You need not excuse to me taking notice of your carpet. I think you have great reason to value your-self on the performance, but will have better than I have had if you can persuade anybody else to do so. I could never get people to believe that I set a stitch, when I worked six hours in a day. Perhaps the most popular of all the arts was japanning. Molly (b. 1675), the daughter of Edmund Verney, was sent at eight to Mrs. Priest's school at Great Chelsey. Her father wrote to her: I find you have a desire to learn to Jappan, as you call it, and I approve of it; and so I shall of anything that is Good & Virtuous, therefore learn in God's name all Good Things, & I will willingly be at the Charge so farr as I am able--tho' they come from Japan or from never so farr & Looke of an Indian Hue & Odour, for I admire all accomplishments that will render you considerable, and Lovely in the sight of God and man.[389] The continued favor accorded japanning is shown by a letter from Mrs. Rowe to the Duchess of Somerset in 1734: My great attainment at present is colouring prints: If Lady ---- wants any birds for her new _Japan_, I have some at her service. Mrs. ---- is so inchanted with this new japanning, that she has abandon'd Mr. _Baxter_, and the _Greek_ Fathers, and employes her time in sticking bears and monkies on all the wooden furniture she can find about the house. Japanning was taught in most of the schools. Mrs. Montagu, Queen of the Blue-Stockings, was indefatigable in her devotion to hand-work. Not only was she familiar with every kind of needlework, but she turned in wood and ivory, made shell grottoes, and designed shell frames, and she planned and executed feather hangings for a room. Mrs. Delany is the only lady whose recorded work exceeds that of Mrs. Montagu in amount and variety. Domestic science was faintly foreshadowed in what were known as "Pastry Schools." The following illustrates the type: To all young ladies at Edw. Kidder's Pastry School in little Lincoln's Inn Fields are taught all sorts of Pastry and Cookery, Dutch hollow works, and Butter works, on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturday, in the afternoon, and on the same days in the Morning, at his school in Norris Street in St. James's Market, and at his School in St. Martin's Le Grand, on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in the Afternoons. And at his School at St. Mary Overies Dock, Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesday Mornings from 9 to 12.[390] An entertaining passage in Shadwell's _The Scowrers_ (1690) indicates something of the character of a girl's education in the country: _Priscilla._ Did she not bestow good breeding upon you there? _Eugenia._ Breeding! what, to learn to feed Ducklings, and cram Chickens? _Clara._ To see cows milk'd, learn to Churn, and make cheese? _Eugen._ To make Clouted cream, and whipt sillabubs? _Clara._ To make a Caraway Cake, and raise Py Crust?