The complete servant / Being a practical guide to the peculiar duties and business of all descriptions of servants, from the housekeeper to the servant of all-work, and from the land steward to the foot-boy. With useful receipts and tables

by servant Samuel Adams; Sarah Adams

In using the different compositions, have two pieces of woollen cloth for each, one to put it on with, and the other for polishing. Sometimes a hard brush will be required to lay on the paste, and a piece of soft cork to rub out the stains. Always rub the wood the way of the grain, and remember to dust the furniture before you begin to clean it.

If oil be used, let it be rubbed off as quickly as possible, and then polished with another cloth. When wax is used, let it be applied very sparingly, and polished off with another cloth.

The brass rods or other ornaments to side-boards, cellarets, &c. should be cleaned before the mahogany is touched. The dirt on these ornaments may be removed with flannel well soaped, and polished off with the plate leather. If any brass work has the lacquer worn off, it may be cleaned with brick-dust and leather.

Every article of furniture should be cleaned and rubbed in the middle of the room, when convenient, to prevent smearing and injuring the walls.

Looking Glasses being very costly, should be cleaned with great care. First, take a clean soft sponge, just squeezed out of water, and then dipped in spirits of wine; rub the glass over with this, and then polish it off with fine powder blue, or whiting tied up in muslin, quickly laid on, and then well rubbed off, with a clean cloth, and afterwards with a silk handkerchief. If the glass be very large, no more of it should be wetted with the spirit at a time, than can be cleaned off quickly.

The frames must never be touched with any thing wet or damp. Cotton-wool is the best thing to rub them with, as it will take off the stains and dirt without doing any injury;[23] or, if the frames are varnished, they may be rubbed with the spirits of wine, which will at once take out the spots and dirt, after which they may be re-varnished.

Pictures are best cleaned lightly with a wet sponge, but should never be touched with a cloth.

The attendance of the footman will now be required in the breakfast parlour, for which purpose, he must prepare by washing himself, and throwing off his working dress.

In the directions to the butler, we have given sufficiently at large, setting out the breakfast table, and waiting at breakfast, which in small families becomes solely the business of the footman.

After breakfast, he sets the parlour to rights by sweeping up the crumbs, shaking the green cloth, and laying it again on the table, making up the fire and sweeping up the hearth.