Mrs. Baton's Book of Household Management. (Ward, Leek, and Co.
7s. 6d. net.)—This work was first published in 1861. Additions have been made to it from time to time, and the result, including the very considerable changes of the present volume, is that we have a bulk four times greater than that with which the public was content forty-five years ago. There have been many importations both of material and of method. New forces have been applied. Gas cooking was not unknown in 1861, but it is now much more extensively employed. "Cooking by electric heat" is new. The housekeeper will find a vast store of informa- tion, and will, indeed, seldom be at a loss with this comprehensive directory at hand. Of course there are points in which the book is still susceptible of improvement. We should not, for instance, recommend as an establishment for an income of £1,000 a year, "cook, housemaid, and perhaps a man-servant." Cook, parlour- maid, housemaid, and " tweeny " would be more to the purpose. "Cook and housemaid" would hardly suffice for a ..e750 income. It looks as if this section had not been revised up to date. Then the wine-list prices present some curious features. " Laiitte from 400s." is surely an extravagant figure. And what is meant, under the beading of Italian wines, by " Egidio Vitali from 66s. per
Previous page
