Read Ebook: The Lady's Country Companion; Or How to Enjoy a Country Life Rationally by Loudon Mrs Jane

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In the usual mode of brewing, when the fermentation has gone on till the yeast begins to look brown, the beer should be tunned; that is, the yeast is removed, and the beer is put into the casks in which it is to remain; and, in general, the beer is not taken down into the cellar till at this period. The casks are placed slantingly, with the bung out; and they are always kept quite full, being filled up with beer reserved for that purpose, as the beer they contain works out. In about a fortnight all the fermentation will be over, and the casks may be bunged up.

Any other kind of wine may be made when the wine is to be made of English fruit, either as was directed for the green or the ripe gooseberry wines; and when not made of English fruit, by boiling sugar and water, and fermenting it, before adding the substance that is to give the flavour as directed for the Cowslip wine.

"A judgment must be formed by the clear red heat of the bricks of the arch and sides of the oven, and the lively sparkling of the embers on its floor. The former criterion proves that the bricks have received enough of body heat to consume that black carbonaceous coating which the smoke communicates to them at the early stage of fire; the second shows that the principle of combustion is in full activity, and not rendered inert by a cold surface, either at the top, bottom, or sides. Finally, if the brickwork be hot enough, and the point of a long stake be rubbed forcibly over any part of it, so as for the moment to make a black trace of charcoal, this trace will be burnt off, and the bricks left clear in a second of time."

When the oven is sufficiently hot, the remaining embers are drawn out with an iron hook fixed at the end of a long pole, and the bottom of the oven is cleaned with a wet mop, made of long shreds of woollen cloth or coarse sacking. The oven is then quite ready to receive the bread, and it should be put in immediately. It generally takes about an hour to heat a moderate-sized oven properly; and it takes an hour and a half, or two hours, to bake loaves of the ordinary size.

Little iron grates are sometimes sold for heating ovens, but they are more suitable for coal than wood; and, though an oven may be heated with great rapidity with coal, it does not retain its heat so long, and is more fitted for baking French bread, or cakes, than large-sized household loaves. When, on the contrary, a brick oven is heated with wood, and the hot embers are pushed by the scraper to every part of the oven, the whole mass of brick becomes what is technically called soaked, and is in a fit state for a family baking of bread. When the bread is in, the oven door should be stopped quite close; but over the door is a small opening called the stopper, which should be opened when the bread has been in a little time, in order that the vapour from the bread may escape. It is from not attending to this that home-baked bread is so frequently heavy.

If no fresh yeast can be procured, it may be made by putting a teacupful of split peas into a basin and pouring about a pint of boiling water over them. A cloth is then put over the basin, and it is set near the fire to keep warm. In about twelve hours it will begin to ferment, and a kind of scum will rise, which may be used as yeast. This is called Turkish yeast; but a better method is practised by the Americans, which is as follows:--Take as much hops as may be held between the thumb and finger, put them with a few slices of apples into a quart of water, and boil the whole for about fifteen or twenty minutes. Then strain the liquid, and when it is lukewarm stir in a little flour with three or four table-spoonfuls of treacle so as to make a thin paste; then set the whole in a warm place, and in a few hours the fermentation will be sufficiently strong to allow enough flour and water to be added to make a proper sponge for bread.

If you have a small quantity of yeast it may be increased in the following manner:--Take one pound of fine flour, and mix it to the thickness of gruel with boiling water; add half a pound of brown sugar, mixing the whole well together. Then put three table-spoonfuls of yeast into a large vessel, and pour the mixture upon it. It will ferment violently, and the scum which rises to the top will be good yeast, which may be used immediately, or may be preserved for some time in an earthenware vessel covered closely from the air, and kept in a warm dry place.

A kind of bread, which is very good for toast and butter, is made by boiling and mashing some mealy potatoes, and then rubbing them into flour which has been previously warmed before the fire, in the proportion of half a pound of potatoes to two pounds of flour. When well mixed, add a proper quantity of salt, with enough yeast, warm milk, and water to make it into dough. It should be left to rise for two hours before it is made into a loaf, and it should be baked in a tin.

