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J.f.c

There are in the manuscript books also many entries of cookery notes, chiefly made at hotels in Paris (1877) and Rome (1878), or what one may call "sketches" for dishes, without giving quantities, &c. A few of these, when sufficiently detailed to be of use as suggestions, are included in this book; the complete recipes for others have evidently been obtained after the first "sketch" was noted down. For instance, among such memoranda is the following: - "Puzzled with delicately flavoured and moulded sweets (not bavaroise). Sponges or whipped jelly. Evidently no cream - much white of egg - turned out well, yet not stiff with gelatine and set in ice - quite light - often a plain Baba (honeycombed from lightness) to eat with them. Roughened with almonds at top - scarcely any sugar inside and no plums or peel - more like Kugelhopf. " Regarding above see Baba No. 2 (Louvre Baba), from the Louvre Hotel, Rome, and Arrowroot Sponge (see Sponges), both under Sweet Dishes. "Œufs à la Béchamel" under Eggs is another amplified recipe, of which the following was the original note: "Poached eggs in tomato sauce or in 'fines herbes,' poached or à la Béchamel in this case hard boiled and sliced lengthways - yolks taken out, pounded with chopped herbs, &c., put back and served with this sauce over them. Madame Langel's sauce was gold-coloured - were they salamandered or browned in oven?" The two following among these notes do not seem to have been otherwise recorded: ""Gnocchi' * of semolina well boiled in milk. Boil the milk first, then stir in some semolina gradually; stir on till thick -keep it stiff. When cold, work in 2 or 3 eggs and a little butter and grated cheese. Cut on a board into thick slices 1½ inches; powder again with cheese; add little bits of butter and bake in oven." "Notes of Dishes: (Mrs. Jamieson. 1885.) Sweetbread 'en surprise,' remains of it cooked and pounded and creamed, served cold in egg-shaped moulds to represent the yolk of an egg, the white being aspic jelly truffled -more chopped aspic as garnish." [Another recipe for "Gnocchi" is kindly given me by Lady Clark's niece, Mrs. Perrott: "Boil semolina in milk as for a pudding, but make it rather stiff. After it is cooked put in a bit of butter the size of a walnut, and about 3 tablespoonfuls of grated Parmesan cheese. Let it cook for 2 or 3 minutes more, and then turn it out on a plate. Spread it out as you would a rissole mixture. When cold, cut out with a little round cutter and place in a French baking dish, one overlapping the other, till dish is full. Bake in a moderate oven for 30 minutes. A little salt must be cooked with it."] Lady Clark had evidently no idea of publication in collecting recipes - they were therefore not arranged for printing -not did she set herself to compile an exhaustive book on cookery. It is essentially her own collection, for home use, of such dishes as struck her as worthy of record, useful, or specially good and uncommon; the manuscript interspersed with amusing individual comments, some of which are left where they occurred, in the text.

Of Lady Clark herself, this is not the place for a biography, but all who had the pleasure of her delightful companionship will recall her very individual personality, the patience of detail, and the remarkable memory which enabled her to grasp such varied subjects ("She remembered," says her nephew, Mr. Coltman, "every book she ever read and every person she ever met"); her vivid interest in modern life and problems; her mastery of her "two departments," housekeeping and the library -the latter of which was always kept abreast of the time with the newest foreign as well as English books; her brilliant and lively wit; the truth and power of her friendship; her entertaining letters; and yet, as Sir John says, "throughout her exceptionally quiet and undemonstrative life" even her best friends "did not know the whole of her, nor the half." Those who shared the hospitalities of Tillypronie recall, too, the united keen interest taken by the laird and his wife in the country and people of Aberdeenshire and in all they did for its welfare, † as well as their appreciation of the wider cosmopolitan world which takes its autumn holiday in Scotland, their intercourse with which was so thoroughly enjoyed by Sir John and Lady Clark.

In the library at Tillypronie reposes the great volume begun by Sir James, in which were year by year recorded all such travellers as were welcomed to those hospitable doors, and many doings of special interest as they occurred in both the local and the general world. In this book also were inscribed the autographs of those august guests who visited Tillypronie from Balmoral, or from Birk Hall, and of the cultivated literary * I notice in Madame Lebour Fawssett's "French Cookery for Ladies" (H. Virtue, London) good recipe for "Gnocchi" with the stewed beef that it is served with an Italian ragoût. -C.F.F. + "Deeside," writes one of their oldest friends, "will probably never realise what it owes to Sir James Clark and to Sir John." and political society who were always to be met at Tillypronie -a procession of indeed historical figures.

Many still remain who enjoy the pleasant memories of days at Tillypronie -their hostess's kind welcome of young people; the quiet strolls about the gardens with her and the dogs which were her own and her husband's constant companions; the rides with the laird, and his readings aloud in the evening of the latest books of French plays, or perhaps of the account of his recollections of Paris in '48, when, as a young attaché, he passed through the stormy days of the Revolution which deprived Louis Philippe of the throne of France, and when, from a brother attaché's window, he himself chanced to be an eye-witness of the King and Queen leaving the Tuileries with little luggage and no escort.

The device of entwined initials C.C. and Sir John Clark's crest which appears at the end of this preface, is from a seal Lady Clark always used, and the golden brown of the linen binding is taken from the tint of a beech leaf picked in autumn from the hedges in the gardens at Tillypronie. The house stands on the hills which run parallel with the Dee, and, though above the snow line, catches all the sunshine, for it faces south. The whole place is one with which much of the story of Sir John and Lady Clark's married life is interwoven, the home they built, the trees they planted. From the cairn crowning the hill which, with its heather and fir trees, rises behind Tillypronie one looks from ridge to ridge over many counties. The view from the house itself is one of exceptional and ever-changing beauty, with woods and pastures and harvest fields sinking gently to the wild moor and peaty ground jewelled with its little lochs. The wide valley stretches away to where the further slopes rise again by degrees to the heights of Mount Keen. In the middle distance a faint banner of smoke sometimes shows where the train hurries away on straight lines to the sea, followed more leisurely by the winding river; and on nearer rising ground stands the farm to which, as a delicate boy, Byron used to be sent for the sake of the fine air. To the right one sees the great shoulder of Morven, standing massive against the sunset; while below Tillypronie, at the foot of its hills, nestles the little kirkyard where she, to whose energy and home devotion this book owes its origin, now rests in the land she loved so well. 67, WESTBOURNE TERRACE, W.,