Note 96 — OLD COUNTRY LIFE IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

In February, 1665–6, Mr. Sitwell ordered from London a hundredweight of good white sugar, the Muscovados sugar consigned to him from Barbadoes having proved unfit for his use. For preserving, the whitest powdered sugar was necessary. (See Verney Letters, iii., 278.) In a pocket almanac of 1699 which belonged to Mr. Sitwell’s grandson and namesake, there is a note that the latter has lent to Mrs. Stringer his “wife’s two Receipts Bookes.” These have unfortunately been lost, but the receipt-book of a neighbour, Mrs. Colepeper, amongst the Colepeper MSS. in the British Museum, enables one to form some idea of their contents.