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Leader (1850-1860), 14th January 1860, Edition 2 of 2, Page 18, 46 The Leader and Saturday Analyst. [Jan...

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      The Art Of Pining.* I T Is Man Alone Who...

      live to fill out the old-fashioned , uncrinolined skirt which flows with such amplitude around her ! Joy go with those who live under the shadow of her stewpans and her hasting ladle ! Health and happiness to those who fatten upon her entrees and her entremets ! She is a woman who understands her subject , and as such we respect her . Mrs . Tickletooth opens her book with " G . H . M . ' s" letter describing the proper ordinance of a dinner . It had better have been left out . The letter had much of good in it , spoilt with more of nonsense , and to the whole composition the old criticism will apply , that wljat was good in it was old , and what was new was bad . Nothing- can excuse the niaiserie of commending roses to be laid by the sides of the plates , as consolations for timid or stupid guests . Mrs . Tickletooth , however , evidently entertains no great amount of respect for the composition ,

      dens in the Palais Royal , where the gourmet may be refreshed with soup , three plats , dessert , half a bottle of wine , and bread a discretion for t \ vp francs . Mrs . Tickletooth speaks strongly on the demerits of this disgustjng refection . .. But the reader will say that we have occupied quite enough of his time about a mere . cookery book , and perhaps we _ have j yet m our opinion , if he has learned a single fact which will enable him to enjoy life better than heretofore , —or if , better still , lie finds that wo have coaxed him into spending a shilling upon Mrs . lickletooth ' s little volume—his time will not have been speut unprofitably .

      since she appends to it the amusing parody wherewith Punch rebuked the ostentatious Heliogabalus of Berkeley Street . No , it is not for gourmets of this class that the worthy matron has indited her pages ; the working-man ' s wife who sends her bit of meat and batter to the bake-house , willfind in them a treasury of knowledge ; the h elp-mate of the tradesman , who celebrates the Lord ' s-day with an added pudding , will bless her as a benefactress ; the wives of even those who can afford to entertain their friends hospitably with a good dinner , will not consult her in vain ; no one , indeed , but those who profess the very highest mysteries of gastronomy , and whose studies in the recondite pages of Careme , Ude , Beauvilliers , & c , enable them to despise her humble revelations , will consult her in vain . And perhaps even this last class might . ' gain a useful hint or two , did they condescend to take charm of this bookindeed

      some heed of her teachings . ' - One great , , is that its authoress does not aflect to despise the higher refinements of cookci y . There is none of that vulgar declamation against " kickshaws , " which marks the regular , old Conservative English Cook . On thecontrary , she puts a proper value upon these things , and even uses them when they cart be made consistent with economy . " Gr . H . M . " ¦ will he charmed to hear that the merits of espagnole and vehicle , as " foundation sauces , " are not . overlooked—and more than that , he will find some ehsirming little dishes named and described for the benefit of those who can afford an occasional indulgence in expense , such as would not be misplaced even upon his own lordly table . Here , for example , is a splendid and , what is more , a practicable receipt for Soup aUabisquer—a triumph of / the French kitchen ; further on , the famous Bouillabaisse , sung by the great William Makepeace Thackeray ; anon , the favourite and familial * Sole au gratin and the succulent

      JPoulet a la Mar en go , which fed the Conqueror of kings , after that famous victory whence it derives its name . These , however , are but your " cutes and delieates . " To come to more common food , how can we sufficiently applaud the admirable receipts for Irish stew , stewed rump steak , and ¦ similar delicacies which crowd these pages ? Even the-archives of that cosy and appetising little gastronomic grotto in Corhhill , yclept Birch ' s , have been ransacked to produce the veritable receipt'there used for making that wondrously toothsome and most gelatinous compound , called " Birch ' s Mock-Turtle Soup . " This , However , is not a secret for common cooks , but rather for those who have graduated in the art . Nor unenlivened with anecdotes are these practical fovrnula 3 , nor , yet with quaint and time-honoured quips at the expense of hashed mutton , the cold shoulder , and . other , ( sim ilarly detestable family abominations . Utility is combined with ornament in these pages in a manner which proves the accomplishe d housekeeper . .

      One of the pleasantest and most useful features in the volume , is the number of original receipts with which it abounds . The sago oracle of the Clcikum Inn > after coming to the end of her list of puddings , well observed that , in addition to these , everybody should have - " ' My o \ vn Pudding . " Mrs . Tickletooth , however , is not satisfied with a , puddings and wo find everywhere in her pages such . matter ' s-us " chicken-pie a la Tickletootli , " " plum-pudding a la Tickletooth , " and ft " gOose-stuffing & la Tickletooth ; " eo mild in its qualities , that Daphnis and Chloe , on their wedding tour , could not object to partake of it . We have the word of the authoress , that " every receipt in this book is founded upon my personal'experience . " That is much to

      aay , and we believe it ; for although it would have been possible to collect an oqual number of receipts , and print them in a book , it would not have been possible to lay down such admirably praotical principles as are to be found everywhere in it . Apparently , there is not much in saying that to fry iitth properly you must htvvo in * your pan enough boiling f »* t , oil , or dripping "to swim the-fish '; " and yet that is a truth which nine tenths of " plain" cooks neglect or ignore , and which is the cause of the abominable burnt or flaccid specimens of the finny tribe , which infest the tables of our middlo classes . Tho proper comprehension of this pieco of ndvioo leads to the little understood truth , that frying is , after all , nothing but boiling in oil . Most of our cooks finazlo ; they don't know how to

      fry . There is a onpital chapter towards the end of tho volume on public dining-houses in England and France , and we cordially agree with tho authoress in assigning tho superiority to tho best London Bouses over tho game class in Paris , French cookery , as it may be p btuined at Philippe ' s , or tho Cai ' o * do Paris , is a very fine thing , and at the same time a very oxponsivo one . For tho same price at which n urst-ruto dinner may be had at cither of these templed of A . pichi 8 , an equally gooddinnor may bo hat ] , and by tho bust French artists , at tho Clurohdoil or tho Burling'ton ; but when you go lower down tho scale , tho superiority of some of our London houses is itinnili'ist . Wlieve , in all Paria . 'is such a dinner to bo obtained , at an ything 1 npnvoaching tho same price , as may bo had at Simpson ' s in tho Strand , the Albion , tho Rninbow , ov oven afe thp Wellington ibr tho London Dinner P Certainly not at the dingy m » d odoroiia

