MISCELLANEOUS.
An Anxious Sister.—The salary of a London female sanitary inspector is from £80 to £150 per annum. In the provinces it is rather less, being from £52 to £80; in Scotland £52. An excellent position for both males and females.
A. B. C.—Certainly, Meran, in the Tyrol, is one of the very first places for the grape cure; but it is so popular that you should engage apartments or hotel accommodation some time prior to your visit. We have made the cure there, and consider it a beautiful locality. It stands at 1,100 feet above the sea-level. Should you find Meran too expensive, try Botzen, also a charming place at Gries, a suburb, full of shady gardens, and detached villas, and pensions. Here the “air cure,” as well as grape cure, is carried out. Should you decide on Botzen, you had better write to the Hôtel Badl, or the Schwartze Gries, in the Square Botzen. You could drive out to Gries from thence, and suit yourself. One piece of advice will be valuable to you. Take a less quantity of grapes than the full amount generally prescribed, and procure from a doctor or chemist the tooth-powder essential for the preservation of the teeth. The peculiar acid of grapes tends to destroy the enamel. Remember this.
Minnie.—You will have to commence paying dog tax as soon as your puppy has passed six months of age, when you will be charged 7s. 6d. per annum.
B. D.—The address of the “Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals,” is 105, Jermyn Street, St. James’s, S.W. The secretary is John Colman, Esq.
Rover.—The phrase, “between dog and wolf,” is applied to the dusk, when there is neither clear daylight nor darkness. There is the same phrase in Latin and French, viz., “Inter canem et lupum,” and “Entre chien et loup.”
Gloden Carrick.—The origin of the name “London” is of remote times in English history. If from the Celtic, it is a corruption of Luan-dun, “City of the Moon,” which seems appropriate, considering that, according to tradition, a temple to Diana—the Moon—stood on the site of St. Paul’s. Other origins are given for the name; such as “Lud’s town,” being so called after a mythical king of Britain (so termed by Dr. Brewer). Stowe, however, speaks of him as a real character, and says he repaired the city and built Lud-gate; and that, in the year 1260, the gate was decorated with the figures of kings—Lud included. In the time of Edward VI. the heads of these monarchs were knocked off—possibly being mistaken for effigies of saints—and “Queen Mary,” Stowe continues, “did set new heads upon their bodies again; and the twenty-eighth of Queen Elizabeth, the gate was newly and beautifully built, with images of Lud and others, as before” (Survey of London). Spenser, in his Faerie Queene, confirms the tradition that Lud—
“... Built that gate of which his name is hight,
By which he lies entombèd solemnly.”
Janey.—You can buy ready-prepared marking-ink so cheaply, and it saves so much trouble, that an old-fashioned recipe for home making seems out of date. Still, we give one out of our own recipe book, which is said to be satisfactory. For the ink, take 25 grs. of lunar caustic; ¼ oz. of rain water; and ½ drachm of sap green. To prepare the article you will need ½ oz. sal. soda, ¼ oz. of gum arabic, and 2 oz. of rain water, and a little cochineal. Steep the part to be marked in this preparation. We have not tried it; but if the ready-made ink be unsatisfactory, you can but make a trial of this.
Sufferer.—Although you may not have the means of obtaining the benefit of change of climate and mineral waters, prescribed for you by your doctor, there is much you can do—and with a prospect of cure—at home. Avoid the use of sugar in everything; use saccharine in your tea, and take exercises night and morning, to free the contracted muscles of the arm. Raise the arms from the sides (stretching them out) twelve or twenty-four times; throw them upwards, higher than your head, in front of you. Spread them out on each side, and bring them up behind your back so as to meet; and swing round each hand alternately, to clasp it respectively on each shoulder; turning the head every time to that side. Whichever of these exercises hurts you the most, should be repeated the oftenest. These exercises (and especially with abstention from sugar) will cure the rheumatism in your arm and shoulder.
Ignorant of Etiquette.—It is not necessary to leave cards for yourself nor for any member of the family if received by your hostess in person. Certainly on whatever occasion you are shown into a reception room, you should be announced by the servant as you enter. Never send in a card for the purpose.
Kitty.—There could be no hard and fast rule as to the character or amount of a trousseau. All depends on the wealth and position of the bride’s parents. She has nothing to prepare for her future home. That is the husband’s business.
[Transcriber’s Note: the following changes have been made to this text.
Page 789: duplicate word “and” corrected—“and let it stand”.
Page 798: horrow to horror—“shame and horror”.
Page 799: recieve to receive—“to receive more than”.
Page 800: your to you—“you enter”.]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The letter and its history are given in Thayer’s delightful Life of Beethoven.