The lady's country companion; or, How to enjoy a country life rationally

Preface

The present work, which is the only one I have ever written having any reference to farming, is in¬ tended principally for the use of ladies who have been brought up in a town, but who from circum¬ stances have been induced to reside in the country. Persons so situated are generally at first delighted with the change: but they soon become full of complaints of the inconveniences of a country life; particularly of its dulness and monotony, and of the difficulty they have in getting what they want without sending to a great distance. This last inconvenience, however, is easily ob¬ viated by a little forethought and management ; and dulness and monotony will only be felt by those who take no interest in country pursuits.

Having lived in the country myself, I know both the inconveniences and the enjoyments of a country life, and in the following pages I have

IV

PREFACE.

endeavoured to save my readers the pain of buy¬ ing their own experience, by giving them the advantage of mine. If I have succeeded in doing this, and have been able to increase the comfort and happiness of any young and inexperienced female, I shall be satisfied.

My readers will perceive that in this work, as in my Gardening for Ladies , I have made my own wants and feelings a standard for judging of theirs ; and I may perhaps be allowed to add that Annie is not an imaginary being, but a young lady I have known from her birth, and to whom I am sincerely attached.

Having had numerous applications to know where to procure the gardening implements men¬ tioned in my works, it may save trouble to state here that they may all be procured from Messrs. Cottam and Hallen, Winsley Street, Oxford Street, London.

Bayswater , March 19. 1845.

LETTER IV. Page

Flies. — Servants’ Offices, including the Housekeeper’s Room and Store Closet, the Kitchen, and the Scullery. — Brewing ; making Home-made Wines, Cider, and Perry ; and making Bread, Rolls, Cakes, Rusks, Muffins and Crumpets, and Biscuits - - - - 31

Letter V

Cookery. — Heating an Oven with Coal. — Artificial Yeast.

— Soups. — Poultry. — Pigeons. — Game. — Salads of Cold Meat and Potatoes. — Modes of dressing Potatoes and Carrots. — Sauces. — Omelettes, Creams, and Side Dishes. — Puddings - - - - 58

Letter VI

Cakes. — Potato Flour. — Pickles. — The Larder. — Salt¬ ing Meat, Bacon, and Hams. — The Dairy. — Manage¬ ment of Milk. — Making and keeping Butter. — Making Cheese of various Kinds. — Ice-House, Ice- Cellar, and Ice-Cooler - - - - - 88

LETTER VII. Planting a 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. —

CONTENTS.

Vll

Page

Reserve Ground. — Culture of Annuals, Perennials, and Biennials. — Hotbeds and Frames for raising and keeping Half-hardy Flowers - - - - 157

Letter VIII

Use of Plant- Houses. — Nature of Climates. — Different Kinds of Hothouses. — The Dry Stove, the Bark Stove, and the Orchideous House. — Culture of Plants in the Bark Stove. — Aquarium and Water Plants. — Red Spider. — Culture of Succulent Stove Plants. — Culture of Orchideous Plants. — The Greenhouse. — The Aus¬ tralian House, and Culture of its Plants. — The common Greenhouse, the Heath House, the Conservatory, the Orangery, and the Camellia House. — The Culture of Plants in the common Greenhouse. — Potting Plants. — Heaths. — Culture of Plants in the Conservatory. — Cul¬ ture of Orange Trees. — Aphides ... lgo

Letter IX

The Park and Pleasure- Grounds. — Situation of old Houses.

— Water. — Forest Scenery. — Effect of a Shrubbery in harmonising a Flower-Garden with a Park. — Opening Vistas. — Scenes in a Park. — Fences against Cattle. — Styles in Gardening. — Use of a Terrace. — Patte d’Oie.

— Planting an Architectural Garden. — Planting an

Arboretum. — Renovating Turf - - - 184

Letter X

Laying out a Kitchen- Garden. — Making Gravel Walks.

— Box Edgings. — Crops of Culinary Vegetables. — Cucumbers, Melons, and Mushrooms - - 200

Vlll

CONTENTS.

LETTER XI. Page

The Management of Fruit Trees. — Planting. — Protecting the Blossoms. — Stone Fruits. — Fig Trees. — Grapes. — Management of a Vinery. — Growing Pine-apples. — Forcing Peaches and Nectarines. — Standard Fruit Trees.

— Kernel Fruits. — Fruit Shrubs. — Strawberries. — Tart- Rhubarb - - - - - 214

LETTER XII. Operations of Gardening. — Digging, Forking, and Hoeing

— Sowing Seeds. — Taking off Suckers. — Making Layers and Cuttings. — Budding, Grafting, and Inarching. — Pruning and Training. — Disbudding. — Manuring. — Keeping Fruit in a Fruit- Room - 238

Quadrupeds kept for supplying Food. — Cows, Calves, Goats, Pigs, Rabbits, and Deer - - - 275

Letter XV

Inhabitants of the Poultry- Yard. — Fowls, Turkeys, Guinea Fowls, Geese, Ducks, and Pigeons. — Peacocks and Hens.

