 Section 93 of the Book of Household Management. The Book of Household Management by Isabella Beaton. Domestic Servants. Chapter 41, Part 1. 2153. It is the custom of society to abuse its servants, a façon de parler, such as leads their lords and masters to talk of the weather, and when rurally inclined of the crops, leads matronly ladies and ladies just entering on their probation in that honored and honorable state to talk of servants, and, as we are told, wax eloquent over the greatest plague in life while taking a quiet cup of tea. Young men at their clubs, also, we are told, like to abuse their fellows, perhaps not without a certain pride and pleasure at the opportunity of intimating that they enjoy such appendages to their state. It is another conviction of society that the race of good servants has died out, at least in England, although they do order these things better in France, that there is neither honesty, conscientiousness, nor the careful and industrious habits which distinguish the servants of our grandmothers and great grandmothers, that domestics no longer know their place, that the introduction of cheap silks and cottons, and still more recently, those ambiguous materials and tweeds have removed the landmarks between the mistress and her maid, between the master and his men. 2-1-5-4. When the distinction really depends on things so insignificant, this is very probably the case. When the lady of fashion chooses her footmen without any other consideration than his height, shape, and tournure of his calf, it is not surprising that she should find a domestic who has no attachment for the family, who considers the figure he cuts behind her carriage and the late hours he is compelled to keep a full compensation for the wages he exacts, for the food he wastes, and for the perquisites he can lay his hands on. Nor should the fast young man who chooses his groom for his knowingness in the ways of the turf and in the tricks of low horse dealers be surprised if he is sometimes the victim of these learned ways. But these are the exceptional cases which prove the existence of a better state of things. The great masses of society among us are not thus deserted. There are few families of respectability from the shopkeeper in the next street to the noble man whose mansion dignifies the next square, which do not contain among their dependents attached and useful servants. And where these are absent altogether, there are good reasons for it. The sensible master and the kind mistress know that if servants depend on them for their means of living, in their turn, they are dependent on their servants for very many of the comforts of life and that with the proper amount of care in choosing servants and treating them like reasonable beings and making slight excuses for the shortcomings of human nature, they will, save in some exceptional case, be tolerably well served. And in most instances surround themselves with attached domestics. 2155. This remark, which is applicable to all domestics, is especially so to men servants. Families accustomed to such attendants have always about them humble dependents whose children have no other prospect than domestic service to look forward to. To them it presents no degradation, but the reverse to be so employed. They are initiated step by step into the mysteries of the household with the prospect of rising in the service if it is a house admitting of promotion to the respectable position of Butler or House Steward. In families of humbler pretensions where they must look for promotion elsewhere, they know that can only be attained by acquiring the goodwill of their employers. Can there be any stronger security for their good conduct? Any doubt that in the mass of domestic servants good conduct is the rule? The reverse, the exception. 2156. The number of the male domestics in a family varies according to the wealth and position of the master from the owner of the Ducal mansion with a retinue of attendance at the head of which is the Chamberlain and House Steward to the occupier of the humbler house where a single footman or even the odd man of all work is the only male retainer. The majority of gentlemen's establishments probably comprise a servant out of livery or Butler, a footman and coachman or coachman in groom where the horses exceed two or three. Duties of the Butler, 2157. The domestic duties of the Butler are to bring in the eatables at breakfast and wait upon the family at that meal assisted by the footman and see to the cleanliness of everything at table. On taking away, he removes the tray with the china and plate for which he is responsible. At luncheon, he arranges the meal and waits unassisted, the footman being now engaged in other duties. At dinner, he places the silver and plated articles on the table, sees that everything is in its place and rectifies what is wrong. He carries in the first dish and announces in the drawing room that dinner is on the table and respectfully stands by the door until the company are seated when he takes his place behind his master's chair on the left to remove the covers, handing them to the other attendants to carry out. After the first course of plates is supplied, his place is at the sideboard to serve the wines but only when called on, 2158. The first course ended, he rings the cook's bell and hands the dishes from the table to the other servants to carry away, receiving from them the second course, which he places on the table, removing the covers as before and again taking his place at the sideboard, 2159. At dessert, the slips being removed, the butler receives the dessert from the other servants and arranges it on the table with plates and glasses and then takes his place behind his master's chair to hand the wines and ices while the footman stands beside his mistress for the same purpose, the other attendants leaving the room. Where the old-fashioned practice of having the dessert on the polished table without any cloth is still adhered to, the butler should rub off any marks made by the hot dishes before arranging the dessert. 2160. Before dinner, he has satisfied himself that the lamps, candles or gas burners are in perfect order, if not lighted, which will usually be the case. Having served everyone with their share of the dessert, put the fires in order when these are used and seeing the lights are all right at a signal from his master, he and the footman leave the room. 2161. He now proceeds to the drawing room and arranges the fireplace and sees to the lights. He then returns to his pantry, prepared to answer the bell and attend to the company while the footman is clearing away and cleaning the plate and glasses. 2162. At tea, he again attends. At bedtime, he appears with the candles. He locks up the plate, secures doors and windows and sees that all the fires are safe. 2163. In addition to these duties, the butler, where only one footman is kept, will be required to perform some of the duties of the valet, to pay bills and superintend the other servants. But the real duties of the butler are in the wine cellar. There he should be competent to advise his master as to the price and quality of the wine to be laid in. Fine bottle, cork and seal it and place it in the bins. Brewing, racking and bottling malt liquors belong to his office as well as their distribution. These and other drinkables are brought from the cellar every day by his own hands, except where an underbutler is kept and a careful entry of every bottle used, entered in the cellar book, so that the book should always show the contents of the cellar. 