Establishing schools is an important duty which the rich owe to the poor. Every girl ought to be able to sew neatly and well, and to read, write, and keep accounts. I think also it would be a great advantage if all the girls who have attained the age of fourteen were to receive a few lessons in dress-making, and making waistcoats and boys' clothes, from the regular mantua-maker and tailor of the village; or you might pay for this out of your own pocket, and make it a reward for good conduct. It is particularly useful to the wife of a labouring man to know how to cut out and make or alter clothes, as work of this kind can be taken up and laid down while the mother is nursing her children, or watching the boiling of a pot, or some similar kind of simple cookery. Many poor women waste a great deal of food by not knowing how to use it to the best advantage; for instance, they often throw away the water in which meat has been boiled, and of which an excellent soup might be made by the addition of a few vegetables, and thickening it with oatmeal, flour, or pearl barley; and they sometimes spoil meat, when they have it, by letting it boil so fast as to become hard and indigestible. I do not mean, by making these observations, that I think you should make inquiries into what your poor neighbours have for dinner, or how they cook their food, as there are no points on which the poor generally dislike to be interfered in more than these; but I only mean that you should, if possible, get the daughters taught the best way of cooking food suitable to their rank in life, by some experienced person, and that then it should be left for the mothers to adopt these new plans or not, as they liked. Generally speaking, I would not have you too fond of offering to have the daughters of the cottagers taught any thing by your own servants. The modes of living of the rich and the poor are necessarily so different, that a cottager's daughter would reap very little advantage from seeing how the dishes were prepared for your table, while she might be rendered discontented by observing the very great difference between the mode of living in your kitchen and in her own cottage. There are, however, exceptions to this rule, in the case of girls who wish to become servants; and, whenever that happens, I would advise you always to have the girls sent to the mansion-house, to be placed under the direction of the servant in whose department she might wish to be employed.