MISCELLANEOUS.
S. C. A.—There is a shilling manual on common British ferns to be obtained quite easily.
Lily.—To make a rice cake, take six eggs, and their weight (in the shell) in sugar, and the same in butter; half their weight in rice flour, and half of wheat flour; whisk the eggs, throw in the rice after the flour, and add the butter in the usual way. Flavour according to preference, and bake for an hour and ten minutes. The ingredients should be severally added during the whisking. To prepare “pressed beef,” procure a piece of the brisket, remove the bones, and put it in salt (in the usual way), adding a little extra sal prunella to the brine and some spice, leaving it in pickle for rather more than a week. Roll and tie up in a cloth, and simmer gently in plenty of water for about seven hours (if the thin end, four hours); then remove the string, tie cloth at each end, put the beef between two plates, and press under a hundredweight, and leave till quite cold; then remove the cloth, trim and glaze, and garnish with parsley.
Daffodil.—You would have no difficulty in obtaining a good riding-habit in your own city, where there must be plenty of good tailors. It would be impossible for us to give an estimate for one, and we can only say that they may be of any price from £4 4s. to £10 10s. You had better get a Directory, look out for tailors and ladies’ tailors, and go and inquire personally.
M. M.—The “V.R.” on the upper corners made all the difference, and marked the first issue of the penny stamps in 1840. The stamp you send us was issued in 1864, and is of no value at all except as a specimen of the date, if you were collecting stamps of every known issue.
Pale Face.—Red would of course suit you, as well as all shades of it. Yellow sometimes suits pale faces very well, and so does grey relieved with pink. Violet and blue will make you look paler.
E. F. Boultbee.—We have pleasure in announcing your change of address, and congratulate you on your success in the oral system of teaching deaf mutes, and the remedy of defective speech. Address, Miss Boultbee, Members’ Mansions, Victoria Street, S.W.
Mahdi.—We thank you sincerely for so kind a letter respecting our magazine. Your writing is excellent. Peel a banana from the end downwards to the stem, and then use a knife and fork; or if at home, in private, you can dispense with them.
P. F. M.—We do not know whom you mean by “supers,” for one of whom you want a home. If some person that has been employed on the stage—one class being known as “supers”—there is a charitable society called the Church and Stage Guild, of which the Hon. Secretary is the Rev. Stewart Headlam, Duke Street, Adelphi, W.C., which looks after these people, and perhaps he might give you some information on the subject.
Light Wanted.—There is not the slightest reason why the event should not take place; indeed there is every reason why it should, provided that both desire it.
Clare Verney.—You might obtain the information you require by reference to Agnes Strickland’s Queens of England, or other history of hers.
Miss Mason requests that our readers should be reminded of her Holiday Home for teachers, clerks, and young persons in business, at Sevenoaks—“Bessel’s House,” Bessel’s Green, Kent. Reduced fares are asked from Charing Cross, London Bridge, Cannon Street, and Victoria. Return tickets for a month, 2s. 8d.—twenty miles from town by S. E. R. Charge for board, etc., from 12s. to 15s. a week. A stamped envelope should be enclosed, and the age and occupation of the applicant stated.
Perplexed.—The law on the question of changing or adding Christian names is as follows: “A child’s baptismal name, if changed, or not previously given, may be inserted in the Register within twelve months after the registration of birth.” You appear to be a member of the Church of England, and as such, how came you to remain unbaptised and excluded from Holy Communion until you were seventeen? “One year’s delay is allowed by the law for altering or adding to your name,” as entered on the Register of Birth, so as to accord with your “baptismal name.” As it is, your assumed second name is not yours by legal right.
Cumberland Lassie.—The high glaze employed by washerwomen for linen is produced by mixing some wax or fat with the starch. This is a difficult undertaking, even when hot. But starch-glazes may be purchased ready for use, which may be employed safely, and are sold at any good oil-shop. Some people, who wash articles at home, simply stir the starch while hot with a wax candle. The following is a good recipe for a glaze: Take 100 parts of wheat starch, 0.75 of stearinic acid, melt the latter with about ten times its weight of the former. Let it cool, powder, and mix thoroughly with the rest of the starch. This will be suitable for shirt-fronts and collars; but for table-linen add a little unprepared starch.
Little Housewife.—To clean japanned trays you should never use hot water; tepid water used with a soft cloth will remove any grease spot, and a little flour sprinkled on a smear will restore the polish. The varnish on candlesticks is often cracked by placing them before the fire to melt the grease, or by the use of hot water.
A. A. and D. C.—We often see clergymen, who are graduates of different universities, wearing the hoods of their several universities when doing duty in the same church and at the same time. Wherever they pursue their vocation, they have a right to wear their academic distinctions, and none other.
Anxious Inquirer.—Your fiancé should leave his own card. It is not for you to do so for him. Leave your mother’s, should she permit it, and your own, or her card with your name on it would be more correct.
Samoa.—Table-napkin rings are only used in private at home, or at a boarding house, economy in the matter of washing being an object. But in the houses of the wealthy, a fresh napkin is provided daily, and thus a distinguishing ring is needless. With reference to the discoloured coral, try a weak solution of borax, tepid. Should this fail, take it to a jeweller.
C. L.—There are only two ways of sending any parcel to India—by post, or by private hand. The acorns should be put into a little box. Your handwriting promises well, but is as yet unformed.
A Constant Reader has only to order a book on the subject from any librarian, and he will procure it for her.
Genevieve (Alderney).—You have only to write to the Manager of our Publishing Department for the cover, with index of the year you require, and ask him to inclose the bill, including postage, and any bookbinder will bind your volume for you.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Written in memory of Moore by the Rev. C. Wolfe, about 1817.
[2] These sentences were written before Lord Wolseley’s speech at Dumfries, June 15, 1898, in which he was reported as having said: “There could be little doubt in the minds of most soldiers who knew what Moore did, that, had he not been killed at the Battle of Coruña, he would have been the great Commander who led the Peninsular War, and it was quite possible that that great man, whom they all worshipped, the Duke of Wellington, would not have been heard of. He did not say that to depreciate the services of the Duke of Wellington, who had been a rock of strength to this country; but possibly, had Sir John Moore lived, his name would have been blazoned on the scroll of fame, as the man who won the great battle which crushed Napoleon’s power at Waterloo.”