2164. The office of the butler is thus one of very great trust in a household here as elsewhere. Honesty is the best policy. The butler should make it his business to understand the proper treatment of the different wines under his charge, which he can easily do from the wine merchant and faithfully attend to it. His own reputation will soon compensate for the absence of bribes from unprincipled wine merchants if he serves a generous and hospitable master. Nothing spreads more rapidly in society than the reputation of a good wine cellar and all that is required is wines well chosen and well cared for and this a little knowledge carefully applied will soon supply. 2165. The butler, we have said, has charge of the contents of the cellars and it is his duty to keep them in a proper condition to find down wine in wood, bottle it off and store it away in places suited to the sorts. Where wine comes into the cellar, ready bottled, it is usual to return the same number of empty bottles. The butler has not, in this case, the same inducements to keep the bottles of the different sorts separated, but where the wine is bottled in the house, he will find his account, not only in keeping them separate, but in rinsing them well and even washing them with clean water as soon as they are empty. 2166. There are various modes of finding wine. Isenglas, gelatin and gum arabic are all used for the purpose. Whichever of these articles is used, the process is always the same. Supposing eggs, the cheapest to be used, draw a gallon or so of the wine and mix one quart of it with the whites of four eggs by stirring it with a whisk. Afterwards, when thoroughly mixed, pour it back into the cask through the bunghole and stir up the whole cask in a rotary direction with a clean split stick inserted through the bunghole. Having stirred it sufficiently, pour in the remainder of the wine drawn off until the cask is full. Then stir again, skimming off the bubbles that rise to the surface. When thoroughly mixed by stirring, close the bunghole and leave it to stand for three or four days. This quantity of clarified wine will find 13 dozen of port or sherry. The other clearing ingredients are applied in the same manner. The material being cut into small pieces and dissolved in the quart of wine and the cask stirred in the same manner. Two, one, six, seven. To bottle wine. Having thoroughly washed and dried the bottles, supposing they have been before used for the same kind of wine, provide corks, which will be improved by being slightly boiled or at least steeped in hot water. A wooden hammer or mallet, a bottling boot and a squeezer for the corks. Bore a hole in the lower part of the cask with a gimlet receiving the liquid stream which follows in the bottle and filterer which is placed in a tub or basin. This operation is best performed by two persons. One to draw the wine, the other to cork the bottles. The drawer is to see that the bottles are up to the mark, but not too full. The bottle being placed in a clean tub to prevent waste. The corking boot is buckled by a strap to the knee, the bottle placed in it and the cork after being squeezed in the press driven in by a flat wooden mallet. Two, one, six, eight. As the wine draws near to the bottom of the cask, a thick piece of muslin is placed in the strainer to prevent the viscous grounds from passing into the bottle. Two, one, six, nine. Having carefully counted the bottles, they are stored away in their respective bins, a layer of sand or sawdust being placed under the first tier and another over it. A second tier is laid over this protected by a lath. The head of the second being laid to the bottom of the first. Over this, another bed of sawdust is laid, not too thick, another lath and so on till the bin is filled. Two, one, seven, oh. Wine so laid in will be ready for use according to its quality and age. Port wine, old in the wood, will be ready to drink in five or six months. But if it is a fruity wine, it will improve every year. Sherry, if of good quality, will be fit to drink as soon as the sickness, as its first condition after bottling is called, ceases. And will also improve. But the cellar must be kept at a perfectly steady temperature, neither too hot nor too cold, but about 55 or 60 degrees and absolutely free from drafts of cold air. Duties of the footman. Two, one, seven, one. Where a single footman or odd man is the only male servant, then whatever his ostensible position, he is required to make himself generally useful. He has to clean the knives and shoes, the furniture, the plate, answer the visitors who call, the drawing room and parlor bells, and do all the errands. His life is no sinecure and a methodical arrangement of his time will be necessary in order to perform his many duties with any satisfaction to himself or his master. Two, one, seven, two. The footman only finds himself in stockings, shoes, and washing, where silk stockings or other extra articles of linen are worn there found by the family, as well as his livery, a working dress consisting of a pair of overalls, a waistcoat, a fustion jacket with a white or jean one four times when he is liable to be called to answer the door or wait at breakfast and on quitting his service he is expected to leave behind him any livery had within six months. Two, one, seven, three. The footman is expected to rise early in order to get through all his dirty work before the family are stirring. Boots and shoes and knives and forks should be cleaned. Lamps and use trimmed. His master's clothes brushed. The furniture rubbed over so that he may put aside his working dress, tidy himself, and appear in a clean jean jacket to lay the cloth and prepare breakfast for the family. Two, one, seven, four. We need hardly dwell on the boot cleaning process. Three good brushes and good blacking must be provided. One of the brush is hard to rub off the mud. The other soft to lay on the blacking. The third of a medium hardness for polishing and each should be kept for its particular use. The blacking should be well corked up except when in use and applied to the brush with the sponge tied to a stick which, when put away, rests in a notch cut in the cork. When boots come in very muddy, it is a good practice to wash off the mud and wipe them dry with the sponge. Then leave them to dry very gradually on their sides, taking care they are not placed near the fire or scorched. Much delicacy of treatment is required in cleaning ladies' boots so as to make the leather look well polished and the upper part retain a fresh appearance with the lining free from hand marks which are very offensive to a lady of refined tastes. Two, one, seven, five. Patent leather boots require to be wiped with a wet sponge and afterwards with a soft dry cloth and occasionally with a soft cloth and sweet oil. Blacking and polishing the edge of the soles in the usual way, but so as not to cover the patent polish with blacking. A little milk may also be used with very good effect for patent leather boots. Two, one, seven, six. Top boots are still occasionally worn by gentlemen while cleaning the lower part in the usual manner, protect the tops by inserting a cloth or brown paper under the edges and bringing it over them. In cleaning the tops, let the covering fall down over the boot. Wash the tops clean with soap and flannel and rub out any spots with pumice stone. If the tops are to be wider, dissolve an ounce of oxalic acid and half an ounce of pumice stone in a pint of soft water. If a brown color is intended, mix an ounce of muriatic acid, half an ounce of alum, half an ounce of gum, Arabic, and half an ounce of spirit of lavender in a pint and a half of skimmed milk. Turned. These mixtures apply by means of a sponge and polish when dry with a rubber made of soft flannel. Two, one, seven, seven. Knives