all parts of London, these helpers try to keep the babies quiet in order to give the mothers upstairs a little freedom; but quiet seldom reigns belowstairs until the afternoon has nearly passed and some of the babies have dropped off to sleep. The same scene is repeated on Thursday afternoon, when the County Council teacher gives her cookery demonstration upstairs to an attentive class of mothers. I attended one such lecture, and found it a very practical lesson on how to make Irish stew for 5d. and currant dumplings for 24d. The cooking was done with the most simple apparatus over an open fire by the teacher, with careful explanations, repeated again and again, of the various processes of preparation, and her language was so simple, and her illustrations so practical, that the mothers could not fail to learn her methods. Indeed, several mothers related how they had put into practice at home her lesson of the week before, and how their families had appreciated the nice dish. It was rather disconcerting, however, when at the end of the lesson, the teacher's back being turned, one of the mothers gave her nine months' baby an appetising currant dumpling to eat. A forcible lesson had to be preached on the harmfulness of both suet and currants as a baby's diet, and the general rule, posted conspicuously about the room, pointed out again: 'Never give baby a taste of anything you have yourself.' When the school was first opened, Tuesday evening 'Talks on Health' were given to men and women by a lady doctor sent by the London County Council, and the class was fairly well attended by women, some of them receiving attendance prizes of small mattresses, fireguards, children's clothes, &c., at an entertainment in January. But as the fathers did not come in any numbers, the class was changed into a Men's Club, with coffee and smoking. About thirty men (mostly fathers of the Welcome babies) attend regularly, and they listen with great interest to the talks on such subjects as consumption, digestion, and cleanliness given by different men doctors. A number of factory girls, members of a club held on the same premises, fell off in their attendance at the original Health' evenings, and it is very much hoped that ultimately something can be arranged for them on the plan of Dr. Miele's Ghent system of apprentice mothers.' This work might be extended by co-operation with the neighbouring schools, or by County Council scholarships, whereby older girls could be sent to classes or given practical teaching in the crêche (when one is established) in the actual management of the babies. Such teaching with practical demonstration would certainly be of great value to illustrate and enforce the present school lectures on hygiene. The Provident Maternity Club which has also been started is advertised in a little yellow leaflet which I cannot do better than quote: A PROVIDENT MATERNITY CLUB has been started at THE MOTHERS' AND BABIES' WELCOME, And expectant Mothers are earnestly invited to join. Its object is to help such Mothers to lay by small sums of money week by week in preparation for the coming confinement, so that, in addition to SKILLED ATTENTION at childbirth, and proper BABY-CLOTHES for the infant, they may also have: (1) Help in the home. (1) A Mother needs ENTIRE REST for AT LEAST A FORTNIGHT after child. birth, and should do NO WASHING OR SCRUBBING for a MONTH. For WANT of HELP in the home, Mothers constantly get up too soon, thus often causing themselves lifelong ill-health. (2) Mothers after confinement need plenty of nourishing food and drink, such as milk, gruel, &c. (No BEER or STOUT, and particularly NO SPIRITS.) For want of extra nourishment Mothers often lose their milk, or it gets so poor that the baby is not satisfied. Then foolish people who are very IGNORANT about babies, say 'Feed the child'; if they were wise they would say 'FEED THE MOTHER.' The Management of the 'Welcome' will add a penny to every shilling saved (under certain conditions), and the earlier expectant Mothers join, the greater benefits they receive. The mothers who come to the Welcome are expected to pay ld. a fortnight for weighing and 1d. a fortnight for classes, but even this small sum is a difficulty to those who are very poor and whose husbands are out of employment. Out of nineteen husbands of women coming for dinners and classes, selected at random, five were labourers, four carmen, two painters, one stoker, one printer, one porter, &c., and seven out of the nineteen were unemployed, and those in work were probably none of them earning more than 20s. to 23s. a week. The number of mothers attending the Welcome (including the better-off women, of whom there is now a good nucleus) and paying up the weekly penny is about one hundred monthly, and the number of babies on the doctor's books in the first few months was 132, about seventy having been in more or less regular fortnightly attendance. The Welcome has been widely advertised by notices hung up at mothers' meetings, by the distribution of little pink leaflets in the neighbouring streets and at mothers' meetings, and by the house-to-house visits of the lady sanitary inspectors and the lady superintendent; but still it was much feared beforehand that few mothers would care to attend regularly, and therefore the organisers of the school are more than satisfied with the results. Not only are more than 100 babies being immediately helped, but the mothers are gaining knowledge that will be equally useful to them with any future babies, as the clientèle consists very largely of young women with their first or second baby. And, indeed, the health of the whole family will undoubtedly benefit by the knowledge of general hygiene gained from the lectures