HSD Index

Introduction to the House Servant’s Directory

The benefit of early rising to servants

On dress suitable for their work

Cleaning boots and shoes

Cleaning knives and forks

Directions for cleaning steel forks

Trimming and cleaning lamps

Directions for cleaning plate

Cleaning plate with dry plate powder

Cleaning silver and plated articles

Setting up the candles

Cleaning polished steel grates

Directions for cleaning mahogany furniture

Hints on taking out stains from mahogany

Brushing and folding gentlemen’s clothes

Brushing and cleaning gentlemen’s hats

Regulations for the pantry

Directions for cleaning tea trays

Washing and cleaning decanters

Trimming the cruet stand or casters

To clean tea and coffee urns

Mahogany dinner trays

Remarks on the morning’s work in winter

Directions for setting out the breakfast table

Regulations for the dinner table

Laying the cloth, &c.

Setting out the dinner table

Setting out the sideboard

Setting out the side table

Dinner on the table

Waiting on dinner

The first course removed

Second course removed

Placing on the dessert

Preparation for tea and coffee

Carrying round tea and coffee

Observations on supper

Observations on the supper table

Directions for extinguishing lamps, shutting up the house, & c.

Address and behavior to your employers

Behavior to your fellow servants

Behavior of servants at their meals

Hints to house servants on their dress

Remarks on answering the bells

All the various receipts useful for servants to know

To make the best liquid blacking for boots and shoes
To make boots and shoes waterproof
Composition to clean furniture
Furniture oil for mahogany, most excellent
Italian varnish, most superb for furniture
Italian polish to give furniture a brilliant luster
To take ink stains out of mahogany furniture
An excellent wash for dirty tables, after a party
To take the black off the bright bars of polished steel
To polish the bars of a polished steel grate
The best way to clean a polished steel grate
For the black parts or inner hearth of the grate
Another excellent black mixture for the same
A beautiful mixture to clean brass or copper
To give Britannia metal a brilliant polish
A beautiful polish for black grates
To make the best plate powder
A most superb way to clean plate
Another way to make plate powder, by J. R.W. of London
To clean any kind of plated articles whatever
To clean Japanned tea and coffee urns
To preserve iron or steel from rust
To take rust out of steel
To blacken the front of stone chimney pieces
An excellent composition to blacken stove grates
To clean mirrors or large looking glasses
To make a beautiful black varnish
To give silver a beautiful polish
An excellent mastick for mending China and glass
A wash to revive old deeds or other writings
An excellent wash to keep flies from pictures or furniture
To remove flies from rooms
To render old pictures as fine as new
A varnish that suits all kinds of pictures and prints
To take ink spots out of Mahogany
A most delicious salad sauce, by J. R. W.
A great secret to mix mustard, by H.B. London
To extract oil from boards
To colour any kind of liquor
To make liquid currant jam of the first quality
A secret against all kinds of spots on silk or cotton
To make all kinds of syrups of all sorts of flowers
To make excellent currant jelly
A most delicious lemonade, to be made a day before wanted
Lemonade that has the appearance and flavor of jelly
To make raspberry vinegar most delicious
To make the best wine vinegar in one hour
An excellent preparation for vinegar
A dry portable vinegar, or vinaigre en poudre
To turn good wine into vinegar in three hours
To restore that same wine to its former taste
To correct a bad taste or sourness in wine
To preserve good wine unto the last
To recovery a person from intoxication
To make raspberry, strawberry, cherry, and all kinds of waters
Lemonade water of a most delicious flavor
Another excellent lemonade by R.R.
To whiten ivory that is been spoiled
A cooling cinnamon water in hot weather
An excellent good ratifia by F.N.
A strong aniseed water
To take off spots of any sort, from any kind of cloth
A great secret against oil spots, & c.
To restore carpets to their first bloom
To restore tapestries to their former brightness
To revive the colour of cloth
To take spots out of white cloth, & c.
A composition of soap that will take out all sorts of spots
Turkey cement for joining all metals, glass, china, & c.
To preserve the brightness of fire arms, & c.
To remove ink stains from cloth, plaid, silk, worsted, & c.
To preserve milk for sea that will keep for six months
To preserve apples for the year-round
To loosen stoppers that are congealed in decanters
To take stains out of black cloth, silk, or crêpe
To know whether a bed is damp or not, when traveling
To make the best ginger beer
To make excellent spruce beer
To make a beautiful flavoured punch
To cement any kind of broken glass
A black varnish for straw or chip hats
Blacking for harness that will not injure leather
To make a strong paste for paper
A water that guilds copper and bronze
A wash for gold, silver, silk, or any other kind of embroidery
To make iron as beautiful and white as silver
To preserve furs or woollen clothes from moths
To dye gloves so as to look like York tan
To reform those that are given to drink
To prevent the breath from smelling after liquor
A wash to give luster to the face
A wash for the hair most superb
Excellent paste for the skin
A beautiful corn poultice
To make the best corn plaster
A safe liquid to turn red hair black
To refine cider for one barrel
To clarify strong or table beer, or ale
A cheap and wholesome beer
Excellent jumble beer
To make excellent ginger beer, for 10 gallons
A wash to give a brilliant luster to plate
Water proof varnish of the best quality
Chinese varnish for miniature painting
To make a cement for bottles

Directions for putting dishes on table

Directions for placing all kinds of joints, fouls, fish, & c. on table

Directions for carving

Going to market

How to choose poultry

How to choose fish

A few observations to cooks, & c.

A word to heads of families

Directions on how to make a fire of Lehigh coal

Miscellaneous observations compiled for the use of house servants

"My favorite thing about Gore Place is the tours. Even though the path through the Mansion is the same, every tour is different, and I learn something new every time."
- M

Did You Know?

Gore Place is one of only a small number of farms in the United States raising Leicester Longwool sheep.

Support Gore Place

Help us continue our mission!

The mission of Gore Place is to continue Christopher and Rebecca Gore's spirit of innovation and appreciation of natural beauty and culture through public programming and events at the Gores' 1806 country estate that encompasses a museum, green space, and a working farm.