Lighting gas-fire--Difficulty of rousing servants--Family breakfast
--Cooking omelet--Hours of work and enjoyment--Duties of mothers and
householders--What is included in six hours' daily work--Clearing away
the breakfast--Bowl for washing the _vaisselles_--Ornamented tea-cloths
--Muslin cap worn while dusting--Use of feather-brush--Cleaning
windows--Advantages of gas-fire.
The gas-fire is the key-note of my system of domestic economy. The
thing most impossible for a lady to contemplate doing, unless compelled
thereto by duty, is to get up early, and before the shutters are open
or the household stirring, to lay and light a fire, or light one
already laid. The thought of going to a coal-cellar, shovel in hand, to
bring in a scuttle of coals on a winter's morning is enough to make the
bravest shudder. It is work only suited to those who have strength and
hard nurture.
But can the most delicate woman think it a hardship to light the
gas-stove, or tripod, in the dining-room, whereon stands an
enamel-lined kettle ready filled overnight, or else a coffee-pot
already full, and only waiting for the match to be struck to make it
hot?
This is less trouble than to rouse one's self at seven o'clock to ring
the bed-room bell, which often fails to summon a sleepy maid: and few
English servants are early risers. Those who keep foreign servants have
greatly the advantage in this respect.
Very many of us require our servants to rise and be downstairs before
seven, as most gentlemen have to be in the city, or at their offices or
chambers, by nine, and all schoolboys and girls at school. In the great
majority of families breakfast must be ready punctually at eight.
While the family is assembling and prayers are being read, the kettle
is boiling, and the tripod is soon ready for eggs to be boiled upon it,
and bacon or kidneys fried.
My experience of another plan for a very comfortable every-day
breakfast is, where a spirit lamp (methylated spirit, not petroleum)
stands on the breakfast-table at the mistress's right hand, and from a
plate containing eggs, butter, and some rashers of bacon, she cooks a
savoury omelet, and fries the rashers in a small china fryingpan over
the lamp, passing to each person the hot slices as they are done, and
serving the omelet fizzling from the pan to all.
This process of cooking only takes five minutes, and the food is ready
to be eaten as soon as the tea is made or the coffee poured out; and it
is a pretty and cheerful occupation while letters are being read and
talked of, or the _Saturday Review_ cut.
A few savoury herbs, such as parsley or chives, are a great addition to
the omelet; and it is easy to chop overnight the teaspoonful that is
sufficient for the purpose, and put it on the plate with the other
preparations. A few slices of cold potato are easily fried when the
bacon is taken out of the pan; the bacon fat fries them deliciously.
The china frying pans may be bought at many shops, particularly at No.
9, Oxford Street, London.
Toast is not easily managed; but with hot rolls from the baker's,
marmalade, honey, and potted meat or ham, on the table, a very
substantial breakfast may be had with little trouble, and no delay in
its preparation.
We will suppose the gentlemen of the family have left the house for the
business of the day, and the boys gone to school, and we will now,
before continuing our description of the house and its furniture, give
an outline sketch of the proceedings of the ladies during their
absence.
For England expects every woman to do her duty, as well as every man,
and to prove herself a help-meet for man before pretending to rivalry.
The division of our time given in the old lines seems to be a very
rational one--
"Six hours to work,
To soothing slumber seven,
Ten to the world allot,
And all to heaven."
This allows ample time for rest and enjoyment, and sets apart an hour
for daily service in the church for all who wish to attend it.
In Utopia, Sir Thomas More allots six hours a day for work to all men
and women, and no longer; as he holds it to be important that we should
have more time available for enjoying the living we work for, than for
working to sustain it.
We give ourselves so little enjoyment in our play, that a great man
once said, "Life would be very tolerable if it were not for its
pleasures." We have come to treat our play as if it were our work--and
no wonder, since we have made it so very troublesome--and having thrown
our appointed work upon the shoulders of other people, we now complain
how badly they do it.
We mothers have a certain work given us to do, not by man, but by our
Maker, whose servants we are. This is to take care of our children.
Instead of doing this, we leave them almost entirely in the hands of
strangers, and during great part of the day we know nothing of their
doings, nor of what they are learning or thinking.
What should we say to a nurse or a governess who neglected them as we
do, and how shall we answer for our lack of care?
We householders have laid upon us the care of our houses. Yet it has
come to be a recognized thing that we are to touch nothing in them with
our own hands--at the utmost, we are to give our orders; and the
wealthy among us do not even do that, but are waited upon with every
luxury, and then sent ready-dressed into society.
We are not our own, and we have little to do with the making of our
position in life. We must accept the _status quo_ and make the best of
it; so we may as well acquiesce cheerfully in our circumstances, doing
as much as we can, and see if regular occupation will not make our
hearts lighter, and help to bring back the days of Merry England again.
But we have no time for preaching now, and I would not willingly give a
sermon in any case. I only threw out that suggestion of six hours' work
for fear you might think I meant you to be busily employed all day, and
then you would drop the book in disgust. But go on a little longer, and
you will find that I am less hard than the Ladies' Art-Needlework
Society, which insists upon eight hours of close application, and far
less hard than the Cambridge Board of Examiners, which drives you on
night and day, leaving no time for household duties; much less for
dancing, or picking flowers in country lanes.
No; my six hours' work will include your music-practising, and your
attentive reading for purposes of study. For unless yours be the only
pair of feminine hands in the family, you will not find more than three
hours occupied with household work, and part of that time will comprise
a daily walk, a constitutional with an object, and the remaining part
will not be disagreeable; at least, I hope not, but it will be work and
not play.
After this explanation let us return to our subject. We will take it
for granted that there are at least two ladies at home. One, the
lady-help or eldest daughter, for example, will dust and set in order
the drawing-room, whilst the mistress of the house proceeds to clear
away the breakfast somewhat after the following manner.
