Housekeeping in Old Virginia

Housekeeping in Old Virginia

Virginia, or the Old Dominion, as her children delight to call her, has always been famed for the style of her living. Taught by the example of her royal colonial governors, and the numerous adherents of King Charles, who brought hither in their exile the graces and luxuriousness of his brilliant court, she became noted among the colonies for the princely hospitality of her people and for the beauty and richness of their living. But when at length her great son in the House of Burgesses sounded the cry of war, and her people made haste to gird themselves for the long struggle, her daughters, not to be outdone either in services or patriotism, set about at once the inauguration of a plan of rigid retrenchment and reform in the domestic economy, while at the same time exhibiting to their sisters a noble example of devotion and self-sacrifice.

The book, after great care in its preparation, is now offered to the public with much confidence. All that is here presented has been so thoroughly tested, and approved by so many of the best housekeepers in Virginia, that she feels it must meet with a cordial and very general reception at the hands of all accomplished housewives throughout the land, and will supply a long-felt and real need.

If she shall thus succeed in disseminating a knowledge of the practice of the most admirable system of domestic art known in our country; if she shall succeed in lightening the labors of the housewife by placing in her reach a guide which will be found always trusty and reliable; if she shall thus make her tasks lighter and home-life sweeter; if she shall succeed in contributing something to the health of American children by instructing their mothers in the art of preparing light and wholesome and palatable food; if she, above all, shall succeed in making American homes more attractive to American husbands, and spare xthem a resort to hotels and saloons for those simple luxuries which their wives know not how to provide; if she shall thus add to the comfort, to the health and happy contentment of these, she will have proved in some measure a public benefactor, and will feel amply repaid for all the labor her work has cost.