Both the Sally Luns and the milk cakes may be washed over with the white of an egg before they are put in the oven.

I shall now give you two or three receipts for biscuits, and sweet cakes.

I suspect indeed it would be a good plan to have several dishes on your table every day, whether you have company or not. It is not more expensive; for made dishes, by employing more vegetable matter, actually save the consumption of solid meat: and it is certainly more wholesome, as the stomach will more easily digest food of several kinds than a dinner taken from a single dish. The French know this perfectly well; and hence, however heartily a Frenchman may eat, he is scarcely ever troubled with indigestion, while many English people find indigestion the misery of their lives. "The Frenchman," says a writer on Domestic Economy, "begins his dinner with light soup, and successively disposes of his four dishes and his dessert. The whole quantity that he has eaten is, however, much less than the Englishman's meal from his single joint, and he experiences no inconvenience. In eating of a number of dishes, a little of each, the imagination is acted upon, and exaggerates the quantity really taken; the appetite is, therefore, satisfied with much less. The different matters received into the Frenchman's stomach, independently of their greater or less approximation to chyme by the process of cookery they have undergone, form a light heterogeneous mass or tissue, through which the gastric juice readily passes, whilst many of the different varieties he has swallowed act upon each other as solvents, and help the work of digestion." Besides, it is well that the servants should be accustomed to the same style of living when you are alone as when you have company, to prevent the awkwardness inevitable when persons do any thing that they are not in the habit of doing frequently. One of the greatest dangers of a country life is, indeed, that of getting into habits of slovenliness, both of the person and the table. If you once allow yourself to say, "It is of no consequence how I dress, or what we have for dinner to-day, for we are not likely to see any one," all my exhortations will have been thrown away.

I shall say nothing about roast meat, or any of the routine of ordinary cooking; but I shall confine myself to a few extemporaneous dishes for the table; and on these occasions the poultry-yard and the dove-cot will be found of the utmost importance.

Sometimes a forcemeat may be made for roast fowl, by boiling about a dozen and a half of sweet chestnuts, and pounding part of them with the boiled liver of the fowl, and about a quarter of a pound of bacon, adding parsley and sweet herbs chopped very fine, with pepper, salt, and other spices, to the taste. Fill both the body and the crop with this mixture, and then roast the fowl; when it is done, make a sauce by pounding the remaining chestnuts very smooth, and putting them with a few spoonfuls of gravy and a glass of white wine into some melted butter. The sauce is generally poured over the fowl when it is served up.

It may be useful here to mention two or three kinds of sauce which may be used either for cold meat or fish; and also some of the ways the French have of dressing cold fowl or veal, which are very nice.

Apples and apricots cut in slices and dipped in a light batter make a very agreeable addition to a small dinner; and the flowers of the Judas tree, and vine leaves, sugared and steeped in brandy, and the young shoots of the vegetable marrow, all make nice dishes when dipped in batter and fried.

In some of the modern cookery books equal quantities of butter and flour, in addition to the yolks of two eggs, are recommended for rich puff paste; and it is directed that the greater part of the butter should be made into a ball, and the buttermilk having been squeezed out of it, it should be put into the crust and covered with it, like an apple in making an apple-dumpling. The crust is then to be floured and rolled out five or six times. I have never tried this paste, and I should think it would be difficult to make. Regular pastrycooks, I am told, use oil, which they mix with the flour without any water; and lard or dripping is often used in large families to save butter. Eggs give a great richness to paste; but when used the whites should be omitted, as they are apt to make the paste hard.

Having thus broken through my determination to give you only receipts for impromptu cookery, I think I must give you a few hints on what may be called National Cookery, or, in other words, that I may teach you how to make the favourite dishes of most of the nations of Europe. I do this principally to amuse you, and to enable you to produce variety in your entertainments, as the greatest enemy you have to dread is monotony; but you may occasionally find it useful to know how to produce the favourite dishes of foreigners, when you have to entertain them.