When the coffee-pot was taken from the gas tripod to be placed on the
breakfast-table, the kettle was refilled from a tap fixed on one side
of the dining-room fire-place, and the water will be by this time hot
enough to wash the cups and plates in.
Immediately under the tap stands a large bowl of Delft, or other ware
sufficiently strong for daily use, and yet ornamental or picturesque
enough to remain always in the dining-room. Terra-cotta is a good
material for this purpose, as the colour is always decorative to a
room. One might have a bowl of very elegant design made at the Watcombe
terra-cotta works. Better still, in the case of its being required to
be movable, would be a wooden bowl of the Norwegian carved work
manufactured by peasant artists of Thelemarken, under the direction
of M. de Coninck, of Christiania. Some one of Minton's vases or
_jardinieres_ would answer the purpose very well; but unless it had a
plug and a pipe for letting off the water, like many washstands have,
it would be heavy to lift with water in it. But a bowl with these
fittings, placed on a fixed stand near the fire-place, would be well
worth while taking some trouble to procure for the dining-room. It
would be quite as ornamental, and no more expensive, than the china
flower-pots on unsteady pedestals which are so universally popular;
indeed, it might balance one of these on the window-side of the
fire-place, if it were thought proper. A piece of oilcloth might be
spread under the pedestal, if it does not stand on the varnished floor.
From the sideboard-drawer will be taken a neatly folded tea-cloth,
ornamented most probably with open work at each end, or adorned with
colour in the style of the Russian household linen in the collection of
the Duchess of Edinburgh, and the lady will proceed to rinse and wipe
the breakfast cups and saucers, together with the teaspoons, milk-jug,
and the cleaner plates, and will then lay the plates that have grease
upon them to soak in the hot water, to which some additional hot water
has been added.
Before taking out the plates, the china which has been used at
breakfast should be neatly arranged on, or in, the sideboard. This
saves the trouble of carrying about trays of crockery, and the
consequent breakage. I will describe the china cabinet as I go more
particularly into the details of the dining-room.
The remaining plates may now be wiped, and the _etceteras_ replaced,
the cloth brushed, neatly folded, and laid in a drawer with the table
napkins, and the fryingpan cleansed by relighting the spirit-lamp for a
minute while some hot water bubbles in it to clean it; the towel itself
taken away to dry, and the tea-leaves, and a small basin of eggshells
and scraps carried into the kitchen; the raw eggshells to be used to
wash decanters and glass, and the tea-leaves reserved for dusting
purposes.
The windows are opened and the gas fire turned out, and this important
ceremonial of the day is at an end.
By this time the drawing-room will have been dusted by the second lady,
the week's duster being kept in a convenient drawer. The feather-brush
is wielded as a wand by the graceful mistress of the instrument, whom I
should recommend to wear a muslin cap to keep the dust from falling on
her hair.
These caps, when made of Swiss muslin and trimmed with a frill border
edged with Valenciennes lace, are most becoming. They are best and
prettiest when made in the shape of a large hair-net. A pretty bride
used to come down to breakfast at Interlaken wearing this kind of cap,
and other ladies at once adopted the style for wearing at their morning
work or sketching. This was some years ago, but a good shape is always
good.
To any one unused to the mysteries of dusting, it is surprising to find
how easily the ornaments of a drawing-room may be kept in order, and
how well the gilt frames of pictures preserved, by a light play of the
feather-brush every morning. The French use the _plumeau_ in nearly all
cases where we rub with a hard duster, and with great advantage,
especially in the case of gilding.
A man or woman hired once a month will keep the windows bright; they
are all the brighter if cleaned with newspaper dipped in cold
water--some mordant in the printer's ink has the property of rendering
them so--and they are the more easily wiped, having less fluff about
them than if cloths are used.
A light rub with a leather makes bright stove bars more brilliant, and
in summer the fire-place will give very little trouble; though for
ladies managing their own work, andirons and a wood fire will be found
easier to keep in order, as well as being more picturesque.
A gas fire, built with pumice and asbestos, lasts without needing a
touch for three years, and though less delightful than wood or coal, is
infinitely cleaner, and gives no trouble at all. A gas apparatus with
four jets can be laid in any ordinary fire-place, and fitted with
pumice and asbestos complete for seven and twenty shillings, perhaps
for less; but that is what I have paid. And when one considers the
saving of labour in carrying upstairs heavy scuttles of coal, besides
the original cost of the scuttles, with the ludicrous inappropriateness
of the ornamental varieties, the total abolition of fire-irons,
including that absurdity seen in many houses, the supplementary or
deputy poker, besides requiring no chimneysweep in the drawing-room at
all, it may be thought well worth while to have a gas fire laid at
first. The superior cleanliness and security against smoke are great
arguments for its general use, besides the ease with which it can be
lighted, or turned out when not wanted for use. Being in the
fire-place, the gas finds vent in the chimney, so there is no feeling
of closeness in the room. The disadvantage of a gas fire, in some
people's opinion, is that it may not be poked or touched; but this is
soon forgotten. Its appearance is like a clear fire of cinders, except
when the sun is shining, and then it burns with a greenish tint not at
all pretty.
Breakfast cleared away, and the drawing-room neatly arranged, the beds
have next to be made. This is done with little exertion, as modern beds
have spring mattresses, and French wool mattresses above these which
require no shaking; so that bed-making gives only a little exercise
with a minimum of fatigue. Two people can make a bed with great ease,
but as a rule I should advocate every person making his or her own bed.
I must not here go into the detail of setting the bed-rooms in order,
as this will come more properly into the description of the upper part
of the house. So I will only suggest that if one room be cleaned each
day, and the staircase on one day, the housework is not so heavy a task
as it appears.