Page
[PREFACE]iii
[LIST OF ENGRAVINGS]xi
[LETTER I.]
Introduction.1
[BOOK I. THE HOUSE.]
[LETTER II.]
First Impressions of the Country.—Making Fires.5
[LETTER III.]
Hall.—Morning Room.—Book-Cases.—Plants in
Pots.—Squirrels, Canary Birds, Parrots and Macaws, Monkeys,
Gold Fish, and Cut Flowers.—Drawing-room.—Dining-room.14
[LETTER IV.]
Flies.—Servants' Offices, including the Housekeeper's
Room and Store Closet, the Kitchen, and the
Scullery.—Brewing; making Home-made Wines, Cider, and
Perry; and making Bread, Rolls, Cakes, Rusks, Muffins
and Crumpets, and Biscuits.35
[LETTER V.]
Impromptu Cookery.—Soups.—Poultry.—Pigeons.—Game.—Salads
of Cold Meat and Potatoes.—Modes of
dressing Potatoes and Carrots.—Sauces.—Omelettes,
Creams, and Side Dishes.—Miscellaneous Cookery.—National
Cookery.—The French Pot-au-Feu.—Italian
Macaroni.—German Sauer Kraut—Polish Barsch.—Spanish
Olla Podrida and Puchero.—Scotch Haggis, Barley
Broth and Hotch-potch.—English Plum-pudding.
Puddings.—Potato Flour.—Pickles.—Pork Pies.70
[LETTER VI.]
The Larder.—Salting Meat, Bacon, and Hams.—The
Dairy.—Management of Milk.—Making and keeping
Butter.—Making Cheese of various Kinds.—Ice-House,
Ice-Cellar, and Ice-Cooler.—Ice-Creams.119
[BOOK II. THE GARDEN.]
[LETTER VII.]
Planting a regular Geometrical Flower-Garden.—List of
Plants.—Mode of laying out regular Figures on the
Ground.—Rules for arranging Colours.—Planting Side
Beds.—Plants with fragrant Flowers.—Culture of
Bulbs.—Reserve Ground.—Culture of Annuals, Perennials,
and Biennials.—Hotbeds and Frames for raising and
keeping Half-hardy Flowers.153
[LETTER VIII.]
Use of Plant-Houses.—Nature of Climates.—Different
Kinds of Hothouses.—The Dry Stove, the Bark Stove,
and the Orchideous House.—Culture of Plants in the
Bark Stove.—Aquarium and Water Plants.—Red
Spider.—Culture of Succulent Stove Plants.—Culture
of Orchideous Plants.—The Greenhouse.—The Australian
House, and Culture of its Plants.—The common
Greenhouse, the Heath House, the Conservatory, the
Orangery, and the Camellia House.—The Culture of
Plants in the common Greenhouse.—Potting
Plants.—Heaths.—Culture of Plants in the
Conservatory.—Culture of Orange Trees.—Aphides.186
[LETTER IX.]
The Park and Pleasure-Grounds.—Situation of old
Houses.—Water.—Forest Scenery.—Effect of a Shrubbery in
harmonising a Flower-Garden with a Park.—Opening
Vistas.—Scenes in a Park.—Fences against Cattle.—Styles
in Gardening.—Use of a Terrace.—Patte d'Oie.—Planting
an Architectural Garden.—Planting an
Arboretum.—Renovating Turf.210
[LETTER X.]
Laying out a Kitchen-Garden.—Making Gravel Walks.—Box
Edgings.—Crops of Culinary Vegetables.—Cucumbers,
Melons, and Mushrooms.226
[LETTER XI.]
The Management of Fruit Trees.—Planting.—Protecting
the Blossoms.—Stone Fruits.—Fig Trees.—Grapes.—Management
of a Vinery.—Growing Pine-apples.—Forcing
Peaches and Nectarines.—Standard Fruit Trees.—Kernel
Fruits.—Fruit Shrubs.—Strawberries.—Tart-Rhubarb.244
[LETTER XII.]
Operations of Gardening.—Digging, Forking,
and Hoeing.—Sowing Seeds.—Taking off Suckers.—Making Layers
and Cuttings.—Budding, Grafting, and Inarching.—Pruning
and Training.—Disbudding.—Manuring.—Keeping Fruit in a
Fruit-Room. 268
[BOOK III. DOMESTIC ANIMALS.]
[LETTER XIII.]
Quadrupeds kept for Amusement.—Horses for riding and
driving in Pony Carriages.—Mules, Zebras, Quaggas,
and Donkeys.—Dogs and Cats.284
[LETTER XIV.]
Quadrupeds kept for supplying Food.—Cows, Calves,
Goats, Pigs, Rabbits, and Deer.309
[LETTER XV.]
Inhabitants of the Poultry-Yard: Fowls, Turkeys, Guinea
Fowls, Geese, Ducks, and Pigeons.—Peacocks and
Hens.—Diseases of Poultry, and their Cure.330
[LETTER XVI.]
The Inhabitants of the Ponds: Fish and Aquatic Fowls,
including Swans, exotic Geese and Ducks.—Inhabitants
of the Woods: including Pheasants and Partridges,
Herons and Bitterns.—Aviary.—Apiary, and the
Management of Bees.—Silk-worms.359
[BOOK IV. RURAL WALKS.]
[LETTER XVII.]
Shoes and Apparatus for Walking.—Rural Seats.—Natural
Objects noted in a Country Walk; the Mole; the Shrike;
the Black Snail; the Siller Cups; the Woundwort.—Pleasures
of studying Botany.—Granite.—Appearance
of the Clouds.390
[BOOK V. COUNTRY AMUSEMENTS.]
[LETTER XVIII.]
Archery: Targets; Self Bows and Backed Bows; Bowstrings;
Arrows; Arm Bracer and Shooting-Glove; Belt and Tassel; and
Quiver.—Sketching in the open Air: Block-Book and Pencils;
Artist's Colours; Touch of the different
Trees.—Swinging.—Pleasure-Boats.—Skating.—Sporting Terms.403
[BOOK VI. COUNTRY DUTIES.]
[LETTER XIX.]
Relation between a Landed Proprietor and the Cottagers
on his Estate.—How to relieve the Poor.—Establishing
Schools.—Teaching the Daughters of the Poor to
make Clothes, and teaching them Cooking.—Employing
the Poor.—Assisting the Poor in Illness.—Making
Clothes for the Poor.417
[INDEX.]425