— Diseases of Poultry, and their Cure - - 295

CONTENTS.

IX

LETTER XYI.

Page

The Inhabitants of the Ponds : Fish and Aquatic Fowls, including Swans, exotic Geese and Ducks. — Inhabitants of the Woods : including Pheasants and Partridges, Herons and Bitterns. — Aviary. — Apiary, and the Management of Bees. — Silk-worms - - 322

Letter XVII

Shoes and Apparatus for Walking. — Rural Seats. — Natural Objects noted in a Country Walk ; the Mole ; the Shrike ; the Black Snail; the Siller Cups; the Woundwort. — Pleasures of studying Botany. — Granite. — Appearance of the Clouds ----- 353

Letter XVIII

Archery : Targets ; Self Bows and Backed Bows ; Bow¬ strings ; Arrows; Arm Bracer and Shooting- Glove ;

Belt and Tassel ; and Quiver. — Sketching in the open Air: Block- Book and Pencils ; Artist’s Colours ; Touch of the different Trees. — Swinging. — Pleasure-Boats.

— Skating. — Sporting Terms - 365

X

CONTENTS.

LETTER XIX. Page

Relation between a Landed Proprietor and the Cottagers on his Estate. — How to relieve the Poor - Establish¬

ing Schools. — Teaching the Daughters of the Poor to make Clothes, and teaching them Cooking. — Employing the Poor. — Assisting the Poor in Illness. — Making Clothes for the Poor - - - - 379

LIST OF ENGRAVINGS.

XI

LIST OF ENGRAVINGS.

Fig.

8. 9-

16. 17.

The Manor-House in its original State Ground Plan of the Manor-House Spigot and Faucet -

Mash-stirrer -

Mash-tub -

Fruit-crusher - - -

Garden Front of the Manor-House in its improved State 126 Radiated Geometrical Flower-garden - - 131

Square Geometrical Flower-garden - - 135

Page

43 47

Diagrams for forming the Beds of Flower-gardens

Compound Geometrical Flower-garden - - 138

Park Fence - •• - - 193

Poultry-yard - 297

Sitting-box for Hens - 300

Hen-roost - - - - 301

Hen-coop ----- 302 Nidularia campanulata - - - 358

THE

LADY’S COUNTRY COMPANION.

Letter I. Introduction

Your letter, my clear Annie, informing me that you are about to be married and to settle in the country, has interested me exceedingly, as it re¬ minds me of my own youth, when my first essays in housekeeping were made under circumstances very similar to those in which you will be placed. It is true I was not then married, but, as my mother was dead, the care of the house devolved on me ; and I knew even less about household affairs than most girls of my age and rank in life, as my mother had an old and favourite housekeeper, who managed every thing, and who would not suffer the slightest interference in her depart¬ ment. When my mother died, this person left us ; and my father, with a shattered constitution and a greatly diminished fortune, retired to a

B

INTRODUCTION.

small estate lie had in the country. I was then young and thoughtless ; I had no sisters ; and haying, like you, been brought up in a town, I had no ideas of the country but as a place where eggs, cream, and fruit were in abundance ; where I might keep as much poultry as I liked ; and where there were shady lanes, and green fields abounding with pretty flowers.

The place we went to live at had a good house, commanding a splendid view ; an excel¬ lent garden; three fish-ponds, and about thirty acres of grass land, which enabled us to keep cows and horses, without troubling us with any of the laborious duties of cultivating arable land.

At first I was enchanted with the change. I was never tired of feeding my poultry, watching the dairy-maid, and managing the fruit and flowers ; but, alas ! I soon found that there are few roses without thorns. My first trouble was three gentlemen calling on us one day unexpectedly, and my father asking them to stay dinner. We were seven miles from the town where we had formerly lived ; and, though there was a small town within two miles of us, the road was bad, and the miles very long ones ; while the town itself, when we reached it, was one of those provoking places the shopkeepers of which never have what is wanted, though they always say they had abundance of the required article the week before, and believe they shall have it again

INTRODUCTION.

the week after. I need not enter into the details of my troubles in preparing for this well-remem¬ bered dinner. Meat was out of the question ; and though I was enabled, by having recourse to the poultry-yard and the dovecot, to give my father’s friends enough to eat, no one but a young housekeeper in a similar situation can have any idea of what I suffered. The lesson, however, was not lost upon me ; and you may easily ima¬ gine that ever afterwards I took care to have a cooked piece of hung beef, or ham, or some simi¬ lar substantial article of food in the house, that I might be provided for a similar occurrence.

