The practical housewife

"The practical housewife" by Robert Kemp Philp is a comprehensive household manual and family medical guide written in the mid-19th century. It focuses on domestic economy and home management—covering budgeting, housekeeping routines, cookery, servant supervision, sanitation, and basic care of the sick—teaching not only what to do, but why. The opening of the volume presents it as an encyclopedic, practical aid for housewives, prefaced by a call to treat home management as a serious, learned discipline. A preface frames the home as a “citadel” where the husband labors outside and the wife safeguards health, order, and thrift within; it previews maxims on housekeeping, children’s management, invalid care, cookery, carving, and table arrangement, while excluding needlework. Early chapters urge training girls in real domestic skills, advocate moderation (avoiding both slovenliness and fussy over-management), and promise clear guidance “seriatim.” The text then turns practical: choosing and renting a healthy house, avoiding wasteful wedding and furnishing habits, preferring sturdy, simple furniture and iron bedsteads, selecting safe kitchenware, and managing purchases, accounts, and stores with scales and weekly bill-paying. Further sections stress health (ablution, ventilation, light, early rising, temperance), sensible marketing and dinner planning, simple social entertaining, and firm, considerate servant management, culminating in a detailed daily routine for a single servant—from lighting fires and dusting to room cleaning, meal service, and evening turn-down.

The practical housewife, by Robert Kemp Philp. Republished by OpenStories from Project Gutenberg eBook #78164.