are now generally cleaned by means of kents or masters machine, which gives very little trouble and is very effective. Before, however, putting the knives into the machine, it is highly necessary that they be first washed in a little warm, not hot water, and then thoroughly wiped. If put into the machine with any grease on them, it adheres to the brushes and consequently renders them unfit to use for the next knives that may be put in. When this precaution is not taken, the machine must come to pieces, so causing an immense amount of trouble, which may all be avoided by having the knives thoroughly free from grease before using the machine. Brushes are also used for cleaning forks, which facilitate the operation. When knives are so cleaned, see that they are carefully polished, wiped and with a good edge. The ferrules and prongs free from dirt and place them in the basket with the handles all one way. Two, one, seven, eight. Lamp trimming requires a thorough acquaintance with the mechanism. After that, constant attention to cleanliness and an occasional entire cleaning out with hot water. When this is done, all the parts should be carefully dried before filling again with oil. When lacquered, wipe the lacquered parts with a soft brush and cloth and wash occasionally with weak soap suds, wiping carefully afterwards. Brass lamps may be cleaned with oil and rotten stone every day when trimmed. With bronze and other ornamental lamps, more care will be required and soft flannel and oil only used to prevent the removal of the bronze or enamel. Brass work or any metal work, not lacquered, is cleaned by a little oil and rotten stone made into a paste or with fine emery powder and oil mixed in the same manner. A small portion of salt ammonia beat into a fine powder and moistened with soft water, rubbed over brass ornaments and heated over a charcoal fire and rubbed dry with bran or whitening will give to brass work the brilliancy of gold. In trimming moderator lamps, let the wick be cut evenly all round as if left higher and one place than it is and another. It will cause it to smoke and burn badly. The lamp should then be filled with oil from a feeder and afterwards well wiped with a cloth or rag kept for the purpose. If it can be avoided, never wash the chimneys of a lamp as it causes them to crack when they become hot. Small sticks covered with wash leather pads are the best things to use for cleaning the glasses inside and a clean duster for polishing the outside. The globe of a moderator lamp should be occasionally washed in warm soap and water then well rinsed in cold water and either wiped dry or left to drain. Where candle lamps are used, take out the springs occasionally and free them well from the grease that adheres to them. Two, one, seven, nine. French polish, so universally applied to furniture is easily kept in condition by dusting and rubbing with the soft cloth or a rubber of old silk. But dining tables can only be kept in order by hard rubbing or rather by quick rubbing, which warms the wood and removes all spots. Two, one, eight, oh. Brushing clothes is a very simple but very necessary operation. Fine cloths require to be brushed lightly and with rather a soft brush except where mud is to be removed when a hard one is necessary. Being previously beaten lightly to dislodge the dirt, lay the garment on a table and brush it in the direction of the nap. Having brushed it properly, turn the sleeves back to the collar so that the folds may come at the elbow joints. Next, turn the lapels or sides back over the folded sleeves, then lay the skirts over level with the collar so that the crease may fall about the center and double one half over the other so as the fold comes in the center of the back. Two, one, eight, one. Having got through his dirty work, the single footman has now to clean himself and prepare the breakfast. He lays the cloth on the table over it, the breakfast cloth and sets the breakfast things in order and then proceeds to wait upon his master if he has any of the duties of a valet to perform. Two, one, eight, two. Where a valet is not kept, a portion of his duties falls to the footman's chair, brushing the clothes among others. When the hat is silk, it requires brushing every day with a soft brush. After rain, it requires wiping the way of the nap before drying and when nearly dry, brushing with the soft brush and with the hat stick in it. If the footman is required to perform any part of a valet's duty, he will have to see that the housemaid lights a fire in the dressing room in due time, that the room is dusted and cleaned, that the wash hand ewer is filled with soft water and that the bath, whether hot or cold, is ready when required, that towels are at hand, that hairbrushes and combs are properly cleansed and in their places. That hot water is ready at the hour ordered. The dressing gown and slippers in their place, the clean linen aired and the clothes to be worn for the day in their proper places. After the master has dressed, it will be the footman's duty to restore everything to its place properly cleansed and dry and the whole restored to order. 2183. At breakfast, when there is no butler, the footman carries up the t-earn and assisted by the housemaid. He waits during breakfast. Breakfast over, he removes the tray and other things off the table, folds up the breakfast cloth and sets the room in order by sweeping up all crumbs, shaking the cloth and laying it on the table again, making up the fire and sweeping up the hearth. 2184. At luncheon time, nearly the same routine is observed, except where the footman is either out with the carriage or away on other business, when in the absence of any butler, the housemaid must assist. 2185. For dinner, the footman lays the cloth, taking care that the table is not too near the fire, if there is one, and that passage room is left. A table cloth should be laid without a wrinkle, and this requires two persons. Over this, the slips are laid, which are usually removed preparatory to placing dessert on the table. He prepares knives, forks, and glasses with five or six plates for each person. This done, he places chairs enough for the party, distributing them equally on each side of the table and opposite to each, a napkin neatly folded within it a piece of bread or a small roll, and a knife on the right side of each plate, a fork on the left, and a carving knife and fork at the top and bottom of the table, outside the others with the rests opposite to them, and a gravy spoon beside the knife. The fish slice should be at the top, where the lady of the house, with the assistance of the gentleman next to her, divides the fish and the soup ladle at the bottom. It is sometimes usual to add a dessert knife and fork, at the same time on the right side, also of each plate. Put a wine glass for as many kinds of wine as it is intended to hand round, and a finger glass or glass cooler, about four inches from the edge. The latter are frequently put on the table with the dessert. Two, one, eight, six. About half an hour before dinner, he rings the dinner bell, where that is the practice, and occupies himself with carrying up everything he is likely to require. At the expiration of the time, having communicated with the cook, he rings the real dinner bell and proceeds to take it up with such assistance as he can obtain. Having ascertained that all is in order, that his own dress is clean and presentable, and his white cotton gloves are without a stain, he announces in the drawing room that dinner is served. And stands respectfully by the door until the company are seated. He places himself on the left behind the master, who is to distribute the soup. Where soup and fish are served together, his place will be at his mistress's left hand. But he must be on the alert to see that whoever is assisting him, whether male or female, are at their posts. If any of the guests has brought his own servant with him, his place is behind his master's chair, rendering such assistance to others as he can, while attending to his master's once throughout the dinner, so that every guest has what he requires. This necessitates both activity and intelligence and should be done without bustle, without asking any questions, except where it is the custom of the house, to hand round dishes or wine, when it will be necessary to mention in a quiet and unobtrusive manner the dish or wine you present. 