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Enquire Within Upon Everything

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I remember how my grandfather used to annoy my grandmother at the dinner table by reading extracts from "Enquire Within Upon Everything" - the book of Victorian middle-class etiquette and household hints (how to treat servants, correctly dosing your kids with opium to aid sleep, how wives should read the newspaper so as to make better evening conversation etc etc).

Yesterday I found a copy of the book at my local tip. Immediately thought how great that would be converted for the world wide web. But someone already did it:

Enquire Within Upon Everything

Table Of Contents

Worth checking Google for other links too since the web edition, so far, seems to be somewhat partial.

Vote here for your top tip.
 
The "errors in speaking" part is well worth checking out.
"premature dramatics" indeed. Oh how we laughed. :rolleyes:
 
510. Enemas.

These are a peculiar kind of medicine, administered by injecting them into the rectum or outlet of the body. The intention is either to empty the bowels, kill worms, protect the lining membrane of the intestines from injury, restrain copious discharges, allay spasms in the bowels, or to nourish the body. These clysters, or glysters, are administered by means of bladders and pipes, or a proper apparatus.

511. Laxative.--Take two ounces of Epsom salts, and dissolve in three quarters of a pint of gruel, or thin broth, with an ounce of olive oil.

512. Nutritive.--Take twelve ounces of strong beef tea, and thicken with hartshorn shavings or arrowroot.

513. Turpentine.--Take half an ounce of oil of turpentine, the yolk of one egg, and half a pint of gruel. Mix the turpentine and egg, and then add the gruel. Use as an anthelmintic.

514. Common.--Dissolve one ounce of salt in twelve ounces of gruel.

515. Castor Oil.--Mix two ounces of castor oil with one drachm of starch, then rub them together, and add fourteen ounces of thin gruel. Use as a purgative.

516. Opium.--Rub three grains of opium with two ounces of starch, then add two ounces of warm watr. Use as an anodyne in colic, spasms, &c.

517. Oil.--Mix four ounces of olive oil with half an ounce of mucilage and half a pint of warm water. Use as a demulcent.

518. Asafœtida.--Mix one drachm of the tincture of asafœtida in a pint of barley water. Use as an anthelmintic, or in convulsions from teething.
 
Fantastic

I have a copy of the quite stunning 'Etiquette Handbook' by Barbara Cartland (1962).

Now I know how to behave at my first debutante ball (dahling!). Should the invite ever come. :(

However..."intoxication is neither amusing nor mannerly". Bugger.

;)
 
My Fave is no 536 - 1 grain corrosive sublimate in 1 ounce lime water, taking care not to bruise salt crystals. Use as a detergent. Take note that corrosive sublimate is a violent and deadly poison.

You couldn't make this up.
 
I have a similar book titled "The Standard Book of Recipes and Housewife's Guide" which was published in 1901 and is "profusely illustrated". My very favorite section is "The Family Doctor" and the recommendation for the treatment of alcoholism is as follows: "The potent remedy for this disease is Cannabis Indica, tincture; drop doses once in two or four hours". That would certainly do it! LOL
 
or cop no 711 - Opium is employed internally for spasmodic afflictions, such as cholera, sapasmodic asthma, hooping (sic) cough, flatulent colic and St Vitus Dance...

I'll be on this site all night!

My grandma siad her mother had a victorian book on good housekeeping which had the sage advice that any household stain could be removed by fire.

It's probably this one, actually.
I'm going back!!
 
"440. An Ever-dirty Hearth, and a grate always choked with cinders and ashes, are infallible evidences of bad housekeeping."

Oh, dear, better pull my socks up, then!

One wonders what the contents of an Enquire Within for the 21st Century would be like?

Carole
 
And while we are out and about with our west end friends we will need Affrebeck Lauder's "Fraffly well spoken" guide on how to speak and understand the lingo. (Wolfe publishing ltd. london.cost 5 shillings or 75c to our American cousins - and absolutely essential!)
"Henrair, one dar swish you'd smirker treffle less." " Isty Ah." trans: "Henry, one does wish you would smoke a little less." "Yes dear." :cross eye
 
Unfortunately this one doesn't seem to be on he web yet (perhaps somewhere else?):

Hints For Wives:

1969:

Never complain too much that your husband pores too much over the newspaper, to the exclusion of that pleasing converse which you formerly enjoyed with him. Don't hide the paper; don't give it to the children to tear; don't be sulky when the boy leaves it at the door; but take it in pleasantly, and lay it down before your spouse. Think what man would be without a newspaper; treat it as a great agent in the work of civilization, which it assuredly is; and think how much good newspapers have done by exposing bad husbands and bad wives, by giving their errors to the eye of the public.

But manage you in this way: when your husband is absent, instead of gossiping or looking into shop windows, sit down quietly, and look over that paper; run your eye over its home and foreign news; glance rapidly at the accidents and casualities; carefully scan the leading articles; and at tea-time, when your husband again takes up the paper, say, "My dear, what an awful state of things there seems to be in India!" or, "What a terrible calamity at Santiago!" or "Trade appears to be flourishing in the north"; and depend upon it, down will go the paper. If he has not read the information, he will hear it from your lips, and when you have done, he will ask, "Did you, my dear, read Banting's letter on Corpulence?" And whether you did or not, you will gradually get into as cosy a chat as you ever enjoyed; and you will soon discover that, rightly used, the newspaper is the wifes's real friend, for it keeps the husband at home, and supplies capital topics for every-day table talk.

