HOUSEHOLD BOOK OF LADY GRISELL BAILIE.* Mn. Secorr-MoslcuiEFF tells us
in his introduction that "this volume forms one of a series of publications issued by the Scottish History Society dealing with househould expenditure during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries." The book is full of interesting and curious information on all sorts of subjects, from housekeeping to Continental travel, and, besides giving us an insight into daily life from 1692 to 1733, it also, as the editor says, "brings us indirectly into touch with a remarkably interesting group of people, whether viewed socially, politically, or intellectually, who were well known in their day and generation, and • whose history it is a pleasure to study." George Bailie and his wife Lady Grisell were particularly clever and broad-minded people who were never daunted by their many sorrows and hardships. George Bailie's father, Robert, was accused of high treason, and executed in 1684, and his old friend, Sir Patrick Hume, Lady Grisell's father, only succeeded with great difficulty in escaping with his family to Holland, where they lived for some time in great poverty. Bailie was with the Humes at this time, and remained with them in exile until the coming of William of Orange put the Whigs in office, and be began his dis- tinguished political career. He married Lady Grisell in 1691, and we read that "it was an ideal union. They never had the shadow of a quarrel, or misunderstanding, or dryness betwixt them, not for a moment. He never went abroad but she vent to the window to look after him . . . never taking her eyes from him as long as he was in sight." She began to keep the accounts that are here printed, about a year after her marriage, and not only to keep accounts, but also to manage the family finances in an admirable manner. Her daughter,
• The Bousshold Book of Lady Grind!, Bailie, 1699-1733. Edited with Not
and Introduction by Robert Scott.Moncricir, W.8. Edinburgh: Scottish Mistory Society,
Lady Murray, writes of her "In her family her attention and economy reached to the smallest things; and though this was her practice from her youth, there never appeared in her the least air of narrowness, and so far was she from avarice, the common vice of the age, that often has my father said to her, never saw the like of you, goodwife ; the older you grow, you grow the more extravagant; but do as you please, provided I be in no debt.'" As it was not possible to publish all Lady Grisell's papers, Mr. Seott-Moncrieff has for several reasons chosen to deal mainly with the first "Day Book," one of these reasons being that it is concerned "with that intensely interesting period of Scottish history immediately preceding and succeeding the union of the Parliaments." He then goes on to tell us how he has arranged his material chronologically into groups so that the reader can turn to any particular sub- ject and see how it was dealt with by Lady Grisell. For instance, we can follow the education of her two children, " Grisie " and " Rachie " ; we can imagine what they looked like when they wore the "strip !lancet coats" which were bought for "the bairena " in "Edenburgh " in January, 1702; we can share in the family interest in their pets when we learn that 10s. 6d. was paid "to teach Jessie the dog tricks," 4s. 6d. for bringing a parrot "from Glasgow in 1703 and 2s. for 'finding the parrit,' when it escaped in 1704." The subject of servants is of much interest. Though their food and wages have altered in the last two hundred years, Lady Grisell's "Memoran- dums and Dereetions to Servants" are as applicable to-day as when they were written. She tells the butler to rise " airley in the morning which will make your whole business and household accounts easie," and she goes to the root of the matter when she begs him to "consider his business and have a little forethought." Her directions to the housekeeper are also very prudent, as when she tells her, among other things, to "take care that the cooks waste not butter," and to "see that all the maids keep their dusters and washing clouts dry and in order, and not let them lie about in hols wet." When she was an old woman she sent a friend the excellent advice "not to be uncasie at the disappointments in servants, for beeing a thing she will always meet, it would be a plague indeed if one laid it to heart." She also kept a book of "bills of fair," from which we know what was actually set before the guests at parties m England and also in Naples, where the whole family spent some time, for the sake of the health of Lord Binning, " Ritchie's" husband, who eventually died there. The accounts kept on the journey through Europe are very interesting, as are the memo- randa she wrote for her grandsons when they set cut on the "grand tour" in 1740. Besides telling them of the sights they should see, and the prices they may expect to pay, she shrewdly tells them that the most imposing-looking inns are not always the best. We cannot do more than mention the various tables of values and quantities given in the appendix, or the portraits with which the book is illus- trated. We must, however, tell Mr. Scott-Moncrieff, who says
that he owes an apology to Lady Grisell for prying into her accounts, that we feel sure that she could only be delighted at the admirable and sympathetic way in which he has arranged and edited her papers.
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