2187, salt sellers should be placed on the table in number sufficient for the guests, so that each may help themselves or at least their immediate neighbors. Dinners a la ruse. 2188, in some houses the dinner is laid out with plate and glass and ornamented with flowers, the dessert only being placed on the table, the dinner itself being placed on the sideboard and handed round in succession. In the courses of soup, fish, entrees, meat, game and sweets. This is not only elegant but economical as fewer dishes are required, the symmetry of the table being made up with the ornaments and dessert. The various dishes are also handed round when hot, but it involves additional and superior attendance, as the wines are also handed round and unless the servants are very active and intelligent, many blunders are likely to be made. General observations. 2189, while attentive to all, the footman should be obtrusive to none. He should give nothing but on a waiter and always hand it with the left hand and on the left side of the person he serves and hold it so that the guest may take it with ease. In lifting dishes from the table, he should use both hands and remove them with care so that nothing is spilt on the tablecloth or on the dresses of the guests. 2190. Masters as well as servants sometimes make mistakes, but it is not expected that a servant will correct any omissions even if he should have time to notice them, although with the best intentions. Thus it would not be correct, for instance, if he observed that his master took wine with the ladies all round as some gentlemen still continued to do, but stopped at someone to nudge him on the shoulder and say, as was done by the servant of a Scottish gentleman, what ails you at her and the green gown? It will be better to leave the lady unnoticed than for the servant thus to turn his master into ridicule. 2191. During dinner, each person's knife, fork, plate, and spoon should be changed as soon as he is done with it. The vegetables and sauces belonging to the different dishes presented without remark to the guests, and the footmen should tread lightly in moving around, and, if possible, should bear in mind if there is a wit or humorist of the party whose good things keep the table in a roar that they are not expected to reach his ears. 2192. In opening wine, let it be done quietly and without shaking the bottle. If crusted, let it be inclined to the crusted side and decanted while in that position. In opening champagne, it is not necessary to discharge it with a pop. Properly cooled, the cork is easily extracted without an explosion. When the cork is out, the mouth of the bottle should be wiped with a napkin over the footman's arm. 2193. At the end of the first course, notice is conveyed to the cook who is waiting to send up the second, which is introduced in the same way as before. The attendants who remove the fragments carrying the dishes into the kitchen and handing them to the footman or butler, whose duty it is to arrange them on the table. After dinner, the dessert glasses and wines are placed on the table by the footman who places himself behind his master's chair to supply wine and hand round the ices and other refreshments, all other servants leaving the room. 2194. As soon as the drawing room bell rings for tea, the footman enters with the tray, which has been previously prepared, hands the tray round to the company with cream and sugar, the tea and coffee bean generally poured out, while another attendant hands cakes, toast, or biscuits. If it is an ordinary family party where this social meal is prepared by the mistress, he carries the urn or kettle, as the case may be, hands round the toast or such other eatable as may be required, removing the whole in the same manner when tea is over. 2195. After each meal, the footman's place is in his pantry. Here perfect order should prevail, a place for everything and everything in its place. A sink with hot and cold water laid on is very desirable, cold absolutely necessary. Wooden bowls or tubs of sufficient capacity are required, one for hot and another for cold water. Have the bowl three parts full of clean hot water in this wash all plate and plated articles which are greasy wiping them before cleaning with the brush. 2196. The footman and small families where only one man is kept has many of the duties of the upper servants to perform as well as his own and more constant occupation. He will also have the arrangement of his time more immediately under his own control and he will do well to reduce it to a methodical division. All his rough work should be done before breakfast is ready when he must appear clean and in a presentable state. After breakfast, when everything belonging to his pantry is cleaned and put in its place, the furniture and the dining and drawing rooms requires rubbing. Towards noon the parlor luncheon is to be prepared and he must be at his mistress's disposal to go out with the carriage or follow her if she walks out. 2197. Glass is a beautiful and most fragile article. Hence it requires great care and washing. A perfectly clean wooden bowl is best for this operation, one for moderately hot and another for cold water. Wash the glasses well in the first and rinse them in the second and turn them down on a linen cloth folded two or three times to drain for a few minutes. When sufficiently drained, wipe them with a cloth and polish with a finer one, doing so tenderly and carefully. Accidents will happen, but nothing discredits a servant in the drawing room more than continual reports of breakages, which of course must reach that region. 2198. Decanters and water jugs require still more tender treatment in cleaning in as much as they are more costly to replace. Fill them about two thirds with hot, but not boiling water and put in a few pieces of well-soaked brown paper and leave them thus for two or three hours. Then shake the water up and down in the decanters, empty this out, rinse them well with clean cold water and put them at a rack to drain. When dry, polish them outside and inside, as far as possible, with a fine cloth. To remove the crust of port or other wines, add a little muriatic acid to the water and let it remain for some time. 2199. When required to go out with the carriage, it is the footman's duty to see that it has come to the door perfectly clean and that the glasses and sashes and linings are free from dust. In receiving messages at the carriage door, he should turn his ear to the speaker so as to comprehend what is said in order that he may give his directions to the coachman clearly. When the house he is to call at is reached, he should knock and return to the carriage for orders. In closing the door upon the family, he should see that the handle is securely turned and that no part of the lady's dress is shut in. 2200. It is the footman's duty to carry messages or letters for his master or mistress to their friends, to the post or to the tradespeople. And nothing is more important than dispatch and exactness in doing so, although writing even the simplest message is now the ordinary and very proper practice. Dean Swift, among his other quaint directions, all of which are to be read by contraries, recommends a perusal of all such epistles in order that you may be more able to fulfill your duty to your master. An old lady of Forfisher had one of those odd old Caleb Balderston sort of servants who construed the Dean of St. Patrick more literally. On one occasion, when dispatch was of some importance, knowing his inquiring nature, she called her Scotch Paul Pry to her, opened the note and read it to him herself, saying, now, Andrew, you can ab out it and needn't stop to open and read it, but just take it at once. Probably most of the notes you are expected to carry might with equal harmlessness be communicated to you, but it will be better not to take so lively and interest in your mistresses affairs. 