I shall now give you a few miscellaneous receipts of various kinds, which I know to be good.

I will now give you a few miscellaneous receipts, and then I think you will have had enough; for I know, as far as my own experience goes, I have always felt perplexed, when I have taken up a cookery book, by the great number of receipts which I found in it, and all of which appeared to me so excellent that I knew not which to choose. I have, naturally enough, supposed you to have the same feeling; and thus, in what I have written, I have endeavoured as much as possible to save you the trouble of selection, by giving you only such dishes as I either know to be good myself, or which have been given to me by friends I can fully rely upon. But I am forgetting your receipts; they are as follow:--

Half a pound of lard is put into a saucepan containing a quart of water. The saucepan is set on the fire, and stirred till the water boils. The boiling lard and water is then poured slowly into as much flour as will suffice to make it into a smooth and very stiff paste, and mixed with a wooden spoon, after which it must be beaten with a rolling-pin. When the ingredients are thoroughly incorporated, the paste is put into an earthen pan, covered with a linen cloth, and placed near the fire, where it is left for about half an hour. The meat is now prepared by being separated from every particle of bone, skin, and gristle, and cut into pieces about the size of dice. Care is taken to keep the fat and lean separate; but both are well seasoned with pepper and salt. A piece of the paste large enough to form one pie is then broken off the mass, and the rest is again covered up, as it cannot be worked if it is too cold, though it will not stand if it is too warm. If it breaks and crumbles, instead of being plastic, it is too cold; and if it is too soft, and falls when raised, it is either too warm or too rich. When it is of just the right heat to bear being moulded, and yet to retain whatever shape may be given to it, the piece of paste is worked with the hands on a pasteboard, into the form of a high-peaked hat, with a broad brim; and then the peak of the hat being turned downwards on the board, one of the hands is put inside the hat, and the other used to raise and smooth the sides, till the pie is gradually worked into a proper shape. The meat is then put into the crust in layers, two of lean to one of fat, and pressed as closely as possible, in order that the pie may cut firm when cold. When the pie is quite full, the lid is put on, and wet round the edge to make it adhere to the top of the walls, on which it is laid, the two being pinched together, in order to unite them more thoroughly.

In Leicestershire, and some parts of Staffordshire, a layer of raisins is often put below the meat, and, in Northamptonshire, pork pies or pasties are made with the same kind of crust as I have described, but, instead of being raised, it is rolled out, and then cut into pieces of a proper size for the top and bottom, with a long piece of the necessary width for the sides. The bottom is cemented to the walls with egg, the two parts which are to adhere being pinched together; and the crust is filled with well-seasoned meat, put in layers of fat and lean as before; the lid is then put on, and, after it has been made to adhere to the walls, it is washed over with a feather dipped in white of egg.

These pies are frequently baked in a tin, which is made so as only to support the walls, and is fastened on one side with a kind of skewer, which may be drawn out, so as to allow the tin to be removed without breaking the crust. As, however, the sides sometimes look too pale, when the pie is baked in a tin, the pie may be put into the oven again for a few minutes after the tin is removed, in order that the walls may be properly browned.

All pork pies should be baked slowly, on account of the solid nature of the meat; and a hole is generally made in the middle of the lid to let out the steam. No water should be put into the pie when it is made; but, when it is baked, a little gravy made from the bones of the pork may be poured in through the hole in the lid. Pork pies are never cut till they are cold. Those persons who dislike lard may use butter instead of it for the crust; but it is not quite so good.

THE LARDER.--SALTING MEAT, BACON, AND HAMS.--THE DAIRY.--MANAGEMENT OF MILK.--MAKING AND KEEPING BUTTER.--MAKING CHEESE OF VARIOUS KINDS.--ICE-HOUSE, ICE-CELLAR, AND ICE-COOLER.

