with pleasing accounts, published by Emigration societies, of the well doings, and orderly conduct of servants sent out from this country; let us hope, however, that in most cases, refractory servants, who, by their perverseness and other bad qualification, render the life of an Australian settler more miserable than it otherwise would be, are drafted off from the refuse of other nations; for we would fain at all times maintain as far as in us lies, the national character for honesty, industry, and perseverance. There is, among the playfulness that only belongs to a refined mind, much of the useful in the following remarks, and a raciness unrivalled by any writer we remember. He says,

"The word cook leads me to the subject of domestic servants in general. Of all the plagues of New South Wales, and indeed of all the Australian colonies, the household servants are the worst. There are few good and faithful-as few skilful. One reason of this is the blameworthy indifference to character and cause of discharge exhibited by the employing classes-a relic, this, of the old convict system. Another cause lies in the unsettled mind of the emigrant, and his trying half a dozen trades of which he knows nothing, before he is driven to accept service. Many old colonists do not scruple to say that they prefer convicts to free servants. 'We have a greater hold upon them,' says one, 'There are but two classes the found-out and the unfound-out,' mutters a cynic. A servant, holding the most responsible place, discharged in disgrace at an hour's notice and without a character, is engaged the next day in a similar post, and you have the pleasure of seeing him installed as confidential butler behind the chair of the lady or gentleman who may be entertaining you at dinner. You recognise the Soupe à la jardinière, the baked schnapper farçi, in the preparation of which and other dishes it had taken you six months to instruct your late cook-whom you had just discharged for repeated insolence and dishonesty. But, as I have said before, a cook in the solemn signification of the word is in New South Wales a fabulous animal, fabulous as the Bunyip of the blacks. The men-cooks are mostly ship-cooks, or

stewards, dealers in cocky-leaky, sea-pie, plumb-dough, and other blue-water barbarisms. The she-cooks are-kitchen-maids at best. Few private dinner parties are given, or can be given in Sydney, without the attendance of a professional cook, as well as a public waiter or two.

This has a singular effect in the eyes of the traveller lately arrived from England; for in the general exercise of hospitality towards him he is led to believe that each well-found establishment has an uniform butler white waistcoat and tie, frill, toppin, knock knees, Irish brogue, and all; -never suspecting that this functionary is one and indivisible-the same honest and civil, but glass-jingling and platerattling Mr. O'Coffee-Tay-price 7s. 6d. per evening public and transferable property!

The Sydney domestic servants treat service like a round of visits, taking a sojourn of a week, a month, or a quarter, according to their own tastes, the social qualities of their fellow-servants, the good living of 'the hall,' and the gullibility and subserviency of the employer. They greatly prefer engaging by the week. Not uncommonly they maintain a kind of running correspondence with the heads of some neighbouring families, and after coquetting for terms, pass over to the best bidder. The gentleman may think himself lucky if he have not occasionally to 'groom and valet' himself and his horses; as for the lady-to chronicle small beer is her lightest task, happy if she be not compelled, at intervals, to try her fair hands at cooking, or spider-brushing. I have been myself the guest at a country-house where the lady confessed that she had not only cooked the dinner, but had, with her own hands, carried the logs to the kitchen fire, while the good-man was busy sawing and splitting them in the yard. The cook had got sulky because she had been expected to do what the lady was thus compelled to do; and the man-servant, her husband, had gone into the town to drink and fight, because the fit was on him.'

I think I must have had twenty or even thirty servants in one year, always giving the highest wages. I shall not readily forget the amusing results of an advertisement for a butler and valet, which I was recommended to insert in the Sydney

'Morning Herald.' There was no want of applicants: the first was a miserable old ruin of a man, scarcely four feet high, who indignantly repelled my well-intended hint, that I did not think him strong enough for the situation. The next was a gigantic negro. He had been ''teward,' he said, on board three or four merchant vessels, and was tired of the sea. He looked like a descendant of Mendoza the pugilist, and had probably been transported for killing a man in a twelve-foot ring. A tall, thin, grey-haired man, of polished exterior, next tendered his services. He had been a solicitor in England; had met with reverses; was at present a tutor at a school; could clean plate, because once he had had a service of his own. Then came a handsome, dark-eyed gaillard, with long black curls hanging over the collar of his round jacket, who threw rapid glances over the furniture and trinkets of the drawing-roomnot forgetting the maidens as he passed the kitchen door-in a truly buccaneering style. He gave his name Juan da Silva, and resented any mention of references. At length we were suited. He was a highly respectable young immigrant just landed, who had served in an aristocratic family at home. 'Jeames,' being steady, attentive, and perfectly acquainted with his duties, we were charmed with our acquisition, and congratulated ourselves on something like permanence of service, when, lo! in less than a month he gave warning. He had made use of my house as an hotel until he could settle himself; and having at length decided in favour of the drapery line, he was in a few days duly installed behind a counter in George Street.

This mode of action had probably been suggested for his observance by some crafty adviser in England, and the idea is by no means bad. A gentleman's regular household is not a bad look-out post for the newly arrived, perhaps penniless, immigrant. He gets good pay, food, and lodging; he disguises his ambitious projects under a show of zeal for his master's service; no one suspects that he has a soul above crumb and coat brushing. On a sudden the mask is thrown off, and the tape and ribbon measurer elect stands confessed. He quits his temporary asylum, smiling inwardly at your simplicity in taking him in, and being taken in yourself;

151

and you are once more on the pavé for a servant. In the case just mentioned, our old nurse warned us that 'that young fellow ain't a-going to stay;' and I wondered the less at his want of taste when she told me that she had one son in the ironmongery line getting fifty-two guineas a-year, and another, only twelve years old, receiving at some shop £20 and his 'diet.'