2201, politeness and civility to visitors is one of the things masters and mistresses have a right to expect and should exact rigorously. When visitors present themselves, the servant charged with the duty of opening the door will open it promptly and answer without hesitation if the family are not at home or engaged, which generally means the same thing, and might be often are used with advantage to morals. On the contrary, if he has no such orders, he will answer affirmatively, open the door wide to admit them and proceed them to open the door of the drawing room. If the family are not there, he will place chairs for them, open the blinds if the room is too dark and intimate civility that he goes to inform his mistress. If the lady is in her drawing room, he announces the name of the visitors having previously acquainted himself with it. In this part of his duty, it is necessary to be very careful to repeat the names correctly. Mispronouncing names is very apt to give offense and lead sometimes to other disagreeables. The writer was once initiated into some of the secrets on the other side of the legal affair in which he took an interest before he could correct a mistake made by the servant in announcing him. When the visitor is departing, the servant should be at hand, ready, when run for, to open the door. He should open it with a respectful manner and close it gently when the visitors are fairly beyond the threshold. When several visitors arrive together, he should take care not to mix up the different names together, where they belong to the same family as Mr., Mrs. and Miss. If they are strangers, he should announce each as distinctly as possible. 2202. Receptions and evening parties. The drawing rooms being prepared, the card tables laid out with cards and counters and such other arrangements as are necessary made for the reception of the company. The rooms should be lighted up as the hour appointed approaches. Attendance in the drawing room, even more than in the dining room, should move about actively, but noiselessly. No creaking of shoes, which is an abomination. Watching the lights from time to time so as to keep up their brilliancy. But even if the attendant likes a game of cribbage or wist himself, he must not interfere in his master or mistress's game nor even seem to take an interest in it. We once knew a lady who had a footman and both were fond of the game of cribbage. John in the kitchen, the lady in her drawing room. The lady was a giver of evening parties where she frequently enjoyed her favorite amusement. While handing about the tea and toast, John could, not always, suppressed his disgust at her mistakes. There is more in that hand, ma'am, he had been known to say, or ma'am, you forgot to count his knob. In fact, he identified himself with his mistress's game and would have lost 20 places rather than witness a miscount. It is not necessary to adopt his example on this point, although John had many qualities a good servant might copy with advantage. End of section 93, recording by Dennis Sayers in Modesto, California. Fall 2007. Section 094 of the Book of Household Management. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Book of Household Management by Isabella Beaton. Domestic Servants, chapter 41, part two. The Coach House and Stables, 2203. The horse is the noblest of quadrupeds, whether we view him in his strength, his sagacity, or his beauty. He is also the most useful to man of all the animal creation, but his delicacy is equal to his power and usefulness. No other animal probably is so dependent on man in the state of domestication to which he has been reduced or deteriorates so rapidly under exposure, bad feeding, or bad grooming. It is therefore a point of humanity not to speak of its obvious impolicy for the owner of horses to overlook any neglect in their feeding or grooming. His interest dictates that so valuable an animal should be well housed, well fed, and well groomed, and he will do well to acquire so much of stable lore as will enable him to judge of these points himself. In a general way, where a horse's coat is habitually rough and untidy, there is a sad want of elbow grease in the stable. When a horse of tolerable breeding is dull and spiritless, he is getting ill or badly fed. And where he is observed to perspire much in the stables is overfed and probably eats his litter in addition to his regular supply of food. 2,204. Stables. The architectural form of the stables will be subject to other influences than ours. We can find ourselves, therefore, to their internal arrangements. They should be roomy in proportion to the number of stalls, warm with good ventilation, and perfectly free from cold drafts. The stalls roomy without excess, with good and well-trapped drainage so as to exclude bad smells. A sound ceiling to prevent the entrance of dust from the hayloft, which is usually above them, and there should be plenty of light coming, however, either from above or behind, so as not to glare in the horse's eye. 2,205. Heat. The first of these objects is attained if the stables are kept within a degree or two of 50 degrees in winter and 60 degrees in summer, although some grooms insist on a much higher temperature in the interests of their own labor. 2,206. Ventilation is usually attained by the insertion of one or more tubes or boxes of wood or iron through the ceiling and the roof, with the sloping covering over the opening to keep out rain, and valves or ventilators below to regulate the atmosphere, with openings in the walls for the admission of fresh air. This is still a difficulty, however, for the effluvium of the stable is difficult to dispel, and drafts must be avoided. This is sometimes accomplished by means of hollow walls with gratings at the bottom outside for the exit of bad air, which is carried down through the hollow walls and discharged at the bottom, while for the admission of fresh air the reverse takes place. The fresh by this means gets diffused and heated before it is discharged into the stable. 