I love a good rummage in charity shops and luckily the little town near us has 3 very good ones. It’s quite satisfying sifting through everything and maybe once in a while unearthing a few treasures which can be picked up for pennies, leaving enough change for a sticky bun!
I found these the other day and they’re still making me smile. A lovely little earthenware jug decorated with roses and some wonderful books from the 1930’s. I find old household manuals like this fascinating, stuffed as they are with a peculiar and amusing concoction of advice on cookery, etiquette, family health, gardening and household cleaning. Here are a few excerpts:
Breath tainted by onions – Leaves of parsley, eaten with vinegar, will prevent the disagreeable consequences of eating onions.
Deafness – Take 3 drops of sheep’s gall, warm, and drop it into the ear on going to bed. The ear must be thoroughly syringed with warm soap and water in the morning. The gall must be applied for three successive nights. It is only efficacious when the deafness is produced by a cold. The most convenient way of warming the gall is by holding it in a silver spoon over the flame of a candle. The above remedy has been frequently tried with perfect success.
Sewing machine oil has an objectionable way on occasion of falling on white material, Rub the spot with a cloth dipped in ammonia and wash. Clogged oil is a fruitful source of trouble in a sewing machine. It may be dissolved with the application of paraffin oil.
The white of an egg, well beaten with quicklime and a small quantity of very old cheese, forms an excellent substitute for cement, when wanted in a hurry either for broken china or old ornamental glassware.
Uninvited guest. It goes without saying that it is a breech of good breeding for a lady to take an uninvited guest when accepting an invitation at another friend’s expense. An offer to pay for the interloper would not right the error of taste.
The writing style makes me smile and conjures up visions of ladies in felt hats, taking afternoon tea and discussing the impropriety of Mrs Fitz-Smythe’s youngest daughter. All very Evelyn Waugh-ish, and a lovely snapshot of social history.
little cotton rabbits 
Oh, I love those sorts of books… I can never resist them. I find all that fascinating!
x
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Love old books like these and I really like your description of the ladies in felt hats! Can just picture them myself. Where does one find a sheeps gall I wonder?!
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How would anyone have known half those things! Why would anyone have tried egg white as cement or put sheeps bits in their ears!
Fabulous finds!
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Cheesy cement – ewww. Great book!
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that is so hilarious. if sheep’s gall could cure deafness, i think it would be international news!
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I always experience the challenges of deafness with a cold. What is sheep’s gall and where can one procure it?
I find it easy to write like this as my dh speaks like this. I know – he’s a throwback
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I love the abnkle socks on Georgette, one of the latest ‘batch’
Bril!
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I love old books as well, I’ve a few old ‘household management’ books and also a couple on etiquette (which I really enjoy and fail at reproducing in daily life most of the time ;0)
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What a riot these helpful hints are!! I too found a set of household hints like these at a thrift shop…they ARE amusing!
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I love the egg white and old cheese one! Fortunately (or unfortunately!) cheese never hangs around long enough in our house. Lets hope cash strapped builders don’t consider it – can you imagine the smell! x
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I too, am intrigued by the egg white/old cheese recipe and am wondering about the consequences of finding china that has been mended in such manner in a thrift shop…
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Love the sound of the book and love your blog generally. Vinegar and parley though – hmmm… should see off just about everything as well as dodgy breath.
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Aren’t those the most fascinating books! I just love finding things like that at antique sales too. And it’s interesting to wonder of the women who have used that book so long ago and what their lives must have been like. Thanks for sharing! Hugs, LuLu
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Julie, that is so cute. I have an old tin of cough drops that my brother bought for me at an estate sale. The tin has some very comical thing written on it.
By the way, can I feature your blog on a post on my Timeless Things:My Love Affair With Thrift Shops blog? I think your sweet rabbits would be great Christmas gifts for the ladies on my favorites list. Let me know if this is agreeable for you.
Have a great day!
Deanna 🙂
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I’m just off to the supermarket to pick up some quicklime for the store-cupboard. What do you take for the disagreeable effect of eating parsley in vinegar? Will an EPNS spoon warm my sheeps gall ok or should I pop it in the Aga for a minute? What if the uninvited guest were Daniel Craig – would the same rule apply? t.xx
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You made some fantastic purchases there. I love the old fashioned household books and your excerpts. I love social history and would love to study that some day. In the meantime I went to the Jane Austen centre in Bath a few weeks back and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was fascinated. I could have read about her all day.
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got to try that deafness cure – so – where to get some sheep gall? how insane is that!
and it wouldn’t do to outstay my welcome – so get along to mine to be in with a chance of a little prize – no – not quicklime and old cheese!!!
take care
xx
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I love reading old manuals! They are a fascinating snapshot of another time ^_^ Those are some nice finds! Hope you’re well 🙂
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I’ve just discovered your blog, and had to write to you, to say how lovely your knitted toys and cakes are. I would love to get my hands on some, so will keep checking your blog shop and etsy shop. xxx Pixiedust xxx
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I love books like these, oh what it must have been like to live way back then…I think I’ll stay where I am.
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Oh, puttering around in those quaint little shops sounds like so much fun…I’d love to go next time…if I weren’t so far away. Thanks for sharing the word picture!
Blessings,
Dianne
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I love these kind of books as well. I have a few I bought from a dollar bookstore in town. I love vintage stuff. Some of the etiquette practices are quite ammusing. I recently stumbled apon your blog, I love looking @ your creations, you do beautiful work. I am a Stay @ home mommy, and love sewing, knitting and crafting as well. And hope to knit as amazing as you some day. I will have to tell my sister about your blog. She has an alpaca farm and spins her own yarn. Keep up the good work.
God Bless, Molly from Maine
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