LIST OF ENGRAVINGS.

Fig. Page
[Frontispiece.]
The Manor-House in its original State.[4]
1.Ground Plan of the Manor-House.[16]
2.Spigot and Faucet.[46]
3.Mash-stirrer.[48]
4.Mash-tub.[48]
5.Fruit-crusher.[52]
6.Cabbage-cutting Machine for preparing Sauer Kraut.[99]
Garden Front of the Manor-House in its improved State.[152]
7.Radiated Geometrical Flower-garden.[157]
8.Square Geometrical Flower-garden[161]
9.Diagram for forming the Beds of Flower-gardens.[162]
10.Diagram for forming the Beds of Flower-gardens.[163]
11.Diagram for forming the Beds of Flower-gardens.[163]
12.Compound Geometrical Flower-garden.[164]
13.Park Fence.[219]
14.Poultry-yard.[333]
15.Sitting-box for Hens.[335]
16.Hen-roost.[336]
17.Hen-coop.[338]
18.Nidulària campanulàta.[395]

[LETTER I.]

INTRODUCTION.

Your letter, my dear Annie, informing me that you are about to be married and to settle in the country, has interested me exceedingly, as it reminds me of my own youth, when my first essays in housekeeping were made under circumstances very similar to those in which you will be placed. It is true I was not then married, but, as my mother was dead, the care of the house devolved on me; and I knew even less about household affairs than most girls of my age and rank in life, as my mother had an old and favourite housekeeper, who managed every thing, and who would not suffer the slightest interference in her department. When my mother died, this person left us; and my father, with a shattered constitution and a greatly diminished fortune, retired to a small estate he had in the country. I was then young and thoughtless; I had no sisters; and having, like you, been brought up in a town, I had no ideas of the country but as a place where eggs, cream, and fruit were in abundance; where I might keep as much poultry as I liked; and where there were shady lanes, and green fields abounding with pretty flowers.