they should be particularly careful not to boil any sort of meat too quick for them, as it hardens it, and makes it indigestible to their tender stomachs. I was once told by a housekeeper it did not signify, as what they did not get in the meat they had in the soup; but I had my doubts if they did get it in the soup, while I would have been certain of their having had it in the meat, independent of the evil of giving them such indigestible stuff. Their rice ought to be cooked in no more water than is necessary to swell it; their apples roasted, or stewed with no more water than is necessary to steam them; their vegetables so well cooked as to make them require little butter, and less digestion; their eggs boiled slow and soft. The boiling of their milk ought to be directed by the state of their bowels; if flatulent or bilious, a very little curry powder may be given in their vegetables with good effect-such as turmeric and the warm seeds (not hot peppers) are particularly useful in such cases. Where biscuit powder is in use, let it be made at home; this, at all events, will prevent them getting the sweepings of the baker's counters, boxes, and baskets; oatmeal, where it agrees with the stomach, is much better for children, being a fine opener as well as cleanser; fine flour in every shape is the reverse. For

All the left bread in the nursery, hard ends of stale loaves, &c., ought to be dried in the oven or screen, and reduced to powder in the mortar.

children more advanced, boiled puddings of fruit and meat are excellent, particularly of fruit and the finer vegetables, seasoned sweet; and to them, as soups are little used at our schools, is perhaps to be attributed the health of the children, as it is a very different thing enticing a child to eat sweet pudding after it is perfectly satisfied with dainties at home, than by eating them almost entirely for a meal. Potatoes, particularly some kinds, are not easily digested by children; but this is easily remedied by mashing them very fine, and seasoning them sweet with a little milk. Sugar and egg, browned before the fire, or dropped as fritters into a hot frying-pan, without fat, will make them a nourishing meal. Children should be early accustomed to have their puddings and pancakes seasoned with rue and tansy. Taste, like every other thing, is acquired; and as some children have a great tendency to worms, and such antidotes being better than having recourse to medicines, the cook, by stealing the taste upon them, will render a great service to her mistress by assisting her in keeping the children's stomachs in order. When peas are dressed for children, let them be seasoned with mint and sugar, which will take off the flatulency.* Never give them vegetables less stewed than would pulp through a cullender. Cabbagesoup, seasoned in the same manner with a little neat's foot or olive oil, and thickened with oatmeal or flour, makes an excellent soup, even without butter or oil, for them; but if used, the last is preferable. Every good cook ought to understand cooking for the sick, which they will find every where interspersed among the receipts. Wheys, jellies, soups, gruels, soft and other spoon-meats, as sago, arrow-root, saloop, tapioca, vegetable jellies, &c., and nice dishes of sweetbreads, brains, chicken, with many others; all these she ought to arrange in her mind, to be ready as occasion may require. These things, at first, look quite unattainable; but there is nothing more easy to a cook who has nothing to think of but her own business. A French cook looks upon him. self as the family physician; but it is quite different with them, as they seldom leave their places. It would be a great improvement in this country to see cooks bred, as

If they are old, let them be pulped, as the skins are perfectly indigestible by children's or weak stomachs.

to any other business, by apprenticing them under good cooks for a certain time; this is the only way of having any number properly taught, as the best receipts will not teach much without a great deal of practice and attention, which every one cannot attain, particularly after a certain age.

It is of great importance in the economy of a family that the cook have no perquisites; that she may not be induced, for the sake of an ounce of tea, to give away in meat five times its value to her master. Nor is her master the only one injured: her fellow-servants are scrimped and ill fed.

For a lapful of this offal, a poor Irishwoman will, to be sure, carry home a load from the market, and save the cook a sixpence, and sometimes a shilling. She will dine upon it, and take a couple of additional glasses of gin, to make it sit upon her stomach. The mistress, who is robbed of what would have well dined her family, may be satisfied to hear that the poor creature has got a bellyful; and the woman, who might have dined in her own way at half the price, and saved the gin, thinks she has made a very cheap dinner.

The utmost possible attention should be paid to cleanliness. This cannot be too often repeated. Much care should be taken that the stew-pans are not injured, for in the smallest dent or scratch matter is sure to be lodged, that may corrode and become poisonous. It is to be wished that brass and copper vessels were excluded from our kitchens.* Well-used untinned Carron vessels do not discolour the meat; and if they did, what would that signify, in comparison of the danger? Let the cook remember, she is not to trust to her saucepan being newly tinned, as tin poisons, and is decomposed by acids. To satisfy herself, let the cook take half a lemon, and rub a tinned pan, and she will see how bright it will become; which is occasioned by removing a coat of the tin. If she puts any acid into a sauce, it will dissolve a certain portion of it: but as acids are not generally put in till the cooking is nearly over, the danger is not so very great, though a small portion of the tin be unavoidably absorbed, but which may do as much

* I once witnessed a dreadful case, occasioned by a dinner being kept back some hours.