Robert Roberts (2)

First published in 1827, this is a nifty little book full of instructions, tips and "receipts" for cleaning, polishing furniture, carving, table arranging, planning one's work day, dressing, speaking to one's superiors, answering bells....anything and everything a good servant might need to know. Fun for all devotees of "Upstairs, Downstairs" and "Downton Abbey", although this was published in the United States, and perhaps may not have been quite up to British standards. Nevertheless, Mr. Roberts' employer, The Hon. Christopher Gore of Massachusetts, was favorably impressed with the book, and wrote to the publisher to "Consider me a subscriber for such number as six dollars will pay for." Many of the cleaning compounds sound quite lethal, and others contain ingredients most of us would probably find difficult to identify--powdered hartshorn balls, oil of vitriol, killed quicksilver, rottenstone, gum lac, gall nuts, butter of antimony..... More common components include gin, leeks, egg whites, mutton suet, rain water, chalk, and good old hot soapsuds. A good many clean pipkins, junk bottles and old silk handerchiefs seemed to be called for. The section on "Going to Market" was particularly fascinating. Did you know that a stale woodcock can be spotted if it appears "dry-footed, or if their noses are slimy, and their throats muddy and moorish"? I'll never buy an old woodcock again, I'm sure, and I now know how to tell the difference between a cock and a hen...lobster.… (more)