2,207. The stalls should be divided by partitions of woodwork eight or nine feet high at the head and six at the heels, and nine feet deep, so as to separate each horse from its neighbor. A hay rack placed within easy reach of the horse, of wood or iron, occupies either a corner or the whole breadth of the stall, which should be about six feet for an ordinary-sized horse. A manger, formerly of wood, but of late years more generally of iron lined with enamel, occupies a corner of the stall. The pavement of the stall should be nearly level with a slight incline towards the gutter to keep the bed dry, paved with hard Dutch brick laid on edge or asphalt or smithy clinkers or rubble stones laid in strong cement. In the center, about five feet from the wall, a grating should be firmly fixed in the pavement and in communication with a well-trapped drain to carry off the water. The gutter outside the stall should also communicate with the drains by trapped openings. The passage between the stall and the hall should be from five to six feet broad at least. On the wall opposite to each stall, pegs should be placed for receiving the harness and other things in daily use. 2208. A harness room is indispensable to every stable. It should be dry and airy and furnished with a fireplace and boiler, both for the protection of the harness and to prepare meshes for the horses when required. The partition wall should be boarded where the harness goes with pegs to hang the various pieces of harness on with saddle trees to rest the saddles on, a cupboard for the brushes, sponges and leathers and a lock-up corn bin. 2209. The furniture of a stable with coach house consists of coach mops, jacks for raising the wheels, horse brushes, spoke brushes, water brushes, crest and bit brushes, dandy brushes, curry combs, birch and heath brooms, trimming combs, scissors and pickers, oil cans and brushes, harness brushes of three sorts, leathers, sponges for horse and carriage, stable forks, dung baskets or wheelbarrow, corn sieves and measures, horse cloths and stable pales, horn or glass lanterns. Over the stables there should be accommodation for the coachman or groom to sleep. Accidents sometimes occur and he should be at hand to interfere. Duties of the coachman, groom and stable boy. 2210. The establishment we have in view will consist of coachman, groom and stable boy who are capable of keeping in perfect order four horses and perhaps the pony. Of this establishment, the coachman is chief. Besides skill in driving, he should possess a good general knowledge of horses. He has usually to purchase provender to see that the horses are regularly fed and properly groomed. Watch over their condition. Apply simple remedies to trifling ailments in the animals under his charge and report where he observes symptoms of more serious ones which he does not understand. He has either to clean the carriage himself or see that the stable boy does it properly. 2211. The groom's first duties are to keep his horses in condition but he is sometimes expected to perform the duties of a valet to ride out with his master on occasions to wait at table and otherwise assist in the house. In these cases he should have the means of dressing himself and keeping his clothes entirely away from the stables. In the morning, about six o'clock or rather before, the stables should be opened and cleaned out and the horses fed. First by cleaning the rack and throwing in fresh hay, putting it lightly in the rack that the horses may get it out easily. A short time afterwards their usual morning feet of oats should be put into the manger. While this is going on, the stable boy has been removing the stable dung and sweeping and washing out the stables, both of which should be done every day and every corner carefully swept in order to keep the stable sweet and clean. The real duties of the groom follow. Where the horses are not taken out for early exercise, the work of grooming immediately commences. Having tied up the head to use the excellent description of the process given by old Barrett, take a curry comb and curry him all over the body to raise the dust. Beginning first at the neck, holding the left cheek of the head stall in the left hand and curry him from the setting on of his head all over the body to the buttocks, down to the point of the hawk. Then change your hands and curry him before on his breast and laying your right arm over his back, join your right side to his left and curry him all under the belly near the four bowels and so all over from the knees and back upwards. After that, go to the far side and do that likewise. Then take a dead horse's tail or failing that, a cotton dusting cloth and strike that away which the curry comb hath raised. Then take a round brush made of bristles with a leather handle and dress him all over both head, body and legs to the very fetlocks, always cleansing the brush from the dust by rubbing it with the curry comb. In the curry combing process, as well as brushing, it must be applied with mildness, especially with fine-skinned horses. Otherwise, the tickling irritates them much. The brushing is succeeded by a hair cloth with which rub him all over again very hard both to take away loose hairs and lay his coat. Then wash your hands in fair water and rub him all over while they are wet as well over the head as the body. Lastly, take a clean cloth and rub him all over again till he be dry. Then take another hair cloth and rub all his legs exceeding well from the knees and hocks downwards to his hoofs, picking and dressing them very carefully about the fetlocks so as to remove all gravel and dust which will sometimes lie in the bending of the joints. In addition to the practice of this old rider, modern grooms add whispering which usually follows brushing. The best wisp is made from a hay band, untwisted, and again doubled up after being moistened with water. This is applied to every part of the body as the brushing had been by changing the hands, taking care in all these operations to carry the hand in the direction of the coat. Stains on the hair are removed by sponging or when the coat is very dirty by the water brush. The hole being finished off by a linen or flannel cloth. The horse cloth should now be put on by taking the cloth in both hands with the outside next to you and with your right hand to the off side, throw it over his back, placing it no farther back than will leave it straight and level which will be about a foot from the tail. Put the roller round and the padpiece under it, about six or eight inches from the four legs. The horse's head is now loosened. He is turned about in his stall to have his head and ears rubbed and brushed over every part, including throat with the dusting cloth, finishing by pulling his ears which all horses seem to enjoy very much. This done, the mane and fore top should be combed out, passing a wet sponge over them, sponging the mane on both sides by throwing it back to the mid-drift to make it lie smooth. The horse is now returned to his head stall, his tail combed out, cleaning it of stains with a wet brush or sponge, trimming both tail and mane and forelock when necessary, smoothing them down with a brush on which a little oil has been dropped. 2,212. Watering usually follows dressing, but some horses refuse their food until they have drunk. The groom should not, therefore, lay down exclusive rules on this subject but study the temper and habits of his horse. 