Before fixing up the cupboards the walls should be made perfectly dry, and, if they are not so, they should be battened, that is, covered with canvass strained over slips of wood nailed to the walls, strong brown paper being afterwards pasted over the canvass. This preserves a stratum of air between the walls and the backs of the cupboards, which effectually excludes damp. You may easily know when a room is damp by its appearance, before you have kept any thing in it. If the walls have been whitewashed, they will show various-coloured stains; and, if they have been papered, the paper will hang loose. No expense should be spared to make a room dry, that is to be used for keeping stores in, as the mischief done by damp is incalculable. Lump sugar crumbles into powder; moist sugar hardens into lumps; saltpetre and bay salt turn to water; preserves become mouldy or candied, cakes soft, and linen mildewed. Nor is the mischief done by damp confined to any one part of the house. In the butler's pantry the silver will become spotted; in the cellar the wine will lose its strength and flavour; and, in the living-rooms, the oil paintings will become blistered, and the books and engravings stained.
But to return to the housekeeper's room. In one part you can have a cupboard to open with folding-doors like a wardrobe, for keeping tea and sugar and similar articles. There should be shelves in this, on which should stand numerous tin canisters marked with the names of the different articles they contain. In the upper part should be a shelf suspended by cords passing through holes bored in the corners, for loaves of sugar, or any similar articles likely to be attacked by mice. The common tea should be kept in a chest lined with lead, which may stand in the lower part of the closet, and the finer kinds should be kept in canisters. A bag of raw coffee may also stand on the lower shelf of the closet; but, after the coffee is ground, it should be kept in a canister, and as far apart from the tea as possible, as, if it is near it, it will give the tea an unpleasant taste. Moist sugar should be kept in a large tin canister, the lid of which opens with a hinge. The coffee-mill, if in this apartment, must be fixed to some part of the room where it will be quite firm, and yet be so placed that the person grinding may have room to use the arm freely; but many persons have the coffee-mill in the kitchen, and also a mill for pepper. When any thing is to be ground in a mill, of a different nature from what it is generally used for, the mill should be first cleaned by grinding in it a hard crust of bread.
A second cupboard should be set aside for the soap and candles. In this there should be some strong hooked nails driven into the wall, for the kitchen candles; and a kind of bench or wooden stand for the boxes containing mould candles, if you use any, though most persons now prefer the composition or stearine candles with plaited wicks, as they do not require snuffing. These candles, and those of wax or spermaceti, may be kept a long time without injury, if they are covered with paper within the box, to prevent them from becoming discoloured, which they will soon be, if much exposed to the air; but tallow candles of all kinds should never be kept more than six months, as, when old, they are very apt to gutter. Soap, also, should never be kept too long, or be suffered to become too dry. It is true that, when used too new, it wastes away very rapidly; yet, if it is kept more than six months, and particularly if it becomes too dry, it cracks and shrinks so much, as to render it very troublesome to use, and nearly double the quantity is required.
Dried currants and raisins, for cakes and puddings, should be kept in canisters in another closet; and almonds and raisins for dessert in boxes. Sage and other herbs I have found keep best in powder, after they have been dried in an oven. Every leaf should be pulled off separately into a kind of tray made of tin, and put into an oven when about the right heat for baking bread: as soon as the leaves are dry enough to rub into powder, they should be crushed with a rolling pin, and after being sifted, put into wide-mouthed bottles, which should be carefully corked. Herbs thus prepared will keep good without losing their flavour for years; and they have the advantage of being always ready for use when wanted, without the smallest particle of dust.
As I think you have told me you are several miles from a town, it will be necessary to recollect every thing that may be wanted when you send there, to avoid the inconvenience of sending frequently. For this purpose, I think you will find it useful to have a slate hanging up beside your desk in the housekeeper's room, on which you can write down the name of any article that you find is nearly exhausted when you are giving it out.
Your kitchen appears, by the plan you have sent me, to be of a very good size, and well lighted, which is essential to both comfort and cleanliness, as it is impossible for the cooking to be performed properly, or the culinary vessels to be kept clean, without abundance of light. It is also well placed, as it faces the north, which a kitchen should do whenever it is practicable, to keep it free from too much sun. In old country houses the ceiling of the kitchen is frequently furnished with racks for bacon; and there are hooks driven into the beams for hung beef, tongues, and hams, but in other places these are kept in the larder. In either case I would advise you always to have a plentiful supply of salted meat in the house, to be ready for emergencies; and I would always have a ham, a tongue, or a piece of hung beef, ready cooked; which will not only be useful for breakfast, and luncheon, but will be found a most potent auxiliary in the case of unexpected guests arriving when the larder may be at a low ebb. In the course of my experience I have always found that there are few things more agreeable to a husband than to be able to take a friend home unexpectedly, and yet to be sure that he will find a good and even elegant dinner, without any bustle or ill-temper being caused by his appearance. In large establishments the sudden arrival of a stranger is of very little consequence; but as your husband has an ancient name to keep up on limited means, and, above all, as you have undertaken to be your own housekeeper, you must remember that, in places where the butcher lives several miles off, and calls for orders only once or twice a week, it is essential you should make such provision as to be never taken off your guard. To aid in this I will, if you like, at some future time, give you a few hints on cookery, particularly on impromptu dishes, which I trust you will find useful; but I must now return to the fitting up of the kitchen.
You tell me you shall want a new kitchen-range, and ask what kind I would recommend. I would advise you to shun all those that are said to burn remarkably little fuel, as they are generally very complicated, and of course extremely liable to go out of order; a serious inconvenience any where, but particularly in the country. I should recommend you to have an open grate from four feet to eight feet wide, having of course a contrivance to make the part intended to contain the fire larger or smaller at pleasure; and the fireplace should be at least two feet deep, to allow of a boiler behind the fire, communicating with another on the side of the grate, care being taken either to have the boilers fed constantly by a pipe from a cistern, or to have them filled every night when the fire is low, as it is very dangerous to pour cold water into a boiler when it is nearly empty and quite hot. The sudden change from heat to cold sometimes indeed makes the iron contract so rapidly as to burst the boiler. It is useful to have an oven on one side of the grate, not, indeed, for baking any thing, for food seldom has its proper flavour when cooked in such ovens, but to keep plates and dishes warm. The floor of a kitchen is generally laid with stone, but it is a great comfort to the cook to have a part boarded near a table under one of the windows, for the convenience of standing upon the boards when in the act of cooking. The kitchen doors should have their hinges on the side next the fireplace, to avoid disturbing the current of air near the fire when they are opened.
As your kitchen is large, you may perhaps be able to have a small range of charcoal pans for French cooking, in addition to the ordinary kitchen-range, if you have not something of the kind in the housekeeper's room; and among your kitchen utensils you should have two or three that will be useful in French cooking. One of these should be a braising pan, with a deep concave rimmed lid, in which fire can be put whenever you have any dish cooked that requires fire above and below;