household work ; and the chief duty of every house- hold, around which all other duties crystallize is cooking. I sometimes wonder how many of the young ladies one meets at places of public amusement are able to undertake the duties of managing a house, and yet I have read somewhere that every lady hopes before she is thirty to undertake these duties. I sometimes hear them not only acknowledge their ignorance of all household work, but make a boast of it, as if nothing would so debase them in the estimation of their ac- quaintances, as their ability to make a loaf of bread or to prepare their husband’s dinner. White hands, pretty faces, large chignons, curiously cut bunches, high-heeled boots, vulgar hats, and an artless ignorance of the practical work of a house, may appear to the poor deluded soul of a young man rather interesting, but, alas for the man who marries such a woman, un- less he also marries the Bank of England ! He soon learns that this world is made up of hard rugged facts and experiences, and that the most romantic of persons must have something to eat. To sit and look at a doll will not satisfy an empty stomach, or make the pot boil, or put anything into it. Young ladies are not entirely to blame ; their mothers have often en- couraged their ignorance of domestic management, but happy beyond description is the young woman, whatever her rank or station in life, who has been early taught the blessedness of household work. If mistresses were better taught, there would be no diffi- culty with servants, but it is hopeless to expect better instructed servants, or better behaved servants, until Mistresses and Servants. 43 we have better instructed mistresses; and in dealing and speaking with servants, remember that of one flesh and of one blood He hath made all nations. You must not interpret what I am now about to say as unfavourable to orphan schools and benevolent asylums for girls. It is the practice of these institu- tions to send girls at sixteen or seventeen into domes- tic service. Their first situation is often a place where the mistress would be all the better and healthier for doing the work herself, and whose cir- cumstances do not admit of her acting justly towards a servant, even in the matter of food. The first situation often disgusts a girl with service, and she prefers the slavery of the needle and the factory, and the freedom of the street. In large establishments everything is done by machinery. Hot and cold water, coals, cleaning, washing, drying, and even scrubbing and sweeping, are done by steam ; potatoes are washed, and food is cooked, not in pounds, but tons. You might as reasonably expect a man to learn farming in a hot-house, as to obtain good domestic servants (except by accident) from large charitable establishments. The whole economy of these places is unfavourable to domestic service ; a servant of all work generally begins life by wheeling a perambulator and reading a penny novel. There ought to be open spaces with flowers and trees for the exercise and recreation of children in large towns. Everything about the girl is wretched, depressing and uncomfortable, and in a month she makes a change, till at last, if she fall no lower, she often becomes, perhaps - the wife of a soldier or a labourer, and the one room, 44 Buckmaster s Cookery.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

household work ; and the chief duty of every household, around which all other duties crystallize is cooking. I sometimes wonder how many of the young ladies one meets at places of public amusement are able to undertake the duties of managing a house, and yet I have read somewhere that every lady hopes before she is thirty to undertake these duties. I sometimes hear them not only acknowledge their ignorance of all household work, but make a boast of it, as if nothing would so debase them in the estimation of their acquaintances, as their ability to make a loaf of bread or to prepare their husband’s dinner. White hands, pretty faces, large chignons, curiously cut bunches, high-heeled boots, vulgar hats, and an artless ignorance of the practical work of a house, may appear to the poor deluded soul of a young man rather interesting, but, alas for the man who marries such a woman, unless he also marries the Bank of England ! He soon learns that this world is made up of hard rugged facts and experiences, and that the most romantic of persons must have something to eat. To sit and look at a doll will not satisfy an empty stomach, or make the pot boil, or put anything into it. Young ladies are not entirely to blame ; their mothers have often encouraged their ignorance of domestic management, but happy beyond description is the young woman, whatever her rank or station in life, who has been early taught the blessedness of household work. If mistresses were better taught, there would be no difficulty with servants, but it is hopeless to expect better instructed servants, or better behaved servants, until Mistresses and Servants. we have better instructed mistresses; and in dealing and speaking with servants, remember that of one flesh and of one blood He hath made all nations. You must not interpret what I am now about to say as unfavourable to orphan schools and benevolent asylums for girls. It is the practice of these institutions to send girls at sixteen or seventeen into domestic service. Their first situation is often a place where the mistress would be all the better and healthier for doing the work herself, and whose circumstances do not admit of her acting justly towards a servant, even in the matter of food. The first situation often disgusts a girl with service, and she prefers the slavery of the needle and the factory, and the freedom of the street. In large establishments everything is done by machinery. Hot and cold water, coals, cleaning, washing, drying, and even scrubbing and sweeping, are done by steam ; potatoes are washed, and food is cooked, not in pounds, but tons. You might as reasonably expect a man to learn farming in a hot-house, as to obtain good domestic servants (except by accident) from large charitable establishments. The whole economy of these places is unfavourable to domestic service ; a servant of all work generally begins life by wheeling a perambulator and reading a penny novel. There ought to be open spaces with flowers and trees for the exercise and recreation of children in large towns. Everything about the girl is wretched, depressing and uncomfortable, and in a month she makes a change, till at last, if she fall no lower, she often becomes, perhaps - the wife of a soldier or a labourer, and the one room, 44 Buckmaster s Cookery.

Buckmaster's cookery