THE BETTER PART

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 5, 6 July 1939, Page 19

THE BETTER PART

MRS. BEETON AS A POET

It, may come- as something ? of a surprise to learn that Mrs. Beeton, the famous cookery: expert, who was born exactly 140 years'ago, was not only, at home in the kitchen: but also on the slopes of Parnassus—in short; she wrote. po,etry,: writes "Lucio" in .the "Manchester Quardiari." Before 1850 she had already published several volumes; of -verse \.- by subscription. Growing . bolder, . she approached: Messrs. <Lqrigman& and' asked if they would: take the/ responsibility of publishing a new- volume-of lyrics. Messrs* Longmarisi however, were not enthusiastic: "Poetry, madam," she was told, "is a drug in the market. If it were a cookery \ book,; now;" 'v "Would you advise me to' write a cookery book?'" she asked, and the answer came promptly, "Yes, if you. can write agood one."

So Eliza Acton set out;io accumulate recipes in ; a practical way by riiakirig dishes and /trying/them oh-her privileged friends,- and the "result Of' labours, some years later, was the triumphant success which ) has * niade her name; a household word vto several generations. There is rip evidence that Mrs, Beeton' regretted that'she -had achieved fame as a cook rather than as a poet. ' She was a singularly competent character arid must have realised that her poetry was-not first-rate": It is a consolatiqn to) all "concerned to reflect that if her poetry had been bet ter it is r xmlpjely.' her. cookery would have been so good, and, after all, poets are ten a penny, while. good cooks are shockingly rare.