The pickle for the large brine trough is made by mixing four gallons of water with a pound or a pound and a half of coarse sugar, four ounces of saltpetre, and six pounds of common or bay salt. This mixture should be boiled in a large kettle, and the scum taken off as it rises. When no more scum appears, the vessel should be taken from the fire, and the liquid suffered to stand till it is cold. Another pickle is made by adding to four gallons of water, fourteen pounds of common salt, eight pounds of bay salt, half a pound of saltpetre, and two ounces of sal prunella. Boil the whole together for half an hour, and take off the scum; when cold it is fit for use. The first kind is best for hung beef and tongues; and the latter for salt beef and pickled pork.

When the pickle is ready, the meat to be salted should be examined, and carefully wiped dry with a coarse cloth, any flyblows or bruised parts being removed. If tongues are to be salted, the roots should be cut off, and laid aside for soups; and then the tongues should be scraped and rubbed dry before putting them into the pickling-trough. The skin of the pork should be scraped and cleaned, and the fleshy part should be carefully examined, and wiped dry, any mass that there may be of congealed blood being removed. All the meat that is to be cured being properly prepared, it should be laid in the pickling-trough and the brine poured over it; and, if there are several pieces of meat, care should be taken to lay them so that the brine may touch every part, and completely cover the whole. Meat which has been preserved in the first pickle for ten weeks or more, if cooked without being hung up to dry, will be perfectly tender, and will eat as well as meat that has been only freshly and slightly salted.

It is said that meat may be kept in this pickle for twelve months, provided the pickle be boiled and skimmed about once in two months, and that during the boiling, two ounces of sugar, and half a pound of salt be added. In general, the articles which have been salted, after remaining about a fortnight or three weeks in the pickle, are taken out and hung up to dry. Some persons lay them to drain, and then hang them up without any other preparation; but others advise them to be wiped quite dry and put in paper bags before they are hung up. Whenever fresh articles are put into the pickle, every thing should be taken out of the trough, and the brine boiled up, the scum being taken off and fresh salt and sugar added, as before directed. Sometimes meat is merely salted when it is to be used in a few days; in which case the meat is put into a smaller trough or pan, and only salt is used in the proportion of a quarter of a pound of salt to every two pounds of meat. The salt should be well rubbed in, and the meat turned every day.

The following general observations as to curing meat will probably be of more use than multiplying receipts. What is called bay salt gives a finer flavour than common salt, but rather more should be used, to produce the same degree of saltness. Sugar makes meat tender, and gives mellowness and richness, but the quantity used should never be more than one quarter of the quantity of salt, or it will make the meat taste insipid. Saltpetre gives a fine red colour, but it is apt to make the meat hard; and, whenever it is used, there should be at least an equal quantity of sugar to counteract its hardening tendency. The usual proportion is, a quarter of an ounce of saltpetre to a pound of salt; or, if used with sugar, one ounce of saltpetre to three pounds of sugar. Meat should never be salted in very hot weather, unless it is wanted for use in a few days; and it should never be put in pickle at that season. If any meat in the slightest degree tainted be put into the pickling-trough, the brine will be spoiled, and should be thrown away. When it is absolutely necessary, in very hot weather, to salt meat to keep, it is said that a tea-spoonful of muriatic acid and of nitric acid , in equal parts, should be added to every pound of salt. It is also said that a dessert-spoonful of pyroligneous acid added to every pound of salt will give a fine smoky flavour, without any of the trouble attendant on smoking dried meat; but this last must be used with great care, as too much would spoil the meat.

For a ham twenty-four pounds in weight, take two ounces of saltpetre, half a pound of common salt, one pound of bay salt, and one ounce of black pepper. Mix these together, and rub them well into the ham: then let it stand three days, and at the expiration of that time pour one pound of treacle over it, and let it remain twenty-four hours; after that time, let it be turned every day for a month, and each time rub the liquor well into it. After this, steep the ham in cold water for twelve hours, then dry it well and hang it up. It will not require any further steeping when it is to be boiled; and it should be boiled slowly, say at the rate of about three hours for a ham of the weight of ten pounds. This receipt was given me by Mr. Beaton, and it is impossible for any hams to be better than those cured in this way.