      46 The Leader And Saturday Analyst. [Jan...

      46 The Leader and Saturday Analyst . [ Jan . 14 , I 860

      [Recent Novels.* To The Heart Satiated A...

      [ RECENT NOVELS . * TO the heart satiated alike with pleasure as with pain , the recollections of boyhood * with its airy castles and fearless disregard of all impediments , comes back like a gleam of sunshine in a-forest , hitherto impervious even to the rays of noon . No man , however his moral nature may have degenerated by constant intercourse with the world , but can con over with pleasurable sensations that period of his life when his actions were all dictated by generous principles and spontaneous impulses ; when the divine image in which he was created had not been quite erased and obscured by the unhallowed yearnings of humanity ; when the one purpose of his soul was . , to emulate the deeds of great and just men who had gone before him , and add another to the list of sainted individuals whose names had contributed lustre to the age of Christianity .

      It is , therefore , with renewed enjoyment that we turn over many of the pages of a new novel from , the pen of Mr . Farrar . " Julian Home" is well calculated to reeal vividly to the mind , not only our own early school-days , but the more advanced period of scholastic life . In the earlier chapters especially , a charming picture is presented to us in the person of the hero , whose youthful mind , as yet , has not been turned aside from its original state of purity and truth . He is introduced to us as a pattern of juvenile virtue ,. possessing , even at that early age , a spirit of deep humility which prompts him greatly to depreciate his own superior talents , and to magnify to an exorbitant degree the mediocre gifts of his fellow-students . His mind is framed in the most , delicate and sensitive mould , his keen susceptibilities exposing him to the easy shafts of such

      ill-conditioned of his school companions as have chosen to constitute themselves his enemies . To demonstrate the trials and vexations which such a mind must necessarily undergo in the course of a laborious college career , is the present intention of the author , —an intention he has thoroughly succeeded in carrying out to . the letter . The scene of his trials is , pf course , Cambridge .. .-. The difficulties of 'Julian's- , position were considerably augmented by the necessity of his entering the college of Saint Werner ' s as a sizar , which necessity arose from the impoverished state of his family , and an unhappy difference with a wealthy female relation , who had signilied an intention of nominating him the sole heir to her property . Under these circumstances he has to groan in spirit beneath . the taunts and innuendos elicited by the eiivy of certain of his

      fellow collegians , particularly galling to a spirit so easily accessible to ridicule . This part of the work should be commended fur its truthfulness to nature , and tlie author's invective against some of the internal . regulations , by which a distinction is made ( on certain public occasions ) between the sizars and their more wealthy though often less accomplished brethren . In a public institution , whoso avowed object is the instilment of the highest degree of learning into such minds as are capable of receiving it , there should be but one distinction , —that of industry and superior attainments . It is certainly a pity that novelists , for the sake of a situation to enliven a particular part of their story , should sacrifice the consistency of the whole , This is an error into which Mr . Fuvrar has unhappily fallen . That the situation is a striking ono wo allow ;

      but it is both forced and unnatural , and entirely incompatible with the former picture ho has given us of his hero's character . Julian Homo has hitherto been presented to the reader as a youth of a reflective and even poetical turn of mind ; though extremely sensitive ,-yet amiable and unresentful under injuries ; certainly not inclined to harbour either passionate or vindictive foeliugsj oven against his worst of foes ; suffering opposition , but , under no provocation , offering any . The great object of his life was the acquirement of knowledge , —knowledge , says the author , "for its-own sake / ' and not to secure the attainment of an ulterior ambitious project ; Iu process of time , Home , having incurred the hatred and jealousy of an idle , reprobate follow , Brogton , —a disgrace to his

      college ,- —becomes subjected tq much vexation through sundry practical jokes , which tho latter has invented for tho purpose of irritating and annoying his unoffending adversary . All these , however , Julian has both the good sense and good temper to treat with profound contempt , and receives thorn in the spirit of a most stoical and philosophical indifference , thereby entirely baffling the designs of his enemy . And now comes tho inconsitstenoy , for which , we confess , we were totally unprepared by the former treatment of the work . Tho Clerkland scholarship being * at this time open to competition among- tho undergraduates , the hero is of course found foremost in tho ranks of those who , by diligence ond persevering 1 industry , are endeavouring 1 , heart and soul , to gain the prizo . Tho last morning bufc ono of tho examination . had arrivedwhen

      , (( ' . ' , J- " It' ' >' '" "'' '' Iim...

      , (( ' . ' , j- " It' ' > ' ' " " ' ' '' iimnmnii — | ii in ip . | ii ) i i . | ii | i | i i | nn ¦ ¦ I "' JiUicfn Homo } a Talo of Oolloffo X , ifa . My Frodovia W . Furrar , M . A ., Fellow of Trinity Oollego , Cambridge , author of "Eric ; or , Little by J-afctlo . " Adara and Ohapjos Black . Z-Koy Prpftan . JJy tho author of " Mftrgarot Maifcland , " " Adam Grftomo , " " Tho Divya of My Lifo , " & o , ( Hurst and Blaokott . )

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 14, 1860, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_14011860/page/18/