INTRODUCTION.

"She looketh well to the ways of her Household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. Her children arise up, and call her blessed: her husband also, and he praiseth her. Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all."—Proverbs, Chap. xxxi., vs. 27, 28, & 29.

I have taken so much pains to make the following work deserving of the title it bears, that I could not, without affectation, pretend to undervalue my own performance, by anticipating doubts of its utility, or by expressing any fear lest my friends should be disappointed when they look into it. Every publication of this description is necessarily calculated to be of some essential service; for it must not only be practical in its descriptions and directions, but must relate to matters touching the daily and hourly wants of all mankind; and it will, of course, be approved according as it may happen to meet those wants.

As a mere Cookery-book, mine must submit to be placed in a lower rank than some others, because I do not profess to bring to light discoveries in the culinary art, neither do I design to favour epicurism. I have no pretension beyond that of advising young ladies who are their own housekeepers; and the receipts which will be found in my selection, are such as appeared to me suitable to any family of moderate style in living, and such as may be easily comprehended and put in practice. These have been carefully revised and amended in the present edition, and some others added.

While I am offering advice with respect to the manner of conducting domestic affairs, I cannot refrain from expressing my regret that so large a proportion of the young ladies of England are sadly deficient in that information, and in those practices of economy which are the most essentially necessary to their welfare as persons of influence and authority in a house. I am by no means singular in lamenting that the advantages of a knowledge of housekeeping seem to be so entirely lost sight of by those who have the responsibility of bringing up either their own or other people's daughters; and I find it frequently the subject of remark that the ladies of the present day have become incapable of being so skilful in the discharge of their domestic duties as the ladies of a former period were, in proportion as they have become more cultivated and more accomplished. But is it so? Are there now a greater proportion of women whose minds are really cultivated than there were formerly? Is there not rather a greater pretence of learning with less of it in reality? It is erroneous to suppose that persons of real learning look upon the minor duties of life with contempt, because of their learning; for, though learning does not, perhaps, give sense, it surely does not destroy it, and there is not only a want of sense, but a positive folly, in that affectation of refinement, and that assumption of superiority, which has led to the result now complained of. But the system of education which has prevailed of late years is certainly in fault; a system which assigns the same species of learning, indiscriminately, to young persons of every rank and degree, without distinction even as to ability. Such a method of bringing up has unavoidably been productive of very injurious effects; for, while it withdraws the daughters of farmers and tradespeople, and others, during a great part of their youth, from the practice of those homely arts which belong to their stations, it leaves them, in nine cases out of ten, without anything more than the mere fancy that they possess acquirements of a higher order.

The desire which many persons feel to give their children a better education than has been bestowed upon themselves is laudable, because it proceeds from sincere affection: but how often is the success equal to the motive which actuates? How often is the manner of attempting at all calculated for attaining the object so earnestly sought? An ambition to promote the welfare of children reconciles parents to part with them at that tender age when they ought to command more constant care than they generally need at a more advanced time of life; and this ambition is so strong that it will even cause little girls to be consigned to the blighting atmosphere of a crowded schoolroom, there to bewail the loss of the warm hearth, or the airy room of their own homes, and all the comforts which depend upon a mother's solicitude. With a view to their being educated, that is to say, fitted for the world, and for the discharge of their respective duties in it, girls are sent to school, and are there condemned to a dull course of lessons, before their minds have sufficient strength to imbibe any kind of learning that requires mental labour, and before their understandings are equal to any greater exertion than that of perceiving the difference between a roasted apple and a sugar-plum.