PREFACE. THE aim of the Manual here offered to our young women is to give them information that may enable them to add a fresh amount of pleasure and usefulness to their lives. Advice (with illustrative anecdotes) and instruction on every possible subject are given, from the most homely needs of daily life to the mental culture, which so many desire and cannot easily obtain. The Editor has been assisted in her task by the pens of some very accomplished ladies. The Lady Alicia Blackwood advises our readers how to spend money rightly and economically; she tells them, also, of how much value in daily life good manners are; and, finally, adds valuable words on sorrow, sickness, pity and compassion, friendship and companionship, in the pleasant guise of anecdote and tale-telling —papers which young women will probably welcome in those hours of sadness which fall into every life. Mrs. Hawtrey gives a little advice about economy in dress to young domestics. Another lady tells our young women how to look nice and dress becomingly. Mrs. Paull gives counsel to young nursery-maids. Miss Bell teaches Work most ably under "A Plea for Needles and Thread." Miss Marryat gives lace patterns. Miss Dyson has contributed knitting and crochet patterns of great value, and hints on taking care of household pets—as birds, dogs, and cats. Miss Wingfield, of Ampthill, has given good instructions in letter-writing. |