covered two thirds of the floor, for they intended to diftil them when they were dry, and they had no other room that so conveniently received the rising

fun.

The fcent of the plants hindered me from rest, and therefore I rofe early in the morning with a refolution to explore my new habitation. Iftole unperceived by my bufy coufins into the garden, where I found nothing either more great or elegant, than in the fame number of acres cultivated for the market. Of the gardener I foon learned that his lady was the greatest manager in that part of the country, and that I was come hither at the time in which I might learn to make more pickles and conferves, than could be feen at any other house a hundred miles round.

It was not long before her ladyfhip gave me fufficient opportunities of knowing her character, for fhe was too much pleafed with her own accomplishments to conceal them, and took occafion, from fome fweetmeats which he fet next day upon the table, to difcourfe for two long hours upon robs and gellies; laid down the beft methods of conferving, referving, and preferving all forts of fruit; told us with great contempt of the London lady in the neighbourhood, by whom thefe terms were very often confounded; and hinted how much fhe fhould be ashamed to fet before company, at her own house, fweetmeats of fo dark a colour as fhe had often seen at miftrefs Sprightly's.

It is, indeed, the great bufinefs of her life, to watch the fkillet on the fire, to fee it fimmer with the due degree of heat, and to fnatch it off at the moment of projection; and the employments to which he has bred her daughters, are to turn rofeleaves in the fhade, to pick out the feeds of currants with a quill, to gather fruit without bruifing it, and to extract bean-flower water for the skin.

Such

Such are the tasks with which every day, fince I came hither, has begun and ended, to which the early hours of life are facrificed, and in which that time is paffing away which never shall return.

But to reafon or expoftulate are hopeless attempts. The lady has fettled her opinions, and maintains the dignity of her own performances with all the firmness of stupidity accustomed to be flattered. Her daughters having never feen any house but their own, believe their mother's excellence on her own word. Her husband is a mere sportsman, who is pleased to see his table well furnished, and thinks the day fufficiently fuccefsful, in which he brings home a leash of hares to be potted by his

wife.

After a few days I pretended to want books, but my lady foon told me that none of her books would fuit my taste; for her part fhe never loved to fee young women give their minds to fuch follies, by which they would only learn to use hard words; the bred up her daughters to understand a houfe, and whoever should marry them, if they knew any thing of good cookery, would never repent it.

There are, however, fome things in the culinary science too fublime for youthful intellects, mysteries into which they must not be initiated till the years of ferious maturity, and which are referred to the day of marriage, as the fupreme qualification for connubial life. She makes an orange pudding, which is the envy of all the neighbourhood, and which he has hitherto found means of mixing and baking with fuch fecrecy, that the ingredient to which it owes its flavour has never been discovered. She, indeed, conducts this great affair with all the caution that human policy can suggest. It is never known before-hand when this pudding will be produced; fhe takes the ingredients privately into her

own closet, employs her maids and daughters in dif ferent parts of the houfe, orders the oven to be heated for a pye, and places the pudding in it with her own hands, the mouth of the oven is then ftopped, and all enquiries are vain.

The compofition of the pudding fhe has, however, promifed Clarinda, that if the pleafes her in marriage, fhe fhall be told without referve. But the art of making English capers fhe has not yet perfuaded herfelf to difcover, but feems refolved that fecret fhall perish with her, as fome alchymifts have obftinately fuppreffed the art of transmuting metals.

I once ventured to lay my fingers on her book of receipts, which fhe left upon the table, having intelligence that a veffel of goofeberry wine had burft the hoops. But though the importance of the event fufficiently engroffed her care, to prevent any recollection of the danger to which her fecrets were expofed, I was not able to make ufe of the golden moments; for this treasure of hereditary knowledge was fo well concealed by the manner of fpelling ufed by her grandmother, her mother, and herfelf, that I was totally unable to understand it, and loft the opportunity of confulting the oracle, for want of knowing the language in which its anfwers were returned.

It is, indeed, neceffary, if I have any regard to her ladyfhip's efteem, that I fhould apply myself to fome of thefe economical accomplishments; for I overheard her, two days ago, warning her daughters, by my mournful example, against negligence of paftry, and ignorance in carving: for you faw, faid fhe, that, with all her pretenfions to knowledge, the turned the partridge the wrong way when he attempted to cut it, and, I believe, scarcely knows the difference between paste raised, and pafte in a difh.

The

The reafon, Mr. Rambler, why I have laid Lady Buftle's character before you, is a defire to be informed whether, in your opinion, it is worthy of imitation, and whether I fhall throw away the books which I have hitherto thought it my duty to read, for the lady's clofet opened, the compleat fervant-maid, and the court cook, and refign all curiofity after right and wrong, for the art of fcalding damafcenes without burfting them, and preferving the whitenefs of pickled mushrooms.

Lady Buffle has, indeed, by this inceffant application to fruits and flowers, contracted her cares into a narrow space, and fet herself free from many perplexities with which other minds are disturbed. She has no curiofity after the events of a war, or the fate of heroes in diftrefs; fhe can hear, without the leaft emotion, the ravage of a fire, or devaftations of a storm; her neighbours grow rich or poor, come into the world or go out of it, without regard, while fhe is preffing the gelly-bag, or airing the ftore-room; but I cannot perceive that the is more free from difquiets than thofe whofe understandings take a wider range. Her marigolds when they are almost cured, are often scattered by the wind, the rain fometimes falls upon fruit when it ought to be gathered dry. While her artificial wines are fermenting, her whole life is reftleffnefs and anxiety. Her fweetmeats are not always bright, and the maid fometimes forgets the juft proportions of falt and pepper, when venifon is to be baked. Her conferves mould, her wines four, and pickles mother; and, like all the reft of mankind, fhe is every day mortified with the defeat of her fchemes, and the dif appointment of her hopes.

With regard to vice and virtue fhe feems a kind of neutral being. She has no crime but luxury, nor any virtue but chastity; fhe has no defire to be praised but for her cookery, nor wishes any ill to

the rest of mankind, but that whenever they aspire to a feast, their cuftards may be wheyifh, and their pye-crufts tough.

I am now very impatient to know whether I am to look on these ladies as the great patterns of our fex, and to confider conferves and pickles as the business of my life; whether the cenfures which I now fuffer be juft, and whether the brewers of wines, and the diftillers of wafhes, have a right to look with infolence on the weakness of

CORNELIA.

NUMB. 52. SATURDAY, September 15, 1750.

Quoties flenti Thefeius beres

Sifle modum, dixit, neque enim fortuna querenda

Sola tua eft, fimiles aliorum refpice cafus,

Mitius ifta feres.

Ovid.

How oft in vain the fon of Thefeus faid,

Thy ftormy forrows be with patience laid;

Nor are thy fortunes to be wept alone;

Weigh other's woes, and learn to bear thy own.

A

Сатсотт.

MONG the various methods of confolation, to which the miferies infeparable from our prefent ftate have given occafion, it has been, as I have already remarked, recommended by fome writers to put the fufferer in mind of heavier preffures, and more excruciating calamities, than thofe of which he has himself reafon to complain.

This has, in all ages, been directed and practifed; and, in conformity to this cuftom, Lipfius, the great modern mafter of the Stoick philofophy, has, in his celebrated treatife on feadiness of mind, endeavoured to fortify the breaft against too much fenfibility of