The recollection of what I underwent while buying my experience makes me anxious to spare you, my dear Annie, the pain of a similar ordeal ; particularly as it is more disagreeable for a young newly married woman to feel in house¬ keeping difficulties than a single one ; as it makes you fear your husband had a higher opinion of you than you deserve. In your situation the difficulty is increased by your husband not having lived at the Manor-House since the death of his parents, when he was only ten years old ; so that he can have no idea of the petty troubles you will be exposed to. Under these circumstances I will do my best to clear the path that lies before you, and to teach you how to enjoy rationally a country life.

The Manor-House in its original State.

Letter II. First Impressions Of The Country. - Making Fires

You complain, my dear Annie, that when I wrote to congratulate you on your marriage, I did not send you any of the advice I promised. The neglect was intentional. I was unwilling to dis¬ turb the happiness of the honeymoon by any allusion to the troubles of life ; but now that you are actually arrived at the mansion which is to be your future dwelling, I will not delay a moment in commencing the fulfilment of my task. I am sorry to hear that you felt chilled and depressed at the first appearance of the Manor-House ; though I am not surprised that you found the room you were ushered into dark and cold, since you tell me that the windows are shaded by some lofty Scotch pines, which are certainly the most gloomy of all the vegetable race, and which must necessarily impede both the light and the warmth of the sun.

D 3

BOOK I. THE HOUSE.

You add that you are ten miles from a markettown, and at least seven from any visitable neigh¬ bours ; that the kitchen-garden is a mile from the house, and under the care of a cross old gardener, who cannot be displaced ; that there is no separate flower-garden ; and that, if it were not for your affection for your husband, you would be miserable.

Your letter would, I confess, make me very uneasy on your account if I had not had a good deal of experience of the world ; but I am com¬ forted when I reflect that in early youth the vehemence of our feelings always makes us ex¬ aggerate both our pleasures and our pains. Have you ever looked at a landscape through a window of coloured glass, and remarked the cold and miser¬ able appearance presented through the purple pane, contrasted with the rich glow thrown upon every object by the orange glass ? Both give a false idea of the reality ; but the impressions thus re¬ ceived are not more erroneous than those we often experience of what passes around us, when viewed through the medium of our feelings. I thus consider your letter as produced by a view taken through the purple glass ; and I am far from be¬ lieving that you will dislike the country when you know it better ; and still less do I give cre¬ dence to your vehement assertion that you never can be happy in your present residence.

Happiness, I suspect, in most cases, depends more upon ourselves than we are generally willing

FIRST IMPRESSIONS.

to allow ; and I am quite sure that young married people who are attached to each other, and have a competency, may be happy if they will, par¬ ticularly in the country, where their principal amusements must all centre in home. You will, perhaps, be surprised to find that I think this a cause of happiness, but you will find in time that I am right ; and that our chances of being happy decrease in proportion as we depend upon others for our enjoyments. I cannot conceive a more miserable life than that of a beauty who has no pleasure but in being admired; and who, conse¬ quently, must pass her time in fits of alternate depression and excitement. It would give me the greatest pain to see you plunge into this spe¬ cies of mental intoxication, and I rejoice that you are placed in a situation where you will not be exposed to the temptations arising from bad ex¬ ample. In this respect your present abode seems to be everything I could wish ; as, from the de¬ scription you have given me of the difficulties attending visiting your neighbours they seem to be enough to cure the most ardent lover of dissi¬ pation ; and, unless the neighbours be more than commonly agreeable, I think you will not feel inclined —

- “ Frequent visits to make

Through ten miles of mud for formality’s sake,

With the coachman in drink, and the moon in a fog, And no thought in your head but a ditch or a bog.”

BOOK I. THE HOUSE.

Do not suppose from this that I think you should be unsociable ; on the contrary, I think it a duty to mix occasionally with the world, as, unless we do so, we should soon learn to set a false value upon ourselves and upon every thing around us. The society of persons in our own rank in life is, therefore, essential to teach us our true level; and I have no doubt you will find some agreeable persons among your neighbours when you know them better, whose friendship you will think worth cultivating.

