Charity School for Servants. The girls' fchool, in the parish, was fallen into neglect; for though many would be fubfcribers, yet no one would look after it. I wish this was the cafe at Wefton only many schools have come to nothing, and many parishes are quite deftitute of schools, because too many gentry neglect to make it a part of the duty of their grown-up daughters to infpect the inftruction of the poor. It was not in Mr. Simpson's way to fee if girls were taught to work. The beft clergyman cannot do every thing. This is ladies' bufinefs. Mrs. Jones confulted her counsellor, Mrs. Betty, and they went every Friday to the school, where they invited mothers, as well as daughters, to come, and learn to cut out to the beft advantage. Mrs. Jones had not been bred to these things; but by means of Mrs. Cowper's excellent cuttingout-book, fhe foon became mistress of the whole art. She not only had the girls taught taught to make and mend, but to wafh and iron too. She also allowed the mother or eldest daughter of every family to come once a week, and learn how to drefs one cheap difh. One Friday, which was cooking-day, who fhould pass by but the Squire, with his gun and dogs. He looked into the fchool for the first time. "Well, madam," faid he, "What σε good are you doing here? What are st your girls learning and earning? Where "are your manufactures? Where is your "spinning and your carding?"-"Sir" faid fhe, "this is a small parifh, and you know "ours is not a manufacturing county; so "that when these girls are women, they they will not be much employed in spin- ! "ning. We muft, in the kind of good "we attempt to do, confult the local ge"nius of the place: I do not think it "will answer to introduce fpinning, for "instance, in a country where it is quite "new. However, we teach them a little "of it, and still more of knitting, that they may be able to get up a small piece ❝ of household linen once a-year, and pro"vide the family with ftockings, by ema 66 ploying the odds and ends of their time in thefe ways. But there is another "manufacture, which I am carrying on, "and I know of none within my own "reach which is fo valuable."-" What "can that be?" faid the Squire." To "make good wives for working men," said fhe. "Is not mine an excellent ftaple "commodity? I am teaching these girls "the arts of industry and good manage "ment. It is little encouragement to an "honeft man to work hard all the week, "if his wages are wafted by a flattern at "home. Most of these girls will probably "become wives to the poor, or fervants "to the rich; to fuch the common arts "of life are of great value: now, as there "is little opportunity for learning these at "the fchool-houfe, I intend to propofe "that fuch gentry as have fober servants, "fhall allow one of thefe girls to come "and "and work in their families one day in a "week, when the house-keeper, the cook, "the house-maid, or the laundry-maid, "fhall be required to inftru&t them in "their several departments. This I con"ceive to be the best way of training good "fervants. They fhould ferve this kind "of regular apprenticeship to various forts "of labour. Girls who come out of 66 charity-fchools, where they have been "employed in knitting, sewing, and read66 ing, are not fufficiently prepared for "hard and laborious employments. I do "not in general approve of teaching cha"rity children to write for the fame reason. "I confine within very ftrict limits my "plan of educating the poor. A thorough knowledge of religion, and of fome of "those coarfer arts of life by which the "community may be beft benefited, in"cludes the whole ftock of inftruction, "which, unless in very extraordinary cafes, "I would wifh to bestow." "What "What have you got on the fire, madam?” faid the Squire; "for your pot really smells "as favoury as if Sir John's French cook "had filled it."-"Sir," replied Mrs. Jones, "I have lately got acquainted with Mrs. "White, who has given us an account of "her cheap dishes, and nice cookery, in "one of the Cheap Repository little "books*. Mrs. Betty and I have made "all her dishes, and very good they are; "and we have got feveral others of our own. Every Friday we come here and ❝ drefs one. These good women see how "it is done, and learn to drefs it at their "own houses. I take home part for my "own dinner, and what is left I give to "each in turn. I hope I have opened "their eyes on a fad mistake they had got "into, that we think any thing is good "enough for the poor. Now, I do not "think any thing good enough for the poor which is not clean, wholesome, 66 * See the Way to Plenty, for a number of cheap Receipts. VOL. IV. A A " and |