The following is the way of curing hams to give them the Westphalian flavour. For two large hams, take one pound and a quarter of common salt, two ounces and a half of saltpetre, three pounds of bay salt, one pound and a half of brown sugar, and one quart of old beer; boil them all together, and pour the mixture over the hams boiling hot. Turn them and rub them well every day for sixteen days; then smoke them with short horse-litter, and hang them up to dry.

The following is another mode of giving hams the Westphalian flavour, and it is said to be excellent. For two hams weighing thirty pounds, take one pound of common salt, half a pound of bay salt, three ounces of saltpetre, and one ounce and a half of black pepper, the latter ground, and finely sifted. Mix all these well together, and rub the hams with the mixture for four days, turning them every day, and having first washed them well with vinegar. On the fifth day, pour over the hams two pounds of treacle, and rub them well with two ounces of juniper berries bruised. Let them remain in this pickle six weeks, turning and rubbing them daily; then take them out of the pickle, and lay them in spring water for four-and-twenty hours; then wipe them dry and send them to a chimney where wood is burnt. When thoroughly smoked, take them down and put them in a chest with wood ashes. I may here observe that, when hams are cured in any ordinary way, it is said that the Westphalian flavour may be given to them by rubbing over them three table-spoonfuls of a mixture of tar and spirits of wine, when they are just taken out of the pickle.

Though I do not imagine your knowledge of a dairy to be very great, I suppose you are aware that the milk is drawn from the cow into a can or wooden pail, and brought into the dairy, where it is strained, and then put into shallow vessels or milk-pans, in which it is left for several hours in order that the cream may rise. Cows are generally milked twice a day; the morning's milk being skimmed in the afternoon, when the afternoon's milk is put into pans, or set up as the dairy-maids call it, and the afternoon's milk being skimmed in the morning. The cream, after what is wanted for the table has been taken out, is put into a large wide-mouthed jar or stein, and saved for butter. Cheese is generally made of new milk, which is put at once into the cheese-tub without setting it up in pans. The cheese-tub and cheese-press, the churn and all the apparatus for making butter, generally stand in the dairy scullery, where the operations of cheese and butter making are carried on.

Various kinds of vessels have been recommended for milk, and they have been made of lead, zinc, slate, and other materials. China are the best; but the old-fashioned wooden or earthenware pans appear to be the most general favourites; the only objections being, that wooden pans require a great deal of care to keep them clean, and that the leaden glaze of the earthenware pans is apt to be affected by the acid of the milk, if it should be kept till it becomes sour. No good dairy-maid, however, would ever keep milk in her pans till it became acid: and, if by any chance wooden vessels became tainted by having had in them sour or otherwise spoiled milk, they should be soaked in water in which a large piece of soda has been dissolved; and, if this does not sweeten them, they must be boiled in soda and water, and then immersed in pure cold water for a day or two.

Churns are of two kinds, viz. the plunge-churn, the motion of which is up and down; and the barrel-churn, which turns round, and is considered much the best. Churning is generally performed in the open air in summer, and in the dairy scullery near the fire in winter. If kept too cold, the butter will not "come;" and, if too hot, the butter will be soft, and will soon become rancid.

When the butter has come, as the dairy-maids call it, it is gathered together with the hand or a net, and put into a kind of shallow tub; the buttermilk is then emptied out of the churn, which should be left to drain for half an hour or thereabouts, and be afterwards well washed with scalding water and a little salt. The butter in the mean time is kneaded and worked with the hand, or with two small and very smooth pieces of wood, to get all the buttermilk out of it; and in England water is generally poured over it to assist in this operation, though in Scotland it is said that water spoils the butter. When all the buttermilk is worked out, the butter is slightly salted, and then made up into rolls or lumps with the two pieces of wood. In the South of England, as soon as the butter is made, it is put into water; but in the North it is laid in a dry cool place, and covered over.