2,213. Exercise. All horses not in work require at least two hours exercise daily and in exercising them, a good groom will put them through the paces to which they have been trained. In the case of saddle horses, he will walk, trot, canter, and gallop them in order to keep them up to their work. With draft horses, they ought to be kept up to a smart walk and trot. 2,214. Feeding must depend on their work, but they require feeding three times a day with more or less corn each time, according to their work. In the fast coaching days, it was a saying among proprietors that his belly was the measure of his food, but the horse's appetite is not to be taken as a criterion of the quantity of food under any circumstances. Horses have been known to consume 40 pounds of hay in 24 hours, whereas 16 pounds to 18 pounds is the utmost which they should have been given. Mr. Kroll, an extensive coach proprietor in Scotland, limited his horses to four and a half pounds cut straw, eight pounds bruised oats, and two and a half pounds bruised beans in the morning, and noon, giving them at night 25 pounds of the following. Viz, 560 pounds steamed potatoes, 36 pounds barley dust, 40 pounds cut straw, and six pounds salt mixed up together. Under this, the horses did their work well. The ordinary measure given a horse is a peck of oats about 40 pounds to the bushel twice a day, a third feed and a rack full of hay, which may be about 15 pounds or 18 pounds when he is in full work. 2215. You cannot take up a paper without having the question put, do you bruise your oats? Well, that depends on circumstances. A fresh young horse can bruise its own oats when it can get them, but aged horses, after a time, lose the power of masticating and bruising them and bolt them whole, thus much impeding the work of digestion. For an old horse, then, bruise the oats. For a young one, it does no harm and little good. Oats should be bright and dry and not too new. Where they are new, sprinkle them with salt and water. Otherwise, they overload the horse's stomach. Chopped straw mixed with oats in the proportion of a third of straw or hay is a good food for horses in full work. And carrots, of which horses are remarkably fond, have a perceptible effect in a short time on the gloss of the coat. 2216. The water given to a horse merits some attention. It should not be too cold. Hard water is not to be recommended. Stagnant or muddy water is positively injurious. River water is the best for all purposes and anything is preferable to spring water, which should be exposed to the sun in summer for an hour or two and stirred up before using it. A handful of oatmeal thrown into the pail will much improve its quality. 2217. Shoeing. A horse should not be sent on a journey or any other hard work immediately after new shoeing. The stiffness incidental to new shoes is not unlikely to bring him down. A day's rest, with reasonable exercise, will not be thrown away after this operation. On reaching home very hot, the groom should walk him about for a few minutes. This done, he should take off the moisture with the scraper and afterwards wisp him over with a handful of straw and a flannel cloth. If the cloth is dipped in some spirit, all the better. He should wash, pick, and wipe dry the legs and feet. Take off the bridal and cropper and fasten it to the rack. Then the girths and put a wisp of straw under the saddle. When sufficiently cool, the horse should have some hay given him and then a feed of oats. If he refused the ladder, offer him a little wet bran or a handful of oatmeal in tepid water. When he has been fed, he should be thoroughly cleaned and his body clothes put on. And, if very much harassed with fatigue, a little good ale or wine will be well bestowed on a valuable horse, adding plenty of fresh litter under the belly. 2,218 bridles. Every time a horse is unbridled, the bit should be carefully washed and dried and the leather wiped to keep them sweet, as well as the girths and saddle, the ladder being carefully dried and beaten with a switch before it is again put on. In washing a horse's feet after a day's work, the master should insist upon the legs and feet being washed thoroughly with a sponge until the water flows over them and then rubbed with a brush till quite dry. 2,219. Harness, if not carefully preserved, very soon gets a shabby, tarnished appearance. Where the coachman has a proper harness room and sufficient assistance, this is inexcusable and easily prevented. The harness room should have a wooden lining all round and be perfectly dry and well ventilated. Around the walls, hooks and pegs should be placed for the several pieces of harness and at such a height as to prevent their touching the ground. And every part of the harness should have its peg or hook, one for the halters, another for the reins and others for snaffles and other bits and metalwork and either a wooden horse or saddle trees for the saddles and pads. All these parts should be dry, clean and shining. This is only to be done by careful cleaning and polishing and the use of several requisite pastes. The metallic parts, when white, should be cleaned by a soft brush and plate powder. The copper and brass parts burnished with rotten stone powder and oil, steel with emery powder, both made into a paste with a little oil, 2220. An excellent paste for polishing harness and the leatherwork of carriages is made by melting eight pounds of yellow wax, stirring it till completely dissolved. Into this pour one pound of litharch of the shops, which has been pounded up with water and dried and sifted through a sieve, leaving the two, when mixed, to simmer on the fire, stirring them continually till all is melted. When it is a little cool, mix this with one and one quarter pound of good ivory black. Place this again on the fire and stir till it boils anew and suffer it to cool. When cooled a little, add distilled turpentine till it has the consistency of a thickish paste, senting it with any essence at hand, thinning it when necessary from time to time by adding distilled turpentine. 2221. When the leather is old and greasy, it should be cleaned before applying this polish with a brush wetted in a weak solution of potasse and water, washing afterwards with soft river water and drying thoroughly. If the leather is not black, one or two coats of black ink may be given before applying the polish. When quite dry, the varnish should be laid on with a soft shoe brush, using also a soft brush to polish the leather. 2222. When the leather is very old, it may be softened with fish oil and after putting on the ink, a sponge charged with distilled turpentine passed over to scour the surface of the leather, which should be polished as above. 2223. For fawn or yellow-colored leather, take a quart of skimmed milk, pour into it one ounce of sulfuric acid and, when cold, add to it four ounces of hydrochloric acid, shaking the bottle gently until it ceases to emit white vapors. Separate the coagulated from the liquid part by straining through a sieve and store it away till required. In applying it, clean the leather by a weak solution of oxalic acid, washing it off immediately and apply the composition when dry with a sponge. 2224. Wheel grease is usually purchased at the shops, but a good paste is made as follows. Melt 80 parts of grease and stir into it, mixing it thoroughly and smoothly. 20 parts of fine black lead in powder and store away in a tin box for use. This grease is used in the mint at Paris and is highly approved. 2225. Carriages in an endless variety of shapes and names are continually making their appearance, but the hackney cab or clearance seems most in request for light carriages. The family carriage of the day being a modified form of the clearance adopted for family use. The carriage is a valuable piece of furniture requiring all the care of the most delicate upholstery with the additional disadvantage of continual exposure to the weather and to the muddy streets. 