I will now take your objections to your residence in detail ; and we will try if some remedy cannot be devised for them. I am glad your house is large. In town, we are often content to put up with the inconveniences occasioned by want of room, as we know that space is valuable, and can¬ not always be had ; but, in the country, where we feel the free air, and see only an open space, it seems hard to be confined. You may also find it convenient, in the winter, to have space to take exercise within doors ; and I hope you have a good-sized hall or gallery for playing at battle¬ dore and shuttlecock in ; for that is a game not to be despised in the list of country amusements. The trees are certainly an objection. Our ances¬ tors seem to have had strange ideas about planting trees in front of a dwelling. It is true, that the modern conveniences of blinds and verandas were

MANAGEMENT OF FIRES.

then probably unknown ; and, therefore, a few trees were judged agreeable to shade the windows from the glaring light and heat of the sun. At least, this appears to me the only way of account¬ ing for the strange manner in which we often see trees placed close to the windows of an ancient manor-house, as though purposely to intercept the prospect, and to impede the entrance of two of the greatest blessings of nature, light and free air. I should hope that your husband will consent to have these trees cut down, or at least thinned out ; and I am sure he will find the sacrifice amply repaid by the air of cheerfulness which will be given to his rooms. I have also no doubt that when these rooms are better ventilated, and the sun is permitted to reach them, you will find them warmer ; though I confess that a country-house is always colder than one of the same size in town. In warming a room, a good deal depends upon the mode of managing the fire. Servants are very apt to throw on a quantity of coals at once, in such a manner as to smother up the flame ; and, when this is the case, the heated air produced by the imperfect combustion of the coals passes up the chimney with the smoke, and very little warmth enters the room. If, on the contrary, the coals are carefully arranged on the fire so as to allow a free current of air to pass through them, perfect combustion takes place, and the coals be-

BOOK I. THE HOUSE.

come a glowing mass, from which rays of light and heat spread in every direction ; while the cheerful appearance of a bright glowing fire must be felt by every one. Where an opportunity occurs of altering a fireplace, its capability for diffusing radiant heat will be greatly increased by making the back and sides of fire-brick or fire¬ stone ; as these substances retain heat much longer than any kind of metal, and are consequently more likely to prevent the fire from being chilled by the addition of fresh coal.

In many country places it is convenient to burn wood, especially where the fireplaces are large, as wood burns best on the hearth, or with the logs supported by what are called andirons or dogs ; and fires of this kind harmonise admirably with the large rooms and general appearance of the fittings up of an old country house. A wood fire, however, requires a good deal of attention to manage it well, as, without care, it will often go out before the logs are half-burnt ; especially when wood is burnt in a grate, unless it is mixed with a little coal, and there is a plate at the bottom of the grate to keep in the ashes.

It must also be remembered, that, though large logs are very useful to make a large fire, yet, when a quick supply of heat is required, it is best to use wood cut into short thick pieces ; and that wood burns much better when dry than when

WOOD FIRES. SMOKE.

green. Green wood, indeed, contains about one third of its weight of water, which of course evaporates in the shape of vapour, and this vapour aids in carrying the heat up the chimney ; dry wood, on the contrary, produces a clear bright fire, which gives out radiant heat. Opinions differ as to what kind of wood is best for fuel. Pine wood burns freely, from the quantity of turpentine it contains, but it does not give out much heat. Beech is preferred on the continent of Europe, and maple in America ; but Count Rumford says that the greatest mass of radiant heat is produced by the fuel of the lime tree. Generally speaking, close-grained smooth woods make better fuel than those the grain of which is open and rough. Pine cones are admirable for lighting a fire ; and you will find the gloomy Scotch pines, which have so annoyed you with their shade, will be useful in this respect, as an article of domestic economy. If any of your chimneys should smoke, the usual remedy is contracting the mouth of the chimney, or raising it higher by the addition of a chimney¬ pot. The last is a most unsightly remedy, and I hope you will not have occasion to try it. In¬ deed, old houses seldom smoke, unless their chim¬ neys are damp for want of use, or that birds have built in them ; though nothing can be more common than to have smoky chimneys in modern houses. One reason, I believe, is, that newly

BOOK I. THE HOUSE.

built chimneys very often smoke because they have not been properly cored ; that is, the pro¬ jecting pieces of mortar, &c., which remain inside the chimney after it is finished, have not been removed, and prevent the proper ascent of the smoke. Another common fault in modern fire¬ places is, that they are too shallow to allow sufficient space for the grate ; and, when the grate is set too far forward into the room, it is evident that a very strong draught will be required to draw the smoke up the chimney. Neither of these faults is common in old houses; in them the chimneys are generally as smooth inside as the walls of the room, and the fireplaces are usually two feet deep, or even more, instead of being only nine inches, as I am told is the case with some modern villas. I say nothing about stoves, as I confess myself prejudiced against them, from the numerous fires they have occasioned ; and I think open fireplaces not only safer and more agreeable, but much more conducive to health, as they aid in ventilating the apartments, and without a constant change of air there can be neither health nor happiness.

In speaking of the different kinds of fuel, I forgot to mention peat and charcoal, but you will find these more useful in the kitchen than in the parlour ; and coke I would not advise you to em¬ ploy, on account of its close unpleasant smell.

TREES.