One day, while my husband was busily at work, I sat beside him reading an old cookery book called The Compleat House-wife: or Accomplish’d Gentlewoman’s Companion. In the midst of receipts for “Rabbits, and Chickens mumbled, Pickled Samphire, Skirret Pye, Baked Tansy,” and other forgotten deli-cacies, there were directions for the preparation of several lo-tions for the preservation of beauty.
One of these was so charming that I interrupted my husband to read it aloud. “Just what I wanted!” he exclaimed; and the receipt for the “Lily of the Valley Water” was instantly incorporated into Kidnapped.