When butter is intended for salting, it is not made into rolls, but the salt is worked into it as soon as the buttermilk has been removed. The following composition is recommended as a very good one for salting butter for home use. Take two parts of salt, one part of lump sugar, and one part of saltpetre. Beat them well together, and add one ounce of this composition to every sixteen ounces of butter.

When cows are fed on turnips, an unpleasant taste is given both to the milk and butter; but it may generally be removed in the following manner. Pour a quart of boiling water on two ounces of saltpetre, and, when it is thoroughly dissolved and cold, bottle it for use. If two table-spoonfuls of this mixture be put to every four gallons of milk, as soon as it is brought into the dairy and strained, it is said to take off the unpleasant taste; or a lump of saltpetre about the size of a walnut may be put into the cream-pot and well stirred twice a day, when the fresh cream is added. In winter, butter is sometimes so pale as to look almost like lard, but it may be coloured by a little arnatto, which is sold for that purpose in the grocers' shops; or the juice of carrot scraped and strained through muslin, or that of the flowers of the marigold, may be used. In either case the colouring matter is mixed with the cream before churning.

As soon as the curd is formed, it is very carefully removed from the pan, without breaking it, if possible, and laid on a deep circular sieve, where it is slightly pressed, in order that the whey may drain from it. It is then put into the cheese-vat, which should be ten inches and a half deep, and eight inches and a quarter over, with a moveable hoop of wood on the top, over which a piece of flat board is generally laid. As soon as the cheese has acquired a sufficient consistency, it is removed from the vat and firmly bound round with a clean cloth, which is changed every day, and the cheese bound tighter and tighter, till at last it becomes sufficiently firm to stand alone. Every time the cloth is changed, the cheese is wiped at the top and bottom and turned, so that each end may be equally level. When it has become sufficiently firm to support itself without the cloth, the cheese is removed to the cheese-room; but it still requires to be turned twice a day, and brushed, for about three months.

As soon as the curd is well set, it is divided and turned over with a bowl to separate it from the whey; after which it is broken into small pieces by the hand, and suffered to settle down, while the whey, which swims at the top, is poured off. The curd is pressed on one side of the tub with a loose board, and the whey that runs from it is again poured off. The curd is then drawn into the centre of the tub, and formed into a heap, and the board is laid on the top and heavy weights placed on it, generally amounting to a hundred pounds. This presses the curd into a solid mass, and squeezes out an additional quantity of whey.

The mass of curd is then cut into slices, and boards and weights put upon each slice. This is repeated several times, till not a drop more whey will run from the curd; after which it is removed to a dry tub, and crumbled with the fingers as small as possible. It is then well salted, and put into a cheese-vat made warm by being scalded with boiling water, and heaped up as high as it will go, the additional curd being kept in its place by a movable tin hoop. A flat board is then laid across the top to press down the curd, which generally rises to a point in the centre of the vat, and the heavy weights are again put on it. At the same time wooden skewers are run into the cheese, in order that every particle of whey may be drawn out of it.

After standing some time, the cheese is taken out of the vat, and laid on a large cheese-cloth, and the curd again broken from the top down the centre, and more salt mixed with it; after which it is pressed into the vat by the hand as before, and weights are again put upon it, while skewers are run through holes purposely left in the vat, into the sides of the cheese, as before. Another vat having been scalded by being rinsed with boiling water, the cheese is wrapped in a cloth and put into it; the ends of the cloth being folded over the cheese as tightly as possible, and tucked inside the vat, where they are kept down by a tin hoop called a binder, which is forced in between the cheese and the upper part of the vat. The cheese is then put into the press under a pressure of about a ton weight, and a number of thin iron skewers are passed through the holes in the vat into the sides of the cheese. After four hours it is turned, and the skewers removed to fresh places, when the cheese is put into the press for another four hours; after which, the process is repeated. It is then put into the press, and left there all night; the following morning it is again turned, and put into the press without the skewers. It remains in the press for four or five days, being regularly turned every morning and evening; and it is taken from the press into the cheese-room, where it is salted on the outside, and tightly bound with a linen cloth. It is kept in this state and turned twice a day for a week; after which it is put on the shelves to dry for a fortnight or three weeks, during which period it must be turned and wiped every day. Lastly, it is then laid on straw, and kept rather warm, lest the rind should crack; and, when the rind begins to feel hard, its surface is rubbed over with butter, and the cheese is ready for the market. It is rather singular that, notwithstanding the pains taken to drain every drop of whey from the Cheshire cheese, its whey yields no butter, and is seldom made any use of except for feeding pigs.

