CHIT CHAT.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1141, 12 January 1894, Page 13

CHIT CHAT.

The youngest editor in the world is Lady Marjorie Gordon, the daughter of Lady Aberdeen, who edits a children’s raagaziue entitled Wee Willie Winkie. The Young Woman magazine gives the following little sketch of Lady Marjorie’s “ Holiday Cottage." :—lt is a very pretty stoTy, that of Holiday Cottage, which stands about half a mile from Haddo House, on the borders of a wood. In order that their children might be better able to appreciate the difficulties and delights of housekeeping, Lord and Lady Aberdeen had this cottage fitted up with all the goods and chattels of a humble home, except that there is no sleeping accommodation in it. You walk across the field and turn, into the wicket-gate of a small cottage garden, where Lord Haddo and the Hon. Dudley and Archie Gordon grow potatoes, cabbages, and strawberries, and whefe, perchance, you may see the three brothers dig and delve, fetch water from & pump in the neighbouring field, mend fences, polish, door-knockers, chop wood, or make themselves otherwise useful. Lady Marjorie grows roses and other flowers in this garden, and all the four owners of Holiday Cottage are intensely interested in a tiny rockery close to their door. '' > ■

In this kitchen Lady Marjorie practises all the details of housekeeping. If the floor is dirty, she scrubs it; when the grate is cold, she kneels in front of it and cleans it, and lays the fire ; the brightness of the cutlery and crockery depends on her handiwork ; and if the owners of Holiday Cottage invite guests to tea or luncheon, she must prepare whatever refreshments she offers to them.

A recently-published volume of Literary Reminiscences, by a Mrs Toulmin, contains some good anecdotes of the famous wit Douglas Jerrold, the author of Caudle Lectures. Mrs Toulmin says : : —“ It was while the Caudle Lectures were appearing in Punch that one summer day ray mother and I were invited to a friendly midday dinner at the Jerrolds’, who were then residing in a pleasant country house at Putney. Towards the close of the meal * packet arrived —proofs, I fancy—at any rate Douglas Jerrold opened a letter which visibly disturbed him. ‘ Hark at he said, after a little while, and then lie proceeded to read a really pathetic, though a not very well expressed, letter from an aggrieved matron, who appealed to him to discontinue or modify the Caudle Lectures. She declared they were bring ing discord into families, and making a multitude of women miserable."

Mr Sala has instituted a correspondence column in his weekly paper, Said's Journal, and in some of Ihe answers given he writes in a very entertaining and learned way. Here is what the veteran journalist has to say on the subject of marrying in the month of May :—“ S E. informs me that the Times' Births Marriages, and Deaths column of May 15,1893, had not one wedding announcement, and asks me if there are many such instances. I really do not know if such instances often occur; but my womankind assure me that May iis usually considered an unlucky month for marriages. Jeaffreson, in his * Brides and Bridals,’ says that he is disposed to refer the evil reputation of marriages solemnised in May to the Roman Catholic Church’s absolute rule forbidding weddings between Rogation and Whit Sunday. When the Church prohibited marriage during the greater part of May, timid and pious folk were wont to say— Marry in May, and ]rou’ll rue the day. In Sir John Sinclair’s 4 Statistical Account of Scotland,’ the minister of Logierait, in Perthshire, mentioning the superstitious practices ip the parish, says ; ‘ * Nope

choose to marry in January or May, or to have their banns proclaimed in the end of one quarter of the year, and to marry in the beginning of the next.’ The following proverb from Ray marks another superstition : Who marries between the sicklo and the scythe, Will never thrive; which is not unlike one common in East Anglia— Marry in Lent, And you’ll live to repent. The Scotch remember that Mary, Queen of Scots, married Bothwell, the murderer of her husband, Lord Darnley, on May 12, so think in consequence that the month in question is an unlucky one to brides. Mr Sala is, we all know, a great authority on cookery, and in the correspondence column I have alluded to, gives several recipes, two of which I quote. One is for the making of tomato pickle which is timely information for New Zealanders just now. Mr Sala says re this condiment :—Tomato Pickle.—Slice together four pounds of green tomatoes, six large onions, and add a small cupful of loaf sugar ; also one tablespoonful of salt, mustard, white pepper, allspice, cloves, cinnamon, and whole ginger. Just cover the whole with vinegar, and simmer it gently for two hours. The spice, ginger, and cinnamon must be putin muslin bags, and the vinegar must be the very best.