San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1895-08-12
OLD ENGLISH FARMHOUSES
The Stin Room I'm which Elder-Flowel
Wine Was Compounded.

OLD ENGLISH FARMhOuSES
The stin Room I'm which EIder-Flower
Wine Was Compounded.
Through the open window, by which
Dorcas sits picking off the elder-blos-
SONS to make my lady's favorite
cosmetic, comes the sound of the hum
ming of the bees in the herb garden
just outside, and the snip-snip of Mar
gery's scissors as she cuts the fragrant
lavender, and looks with some salts
faction at the promising crops of dill
and marjoram. When she comes in she
will, with Dorcas' nimble assistance,
strip the little blue blossoms from
their stalks, and, as they are nice and
dry already, place them in a bag Of
muslin, in the big earthen pot
honored by the appellation of the
great pot" in contradistinction to it's
neighbor the lesser pot" Besides
the fragrant lavender water, and the
cooling velvety-feeling elder-fower es-
sence, there must ere the year be
passed be added other sweet toilet wa
tiers, the old cabbage-rose tree by the
orchard wall must render assistance,
and the cowslips, whose delicate scent
is to pervade my Lady Betty's chamber.
A delicacy which is now well-nigh
forgotten, although it is still to be
found in old farmhouses, is the dam
son cheese. Why this delightful con-
serve should be called a cheese beats
the comprehension of mortal man, for
it is neither like a cheese in shape,
manufacture, color, nor taste, but a
cheese it is called, and cheese it will
remain as long as it survives the op.
position of its arch enemy, cheap dam
son jam, which, by the by, is seldom
made of damsons at all, but of small
unripe qualities in the common sloe
which were well-known to the house
wives of old, but are now almost uni
versally neglected. Sloe wine is no
mean tipple, and if kept for some years
resembles port closely.
1t is strange, indeed, in these days OF
adulteration that sloe port does not
take the place of logwood sirup. Sloe
gin is still 10 some degree popular,
though its composition is commercial.
ly doubtful In the old days some
bushels of sloes were each year con-
sumed by every still room worthy of the
name. Elderberries were also in great
demand, and although the wine made
from them can hardly be said to be
rich or generous, it is, when heated
with spices and sugar, drink not to
be despised on a cold winters night.
So many and so various were the
contents of the still room that we in
these degenerate days are apt to won
der how all these delicacies were con-
sumed. Our grandparents, however,
were not at loss on this score. THE
more the merrier" was their motto,
and well they acted up to it. The
uncles and cousins in London, and, in
fact, town mice generally, were the for
tunate recipients of frequent hampers
of country commodities, among which
the results of the labor of the house,
keeper and still-room maids were very
conspicuous. Candied orange leaves,
damson cheese and elder-fower water
were things lot to be had in perfection
in town. The town cousins did not,
however, return the hampers empty,
but erammed with oysters and other
such comestibles, which were easier to
obtain in London town, so that a sys-
TEN of friendly barter was carried on.
These things are now no more. No
more does the stage coach deliver at
the Saracen's Head or the Elephant
and Castle baskets containing stout
stone jars of Mistress Margery's special
ounce marmalade or picked beans;
the hamper, when it exists at all, has
degenerated into mere pair of fowls
and some butter and eggs. The glory
of the still room has departed. Elder
flower wine and cowslip water are
things of the past, and the place of
NORWOOD wine knows it no more