THE LADY'S COUNTRY COMPANION;

OR, HOW TO ENJOY A COUNTRY LIFE RATIONALLY.

BY MRS. LOUDON,

AUTHOR OF "GARDENING FOR LADIES," ETC.

WITH An Engraving on Steel, and Illustrations on Wood.

FOURTH EDITION. LONDON: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS. 1852.

PREFACE.

In the present edition of the "Lady's Country Companion," a reduction has been made in the price, to render the work still more generally useful than it has hitherto been; but in all other respects it is essentially the same.

The principal object of this work is to save young housekeepers the pain and trouble of buying their own experience; and though it is particularly addressed to those residing in the country, I have had the satisfaction of finding that it has been in many cases almost equally useful to those living in towns. It may, however, be interesting to my readers to know that it was originally written for the benefit of a young friend, who was precisely in the position I have represented Annie to be in, and who, knowing I had resided in the country in my youth, asked my advice. Of course, in preparing the work for publication, many things were added or enlarged on, particularly in the parts relating to cooking and gardening, and in the suggestions for altering and furnishing the house; but nearly all the housekeeping and farm-yard details were the result of my personal experience. It happened in my youth, that my father, who was in the law, was obliged, from ill health, to give up his profession, and to reside in the country; and as my mother was dead I kept his house. I had thus to practise what I have here attempted to teach; and I shall be only too happy if I am the means of sparing others the annoyances I suffered myself.

I have stated these facts now, as it is possible, from the gradually declining state of my health, I may not have another opportunity of mentioning them in their proper place, and as I think my readers will be likely to place more confidence in my counsels when they know they are founded on realities. I have always been anxious to make my books useful, but I am now still more so than ever I was before.

J. W. LOUDON.

Bayswater, Dec. 10, 1851.

CONTENTS.

Page

PREFACEiii

LIST OF ENGRAVINGSxi

LETTER I.

Introduction.1

BOOK I. THE HOUSE.

LETTER II.

First Impressions of the Country.—Making Fires.5

LETTER III.

Hall.—Morning Room.—Book-Cases.—Plants in

Pots.—Squirrels, Canary Birds, Parrots and Macaws, Monkeys,

Gold Fish, and Cut Flowers.—Drawing-room.—Dining-room.14

LETTER IV.

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.35

LETTER V.

Impromptu Cookery.—Soups.—Poultry.—Pigeons.—Game.—Salads

of Cold Meat and Potatoes.—Modes of

dressing Potatoes and Carrots.—Sauces.—Omelettes,

Creams, and Side Dishes.—Miscellaneous Cookery.—National

Cookery.—The French Pot-au-Feu.—Italian

Macaroni.—German Sauer Kraut—Polish Barsch.—Spanish

Olla Podrida and Puchero.—Scotch Haggis, Barley

Broth and Hotch-potch.—English Plum-pudding.

Puddings.—Potato Flour.—Pickles.—Pork Pies.70

LETTER VI.

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.—Ice-Creams.119

BOOK II. THE GARDEN.

LETTER VII.

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.153

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 Australian

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.—Culture of Orange Trees.—Aphides.186

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.210

LETTER X.

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

Edgings.—Crops of Culinary Vegetables.—Cucumbers,

Melons, and Mushrooms.226

LETTER XI.

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.244

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. 268

BOOK III. DOMESTIC ANIMALS.

LETTER XIII.

Quadrupeds kept for Amusement.—Horses for riding and

driving in Pony Carriages.—Mules, Zebras, Quaggas,

and Donkeys.—Dogs and Cats.284

LETTER XIV.

Quadrupeds kept for supplying Food.—Cows, Calves,

Goats, Pigs, Rabbits, and Deer.309

LETTER XV.

Inhabitants of the Poultry-Yard: Fowls, Turkeys, Guinea

Fowls, Geese, Ducks, and Pigeons.—Peacocks and

Hens.—Diseases of Poultry, and their Cure.330

LETTER XVI.

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.359

BOOK IV. RURAL WALKS.

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.390

BOOK V. COUNTRY AMUSEMENTS.

LETTER XVIII.

Archery: Targets; Self Bows and Backed Bows; Bowstrings;

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.403

BOOK VI. COUNTRY DUTIES.

LETTER XIX.

Relation between a Landed Proprietor and the Cottagers

on his Estate.—How to relieve the Poor.—Establishing

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.417

INDEX.425

LIST OF ENGRAVINGS.

Fig. Page

Frontispiece.

The Manor-House in its original State.4

1.Ground Plan of the Manor-House.16

2.Spigot and Faucet.46

3.Mash-stirrer.48

4.Mash-tub.48

5.Fruit-crusher.52

6.Cabbage-cutting Machine for preparing Sauer Kraut.99

Garden Front of the Manor-House in its improved State.152

7.Radiated Geometrical Flower-garden.157

8.Square Geometrical Flower-garden161

9.Diagram for forming the Beds of Flower-gardens.162

10.Diagram for forming the Beds of Flower-gardens.163

11.Diagram for forming the Beds of Flower-gardens.163

12.Compound Geometrical Flower-garden.164

13.Park Fence.219

14.Poultry-yard.333

15.Sitting-box for Hens.335

16.Hen-roost.336

17.Hen-coop.338

18.Nidulària campanulàta.395

LETTER I.

INTRODUCTION.

Your letter, my dear Annie, informing me that you are about to be married and to settle in the country, has interested me exceedingly, as it reminds 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 department. When my mother died, this person left us; and my father, with a shattered constitution and a greatly diminished fortune, retired to a small estate he had in the country. I was then young and thoughtless; I had no sisters; and having, 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 excellent 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 the week after. I need not enter into the details of my troubles in preparing for this well-remembered dinner. Meat was out of the question; and though I was enabled, with infinite difficulty, 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 imagine that ever afterwards I took care to have a cooked piece of hung beef, or ham, or some similar 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 housekeeping 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.