A kind of cream cheese is, however, made in Yorkshire of cream only, without any rennet. "Take any quantity of cream and put it into a wet cloth. Tie it up, and hang it in a cool place for seven or eight days. Then take it from the cloth and put it into a mould with a weight upon it, for two or three days longer. Turn it twice a day, when it will be fit for use."

When it is wished to cool wine rapidly, it is only necessary to put it into a thin glass bottle, and to wet the outside with ether; as cold is produced by rapid evaporation sooner than in any other manner, wine-coolers are formed on this principle.

PLANTING A REGULAR GEOMETRICAL FLOWER-GARDEN.--LIST OF PLANTS.--MODE OF LAYING OUT REGULAR FIGURES ON THE GROUND.--RULES FOR ARRANGING COLOURS.--PLANTING SIDE BEDS.--PLANTS WITH FRAGRANT FLOWERS.--CULTURE OF BULBS.--RESERVE GROUND.--CULTURE OF ANNUALS, PERENNIALS, AND BIENNIALS.--HOTBEDS AND FRAMES FOR RAISING AND KEEPING HALF-HARDY FLOWERS.

It gives me great pain, my dear Annie, to find that you still think that you shall never like the country so well as town. I do not, however, despair; for I am convinced that you do not at present know whether you shall like it or not. The pleasures of the town and the country are, indeed, so different, that it requires some time to become accustomed to the change; but, when you are sufficiently well acquainted with country pursuits to take an interest in them, I am sure you will never feel any want of the pleasures of the town. The great secret of being happy is, to be able to occupy ourselves with the objects around us, so as to feel an interest in watching their changes; and, when you can once do this in your present situation, you will no longer complain of dulness or want of excitement. To be convinced of the truth of what I say, you need only remember the pleasure your friend Mrs. P. C. takes in the cultivation of her garden; the interest with which she watches the opening of her flowers, the coming up of the seeds she has sown, and the growth of the trees she has planted. It is not the positive beauty of these things that occasions the pleasure she experiences in them, but the interest they have created in her mind; for the entomologist will find pleasure in the most hideous caterpillars, and the geologist will pass whole days delightfully among barren rocks. All that is wanted to give an interest in any subject is, a sufficient degree of knowledge respecting it to be aware of its changes, and our own natural love of variety will do the rest.

In the first place, it will be absolutely necessary that the remainder of the trees should be not only cut down, but grubbed up; as it will be quite impossible for any flowers to grow under the shade of tall thick trees, and leaving the roots would prevent the possibility of digging the ground. In other respects the situation is admirably adapted for the purpose, as it is open to the south and south-east, and protected from the north and north-west. Supposing the Scotch pines and cedars to have been cut down, their roots to have been grubbed up, and the ground to have been dug over and levelled, the next thing is to determine upon the plan for the garden. I think it should certainly be a regular geometric figure, and planted in masses, each bed containing flowers of one kind, so as to produce something of the effect of a Turkey carpet when looked down upon from the windows of the house. I enclose you a design which I think will suit the situation, and I will adapt what I have to say to it, though my observations may easily be made suitable to another plan, if another should be found more desirable.

