It is easy for dwellers in London or other large towns to obtain a nice variety of cakes and biscuits wherewith to grace their tea-tables; but those who live in country villages are less fortunate, and are sometimes sadly conscious of lack of variety in the cakes they can make or procure. I hope therefore that the recipes here given will be acceptable to all those who are willing to spend a little care and trouble in carrying them out. Most of them are capable of further variation, and clever heads and fingers will devise artistic and dainty decorations and ornamentations for themselves, the result of which will be that their cakes will be quite as beautiful to look upon, and probably more beautiful to eat than those supplied by a fashionable confectioner. One thing must be remembered by all aspiring cake-makers, viz., that dainty cakes and biscuits require time, care, and patience in their production, and cakes that are hurriedly made are seldom satisfactory. Another point to be remembered is that afternoon tea is not a substantial meal, so that we must endeavour to have all our dishes as dainty and elegant as possible both in their composition and manner of serving. We cannot perhaps all boast of silver or Sheraton tea-trays, or of Dresden or Worcester china; but a plain linen or small-patterned damask cloth embroidered with a large initial, and either prettily hemstitched or edged with Torchon lace, will hide all the deficiencies of our tea-tray, and now that such pretty Coalport china can be bought at such a reasonable price, no one need be without a charming tea-set. In arranging the china and linen for afternoon tea, it will be well to remember that coloured china looks best upon a white cloth or upon a cream-coloured one embroidered in silks or flax threads to match the colours in the china, while for use with plain white or white-and-gold china a cloth of art linen, in plain blue, yellow or pink, with white embroidery is most suitable. Nor need any hostess lament over her scarcity of small silver table appointments in the way of teapot and cream jugs and sugar basins, for a china teapot and hot-water jug and the sweet wee cream jugs and tiny basins now sold to match almost every stock pattern of china, look quite as dainty and artistic as their more imposing silver brethren. See that your bread-and-butter is delicately thin, and that it and your cakes and sandwiches are served upon dainty doyleys of fringed damask, and if you provide two small plates, one with brown and one with white bread-and-butter, they will be found more convenient to hand about than one large plate.