2226. It requires therefore to be carefully cleaned before putting away and to coach house perfectly dry and well ventilated for the woodwork swells with moisture. It shrinks also with heat unless the timber has undergone a long course of seasoning. It should also have a dry floor, a boarded one being recommended. It must be removed from the ammoniacle influence of the stables, from open drains and cesspools and other gaseous influences likely to affect the paint and varnish. When the carriage returns home, it should be carefully washed and dried and that if possible, before the mud has time to dry on it. This is done by first well slushing it with clean water so as to wash away all particles of sand, having first closed the sashes to avoid wetting the linings. The body is then gone carefully over with a soft mop using plenty of clean water and penetrating into every corner of the carved work so that not an atom of dirt remains. The body of the carriage is then raised by placing the jack under the axle tree and raising it so that the wheel turns freely. This is now thoroughly washed with the mop until the dirt is removed using a water brush for corners where the mop does not penetrate. Every particle of mud and sand removed by the mop and afterwards with a wet sponge, the carriage is wiped dry and as soon after as possible, the varnish is carefully polished with soft leather using a little sweet oil for the leather parts and even for the panels so as to check any tendency of the varnish to crack. Stains are removed by rubbing them with the leather and sweet oil. If that fails, a little triply powder mixed with the oil will be more successful. 2227. In preparing the carriage for use, the whole body should be rubbed over with a clean leather and carefully polished. The ironwork and joints oiled, the plated and brass work occasionally cleaned, the one with plate powder or with well-washed whiting mixed with sweet oil and leather kept for the purpose, the other with rotten stone mixed with a little oil and applied without too much rubbing until the paste is removed. But if rubbed every day with the leather, little more will be required to keep it untarnished. The linings require careful brushing every day, the cushions being taken out and beaten and the glass sashes should always be bright and clean. The wheel tires and axle tree are carefully seen to and greased when required. The bolts and nuts tightened and all the parts likely to get out of order overhauled. 2228. These duties, however, are only incidental to the coachman's office, which is to drive. And much of the enjoyment of those in the carriage depends on his proficiency in his art, much also the wear of the carriage and horses. He should have sufficient knowledge of the construction of the carriage to know when it is out of order, to know also the pace at which he can go over the road he has under him without risking the springs and without shaking those he is driving too much. 2229. Having with or without the help of the groom or stable boy put his horses to the carriage and satisfied himself by walking round them that everything is properly arranged, the coachman proceeds to the offside of the carriage, takes the reins from the back of the horses where they were thrown, buckles them together, and placing his foot on the step ascends to his box, having his horses now entirely under control. In ordinary circumstances, he is not expected to descend for where no footman accompanies the carriage, the doors are usually so arranged that even a lady may let herself out if she wishes it from the inside. The coachman's duties are to avoid everything approaching an accident and all his attention is required to guide his horses. 2230. The pace at which he drives will depend upon his orders. In all probability, a moderate pace of seven or eight miles an hour, less speed is injurious to the horses, getting them into lazy and sluggish habits, for it is wonderful how soon these are acquired by some horses. The rider was once employed to purchase a horse for a country friend, and he picked a very handsome gelding out of Collins's stables, which seemed to answer to his friend's wants. It was duly committed to the coachman who was to drive it after some very successful trials in harness and out of it and seemed likely to give great satisfaction. After a time, the friend got tired of his carriage and gave it up. As the easiest mode of getting rid of the horse, it was sent up to the rider's stables, a present. Only twelve months had elapsed. The horse was as handsome as ever, with plenty of flesh and a sleek glossy coat, and he was thankfully enough received. But, on trial, it was found that a stupid coachman who was imbued with one of their old maxims that, it's the pace that kills, had driven the horse, capable of doing his nine miles an hour with ease, at a jog trot of four miles or four and a half. And now, no persuasion of the whip could get more out of him. After many unsuccessful efforts to bring him back to his pace, in one of which a breakdown occurred under the hands of a professional trainer, he was sent to the hammer and sold for a sum that did not pay for the attempt to break him in. This maxim, therefore, that it's the pace that kills, is altogether fallacious in the moderate sense in which we're viewing it. In the old coaching days, indeed, when the Shrewsbury wonder drove into the in-yard while the clock was striking week after week and month after month with unerring regularity, 27 hours to 162 miles, when the quick silver mail was time to 11 miles an hour between London and Plymouth with a fine of five pounds to the driver if behind time, when the brightened age, tooled and hoarse by the late Mr. Stevenson, used to dash round the square as the fifth hour was striking, having stopped at the halfway house while his servant handed a sandwich and a glass of sherry to his passengers. Then the pace was indeed killing, but the truth is horses that are driven at a jog trot pace lose that Elan with which a good driver can inspire them, and they are left to do their work by mere weight and muscle. Therefore, unless he has contrary orders, a good driver will choose a smart pace but not enough to make his horses perspire. On level roads, this should never be seen. 2231. In choosing his horses, every master will see that they are properly paired, that their paces are about equal. When their habits differ, it is the coachman's duty to discover how he can, with least annoyance to the horses, get that pace out of them. Some horses have been accustomed to be driven on the check and the curb irritates them. Others, with harder mouths, cannot be controlled with the slight leverage this affords. He must, therefore, accommodate the horses as best he can. The reins should always be held so that the horses are in hand, but he is a very bad driver who always drives with a tight rein. The pain to the horse is intolerable and causes him to rear and plunge and finally breaks sway if he can. He is also a bad driver when the reins are always slack. The horse then feels abandoned to himself. He is neither directed nor supported, and if no accident occurs, it is great good luck. 2232. The true coachman's hands are so delicate and gentle that the mere weight of the reins is felt on the bit and the directions are indicated by a turn of the wrist rather than by a pull. The horses are guided and encouraged and only pulled up when they exceed their intended pace or in the event of a stumble, for there is a strong though gentle hand on the reins. 2233. The whip in the hands of a good driver and with well-bred cattle is there more as a precaution than a tool for frequent use. If he uses it, it is to encourage by stroking the flanks, except indeed he has to punish some waywardness of temper and then he does it effectually, taking care, however, that it is done on the flank where there is no very tender part, never on the cropper. In driving, the coachman should never give way to temper. How often do we see horses stumble from being conducted or at least allowed to go over bad ground by some careless driver who immediately rakes that vengeance on the poor horse which might, with much more justice, be applied to his own brutal shoulders? The whip is of course useful and even necessary, but should rarely be used, except to encourage and excite the horses. End of section 094.