BTW

1963:

ii. If you have pretty feet there is no occasion to wear short petticoats.
vii. If you have pretty hands and arms, there can be no objection to your playing the harp if you play well.
viii. If they are disposed to be clumsy, work tapestry.
 
simonsmith said:
vii. If you have pretty hands and arms, there can be no objection to your playing the harp if you play well.
Click to expand...

I must remember that when I next go to a musical soiree1

Carole
 
On a similar theme (albeit tongue in cheek) was Beachcomber's Hints to Foreign Tourists, which inspired Python's fake phrasebook.
Highlights included:
State brothels display a blue light otside the door
Policemen like to be addressed as "Mr Ploddy"
The chambermaid at your hotel will be obliged if you hang all of your bedding out of the window each morning
Zebra Parking Zones are apparent on every high street
And (my Fave) Don't forget to try the famous echo in the British Library Reading Room!

Anyway, back to the thread: check out the Eyewashes in the "Domestic Pharmacopia" section...
 
1968:

HINT FOR HUSBANDS:

If your wife complain that young ladies "now-a-day" are very forward, don't accuse her of jealousy. A little concern on her part only proves her love for you , and you may enjoy your triumph without saying a word. Don't evince your weakness either, by complaining every trifling neglect. What though her chair is not set so close to yours as it used to be, or though her knitting and crochet seem to absorb too large a share of her attention; depend upon it, that as her eyes watch the intertwinings of the threads, and the manoevres of the needles as they dance in compliance to her delicate fingers, she is thinking of courting days, love-letters, smiles, tears, suspicions, and reconciliations, by which your two hearts became entwined together in the network of love, whose meshes you can neither of you unravel or escape.
 
How very touching. I'm sure it is completely useless to most people nowadays, who are more concerned about the 'relationships' of a bunch of people who don't exist, living in an area of London that isn't there...
 
You're right. It isn't a million miles away from the kind of stuff we get in the Sunday papers today.

(Simon Smith - who lived in Hoxton when it wasn't fashionable!)
 
Or from the food section (Relative Economy of the Joints)
29 (v) The Veiny Piece is sold at a moderate price per pound, but if hung for a day or two is good and very profitable. Where there are a number of servants and children to have an early dinner, this part of beef will be found desirable.

Anyone else thinking what I'm thinking?
 
simonsmith said:
You're right. It isn't a million miles away from the kind of stuff we get in the Sunday papers today.

(Simon Smith - who lived in Hoxton when it wasn't fashionable!)
Click to expand...
You know the worst part? I actually think like that.
 
Anyone else thinking what I'm thinking?
Click to expand...

Why, what are you thinking Stu? Cheap cuts good enough for the servants and children? That reminds me of the tory MP (whose name escapes me) that gave a hamburger to his young daughter to prove that BSE/CJD wasn't related... even though he knew it was. Sheesh.

(sorry, off topic again - please don't flame me. Those flamethrowers really sting)

My Mum has a copy of Mrs Beaton's (sp?) Cookbook - some very odd recipies in there. Her Christmas Pudding is very good though.

Jane.
 
I'm thinking what the Veiny Piece actually was....
Who'd feed it to their kids?
Or their employees....
 
mejane said:
My Mum has a copy of Mrs Beaton's (sp?) Cookbook - some very odd recipies in there. Her Christmas Pudding is very good though.

Jane.
Click to expand...

For crying out loud! Half of those recipes are lethal! Seriously!
 
I've got a copy of 'Enquire Within' and it's packed full of wonderful stuff. I also have a copy of 'Heaths' which is a tiny medical handbook owned by my great-great grandmother who had 21 kids. It gives advice on childbirth, answers questions like why are men hairy (apparently it's all to do with internal body heat, men being hot and women being cold) and to really scare the expectant victorian mum a little section on freakish births.....lovely stuff.
 
21 kids? Advise on childbirth? You'd think after the first one or two "mother knows best", but of course "doctor knows best". <sigh>

Mrs Beaton - she died in her early twenties (presumably from eating her own food). The Christmas pud is still good but I think my mum leaves out some of the, um, herbal ingredients ;)

Jane
 
Update:

The links in post #1 still work, but they still lead to an edition for which only about 30% of the content had been converted to online form.

Nowadays, multiple electronic editions of Enquire Within Upon Everything can be accessed at Project Gutenberg:

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10766
 
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Tip 1734 advises you to wash your hands before sitting down to eat - notably after handling dead bodies.
Was handling dead bodies such a common occurrence in Victorian days?
 
mejane1 said:
21 kids? Advise on childbirth? You'd think after the first one or two "mother knows best", but of course "doctor knows best". <sigh>

Mrs Beaton - she died in her early twenties (presumably from eating her own food). The Christmas pud is still good but I think my mum leaves out some of the, um, herbal ingredients ;)

Jane
Click to expand...
Mrs Beeton died in childbirth. Maybe she should have spent less time writing recipes and more time reading 'Heaths'.
 
blessmycottonsocks said:
Tip 1734 advises you to wash your hands before sitting down to eat - notably after handling dead bodies.
Was handling dead bodies such a common occurrence in Victorian days?
Click to expand...
Yes. People died all the time, particularly children and if you could afford it, you got your photo taken with their body.
 
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