—— Farm, Essex, July —, 1849.

MY DEAR ELOISE,—You are no doubt surprised at receiving this from the above address, but you remember when you last called I thought my little Emily was unwell, the next day she seemed worse, I then had the Dr.—, who ordered her out of town, and a friend of Mr. B.’s being present recommended this place; so Emily and I have now been a week here, and she has already improved by the change of air; it has also done me good, and I am greatly amused with the various occupations going on in the farm, which is an old-fashioned one, tenanted by a good old English farmer, his wife, and son; the latter is gone to see a brother settled in Liverpool. The cleanliness and regularity of the house are quite charming; but what delights me more than all is the dairy—such delicious cream and butter that it makes me quite envy people living in the country!

I must describe the pretty dairy to you: it is situated at the back of the house, and sheltered by it from the mid-day and afternoon’s sun, and from the morning’s sun by a plantation, so that it is deliciously cool; it is about twelve feet long by ten wide, paved with flat stones, and the walls of plaster, like stone, a door at one end with a window above and a window high up at the other end, and two windows at the side; these have thin wire shutters and glazed sashes on hinges; the roof is of slate, with about two feet thickness of thatch over it; there are also several little openings for the admission of air, about one inch from the floor. A dresser, two feet wide, being two inches from the wall, is on both sides, and above these are two shelves of nine inches wide, also two inches from the wall, these are supported on iron brackets. At the end, and opposite the door, is the churn, which is turned by a wheel outside, with apparatus for a donkey or mule to work it, if required.

All the utensils are of sycamore wood and perfectly clean, never used twice without washing in hot water with soda put in it, and made perfectly dry.

There are as many ways of making butter as there are counties in Great Britain. I will now tell you how it is practised here. The cows are milked at a regular hour, not later than five, the milk taken as soon as possible into the dairy, and placed in the dishes about six quarts in each; is thus left for twenty-four hours; then it is skimmed, and the cream from each is placed in a deep bowl or pan, where it remains until the next day, when it is churned. Friday’s milk is made into cheese; when churned it is gathered well together from the milk and laid in a clean bowl, with hard spring water in it, and worked to and fro until it is brought to a firm consistence; it is then laid out thin, and then what is called here a scotcher is taken—that is, a kind of five-pronged fork of wood, only each prong is as sharp as a knife, and drawn through every part of it; then whatever salt is required is added, and it is then formed into pats, or done any way they like. If intended as corned or salt butter, they then add one pound of fine salt to every fourteen pounds of butter; in some places the coarsest grained salt is used; in others two pounds of salt, one pound of saltpetre, and one pound of white sugar mixed together, one fourth of this for every fourteen pounds. If intended for keeping, it is put into stone crocks until it is wanted. The way in which they make the cheese here is as follows: all Friday’s milk is taken, that of the morning is kept until the afternoon, and mixed with it; then two spoonfuls of rennet to every twelve quarts of milk are put to it and well mixed, it is then left all night. Very early the next morning the curd is removed with a strainer and equally broken into the cheese vat or mote until it is about one inch above the brim, a cheese cloth or strainer having previously been put at the bottom of the vat, and large enough to allow for part of it to be turned over the top when the vat is filled; when thus filled it is taken to the press, and left for two hours with a clean cloth under it; it is then turned over on the cloth, and pressed again; and the same process is continued three or four hours out of the twenty-four. It is then removed and placed on the shelf, and turned regularly every day for the first two months; after that occasionally.

I intend to try my hand at it shortly, and see what I can make of it.

I find that the butter which is made here and potted for winter use is not intended to be sold as salt, but as fresh, and the dairy-maid has just told me how it is done. For every quart of new milk from the cow, she takes one pound of potted butter, which has been treated thus the day previous: into two quarts of cold water two tablespoonfuls of vinegar are mixed, and the potted butter well broken and kneaded in it, and then taken out, and served the same in fresh water, in which it is left until the next morning, and then mixed with the milk, put into the churn and churned again, and then treated in the usual way as butter; by this plan there is a large quantity of sweet milk always in the farm, as it is exceedingly good when strained.

The following is the way they make the clouted cream:—