THE DEMAND FOR DRESSMAKERS.
[To THE EDITOR OF TEE " SPECTATOR." ] Sia,—The "Lady in Surrey" has called forth so many com- ments in your pages, that she feels obliged now to answer. I am a middle-aged woman of large practical experience, the manager of a large nursery in London, and home in the country, and I entirely endorse the statements made by the writer of the "Commentary in an Easy-Chair." In very truth, the number of so-called workwomen is large ; but the number of women who can work properly exceedingly small. I know too much the value of my time to advertise for a needlewoman, for I should be inundated with answers from incompetent people. In answer to the advice offered in the same letter, allow me to say that I should be ashamed to offer a skilled needlewoman ten shillings a week to leave her home and family, though I should most certainly find her in board and lodging, and, I hope, some little change besides. I have a woman working now in the house from London, because there was no one in the neighbourhood who could undertake to make frocks and coats for the little inmates of my country home, I made no terms with her, but shall certainly not offer her less than fifteen shillings a week; but she is not a dressmaker who could make for young ladies, nor even my own plain
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