My

The great pleasure of shop-boys, unenjoyed by domestic servants, consists in going at half price to the theatre, and smoking cigars ad libitum. My first coachman had learnt all the arcana of his trade by driving a muffin-baker's cart. second was an old worn-out, long backed, bandy-legged, and gouty man, but an excellent whip, who had druv the last four-oss coach between Lunnun and Huntingdon, for Muster Newman,' and had been beat off the road by the railways. This was an immigrant at the expense of the Land Fund. He remained about a year, and then went off to California (thereby defrauding that same Fund) to dig gold, just three weeks before the gold was discovered in Australia. I may here state as a fact, that the only really steady, sober, active, and efficient coachman I had in the colony, was an emancipated convict.

Another specimen of the well-selected immigrants paid for out of the territorial revenue, as an addition to the labour market, was a fine lady cook from London, last from the service of Sir - Bart. She had plenty of money and clothes, could not work without an assistant in the kitchen, had delicate health and appetite, preferred solitary titbits in the kitchen to dining in the servants' hall with the rest of the household; was glad to quit service and to set up a shop; failed, and before she had been two months in the colony had advertised to get a passage back again to England as lady's maid, or nurse to a lady returning home. This is not the strong handed, cheerful minded, butter churning, cheese and child making, notable womanfit for a free emigrant to a working colonycoming out at the colony's expense, for the colony's good!"

We cordially recommend Col. Mundy's work as a treasure to all who seek an acquaintance with the Australian sayings and doings.

16

THE LADY'S LEISURE HOUR.

ANTI-MACASSAR, OR D'OYLEY, IN VENETIAN GUIPURE.

BY MRS. PULLAN.

MATERIALS.-The point-lace cottons of Messrs. Walter Evans & Co., of Derby, with Netting Needles and Meshes.

THE great progress that has been made in ornamental needlework during the last few years, is an illustration -were one required of the truth of the axiom, that there is nothing new under the sun. In fact, to attain perfection, we must return to the steps of our ancestors, and content ourselves with imitating those marvels of art which it is vain for us to hope to surpass.

The specimen of work we now give, is of a sort presented for the first time to English ladies. Many hundreds of years ago, this kind of work was much patronised by the ladies of Italy, Spain, and Portugal. Intermingled with the open muslin work which we now term Broderie Anglaise, it used to be formed into counterpanes and other large articles, toilet-covers, and draperies, and almost every sort of trimming. It was done in small squares, which were alternated with squares of Mecklin, or embroidered linen, and formed a sort of patchwork.

In many of the royal palaces and houses of the nobility, state beds are even now decorated with counterpanes of Venetian guipure, which have descended as treasured heirlooms from many generations.

Venetian Guipure is a kind of Point, the foundation of which is done in netting, on which beautiful and elaborate stitches are worked. By a mode of working we shall presently describe, the mesh of the netting forms a square, instead of a diamond. A netted Border is added.

The size of a piece of netting depends on the mesh employed in working it. In Guipure, the squares must be decidedly large to show the stitches off to advantage. Each should not be less than halfan-inch square. We have selected a design for our first number which is capable of being increased to any size that may be desired; and we would suggest, that for the cot of an infant's bassinet, nothing could be more beautiful than a coverlet of guipure over a wadded quilt.

Square netting is done thus:-Make a foundation of any number of stitches, and work on it backwards and forwards, in the common netting stitch, leaving the last loop of every row, until one stitch only is left. Observe that the first row of this triangular piece is made with a mesh rather smaller than is used for the remainder. Cut off the foundation and open the knots of the first row, using that row as the foundation for another half, which must be worked in a precisely similar manner. This will form a square of netting. Before attempting to darn it, wash it well, stiffen it a very little, and pin it out, in the square form, which when dry, it will retain. Take it on a piece of toile ciré, and darn it. The netting is done in No. 1 Evans's Mecklenburgh Thread. The same must be used for the edging. The finer cottons are to be used for the stitches, varying them as the engraving indicates a coarse or a fine thread. The stitches are so clearly indicated in the engraving, that they will be most easily worked by its aid. Where diagonal bars are seen crossing the squares, they are to be worked first, as they are designed to support the stitches, which are principally darned in different directions, with rounds in buttonhole stitch.

In counting netting, every knot is considered as a stitch. For this pattern, any number of stitches divisible by eight, with three over, will do for the foundation.

The Edging. With a mesh twice the width of the one used for the centre, do seven stitches in every other loop of the edge all round, except at the corners, when it must be done in every loop three times. Take the other mesh, and do six stitches over five all round, missing the space between, which forms a long stitch. Then five on six, four on five, three on four, and two on three, which being the last round, finishes the Edging as seen in the engraving.

For a Bread-Cloth or D'Oyley the cotton must be finer and the meshes smaller, No. 80 Mecklenburgh will do for the ground, and the darned stitches must be done in the finest cottons.

The set of point-lace cottons contains fourteen sizes-cotton, linen, and Moravian; they are made up in skeins for the benefit of country friends, and will be sent post free, for 3s. 6d., by Mrs. Pullan, 126, Albany Street, Regent's Park, London.