and the private friendly talks with the doctor, the lady superintendent, and the voluntary workers. The expense is very small compared with the important results, and it is hoped that this school, which is at present only a private enterprise, will serve as the model for similar schools to be managed by the numberless public health authorities already interested in trying to check infant mortality. The estimated yearly cost of the St. Pancras school, apart from the original outlay of furnishing &c., is 300l.: Rent Lady Superintendent's salary Petty cash for cook's wages, dinners, &c. Coal, gas, insurance, printing, postage, meetings, &c. Total £ 52 120 80 48 £300 To this must ultimately be added the cost of a milk depôt, for the use of those mothers who bear a certificate from private medical practitioners, provident dispensaries, or hospitals, that they are unable or have been advised not to nurse their babies, as some of these mothers already attend the school and need a sure supply of pure milk. This 3001. does not include the lecturers' fees (paid by the London County Council) or the valuable voluntary services of the lady doctor, the officers and members of the local committee, and of the workers. If the undertaking were a municipal one, a salary for the doctor's bi-weekly attendance would be an additional charge, unless indeed it could be a part of the work of the local medical officer of health and lady sanitary inspectors; but the voluntary workers would always, I feel sure, come forward to co-operate with the municipality, and the expenses could thus be kept down. For those twenty or more municipalities which have already established milk depôts, the development of a school would not be a large additional expense. Most of these depôts are already more of a clinique than a milk shop, as a careful record of each child thus supplied with milk is kept, and the homes of the children are periodically visited by lady inspectors and health visitors who give advice and instruction to the mothers. It would only be necessary to include breast-fed babies in the clinique, and to inaugurate classes and lectures, and a system of cheap dinners on the premises already secured for the depôt. It is hardly necessary to point out that the small sum thus spent would mean a great future saving to workhouses and hospitals, and that healthy children instead of rickety delicate ones are a good investment. The State can no longer afford to neglect the education of the mothers of its citizens. If it allows girls to spend the years between school life and marriage in factories, the training in child-culture must be given after marriage, and the mother must be guided and helped to discharge worthily her supreme duty of rearing the citizens of the future. In this the State is not lightening the load of the responsibility that should properly fall upon the mother, but on the contrary is fixing upon the mother new obligations for the performance of which it holds her responsible, and is only giving her the requisite training and self-restraint to make her efficient. That mother is certainly a more responsible mother, not a less responsible one, who feeds her baby at regular intervals instead of every time it cries, as her loving maternal instinct would naturally prompt her. The State does not need to provide maternal love, but it does need to guide and educate maternal love into the right channels, and we can confidently look forward to the time when schools for mothers will take their place as an integral part of our national educational system. ALYS RUSSELL. THE eighteenth century was an age rich in vivid incidents and bewildering contrarieties. The old order had not yet changed, but beneath its surface the new energies which surged in full flood through the later nineteenth century were seething restlessly, and breaking out in many directions. In this respect it was, so to speak, an age of fireworks. Brilliant novelties-often short-lived enough-brilliant audacities, brilliant follies kept flashing across the scene; and of these wild meteors none flashed brighter in the world of society than the lovely and impetuous woman whose wit, beauty, and oddities made her from her early years, when she was "Kitty beautiful and young," to the end of a long life a general object of animadversion, censure, and admiration.' This is Mrs. Delany's description of Catherine Hyde, her kinswoman, contemporary, and friend, who subsequently became celebrated as the Duchess of Queensberry. 6 Lady Catherine Hyde was the third daughter of Henry, second Earl of Rochester and fourth Earl of Clarendon, and a great granddaughter of Edward, the first and famous Earl of Clarendon. The reference books are mostly silent as to the date of her birth, but it certainly took place in 1700. Mrs. Delany, who was born on the 14th of May, 1700, says that Lady Catherine was exactly her own age; and this is borne out by Horace Walpole, who in a letter of the 19th of July, 1777, to Lady Ossory, remarks that the Duchess of Queensberry had died two days previously at the age of seventyseven. Lady Theresa Lewis (Lives of Friends and Contemporaries of Lord Clarendon, III. 418) mentions that she was born on the 10th of February, 1700, and, though no authority is given for this statement, it is likely to be correct. About 1708, as Mrs. Delany tells us, 'the fine Gothic gate which divided Whitehall, commonly called the Cockpit, from King Street, was inhabited by Hyde, Earl of Rochester, younger brother of the Earl [second Earl] of Clarendon, and second son to the great Chancellor.' This Hyde must have been Lawrence, first Earl of Rochester, and Lady Catherine's grandfather. It was here that Mrs. Delany, who was connected with the Hydes, |