We will suppose the plan to consist of twelve flower-beds on grass, with a gravel walk round, which may be bordered on the side next your room by beds for flowers, with little gravel openings opposite each of your windows; or be plain gravel, as you like. There may be a conservatory into which the drawingroom windows facing the south may open, and on the other side a shrubbery to unite the garden with the lawn. In the centre of the flower-garden there may be a fountain; and, as the flower-garden is to be seen principally from your windows, the beds nearest you should be planted with dwarf flowers, so that those in the back beds may be seen. I should also advise the shrubbery behind to consist of laurustinus and arbutus, so as to furnish a handsome green back-ground to the flowers in summer, and yet to afford a few flowers themselves in winter and spring, when flowers are scarce in the beds.

I will now tell you how I would plant the beds. As this is the beginning of May, and as I wish your garden to look well immediately, I would advise you to get a few pots of Californian and other annuals, usually raised in pots, from the nurseryman at the neighbouring town, and to plant them, putting three potfuls in each bed, but no more. In No. 1. put Phl?x Drumm?ndi, the flowers of which are crimson of various shades, and let the stems be pegged down, so as to spread over the bed. No. 2. may be Lasth?nia calif?rnica, the flowers of which are yellow, and the stems generally procumbent; but they may be pegged down to keep them in their proper places, that is, to spread completely and regularly over the bed. No. 3. should be Nem?phila ins?gnis, the flowers of which are of a beautiful blue, and which will not require pegging down. No. 4. may be Er?simum Perofski?num, the flowers of which are of a bright orange, but the stems must be pegged down, or they will grow tall and straggling. No. 5. may be Nol?na atriplicif?lia, the flowers of which are blue, and resemble those of a convolvulus; this is a procumbent plant, and will not require pegging. No. 6. may be Nem?phila atom?ria, which has white flowers, and is a dwarf plant. No. 7. may be Leptos?phon densifl?rus, a dwarf plant, with pale purple flowers. No. 8. may be G?lia b?color, a dwarf plant, with nearly white flowers. No. 9. may be Clint?nia pulch?lla, a beautiful little plant with blue flowers. No. 10. may be G?lia tr?color, a dwarf plant, the flowers of which are white and very dark purple. No. 11. may be Leptos?phon andros?ceus, a dwarf plant, with pale lilac flowers: and No. 12. Schizop?talon W?lkeri, the flowers of which are white, and the stems must be pegged down. These are all annuals, which if properly treated by pegging down, and not planted too close, will produce a mass of flowers in each bed only just above the surface, and will have a very pretty effect from the windows. Most of them like a poor clayey soil best, and they will only require turning out of the pots without breaking the ball, into the places prepared for them.

If you think there are too many white beds, you can substitute Sanvit?lia proc?mbens, the flowers of which are yellow, for No. 8., but the seeds must have been sown the previous autumn to bring it forward, as otherwise it will not flower till late in the summer; and Bart?nia a?rea, the flowers of which are of a golden yellow, may be planted instead of No. 12. Clad?nthus ar?bicus, formerly called ?nthemis ar?bica, which has yellow flowers, may be planted in No. 8., if Sanvit?lia cannot be obtained.

I do not think you have ever told me what soil yours is, and perhaps you hardly know. You will, however, easily recognise gravel or chalk; if the soil be red, it is probably, if loose, a sand, and if close, a marl; a peaty soil is black and loose; and a clay may be known by water standing in little pools after rain, without running off. This is one of the worst soils for gardening purposes; but it may be improved by mixing it with sand.

I shall now give you a list of half-hardy plants for autumn, as most of the annuals will begin to look shabby in July or the beginning of August. No. 1. Verb?na Mel?ndres, bright scarlet; No. 2. OEnoth?ra Drumm?ndi, yellow; No. 3. Lob?lia b?color, blue; No. 4. Calceol?ria rug?sa, pegged down; No. 5. Verb?na Tweedi?na, crimson; No. 6. common White Petunia; No. 7. Verb?na Arrani?na, or Henderson's purple; No. 8. Calceol?ria integrif?lia, yellow; No. 9. Purple Petunia; No. 10. Verb?na teucrio?des, white; No. 11. Frogmore Pelargonium, bright scarlet; No. 12. Musk plant, yellow.

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