The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-10-26

knew all about cooking. They treat their servants more as they are treated in the west Mistress and maid do the work together but there are curious little cus- toms which shave been handed down from medieval times. The maid, for in- stance, is supposed to be always busy, and at whatever moment the mistress comes into the kitchen she must be working hard. They get over this by an arrangement which makes it bad form for a woman to go down into her own kitchen except at stated times, usually in the morning after breakfast At any other time she must call the maid to her. In this way the maid has a chance to sit down during the day.
 When the mistress herself does some of the cooking the maid prepares every thing ready as if for a ceremony and the mistress comes down with great dig nifty, makes her little cakes or bread or prepares her game, and then retires leaving all the cleaning up to the girl
 But most of the middle class women do their own work today, except for the help of woman no wand then They wash and scrub and clean, they prepare big four-course dinners, and serve them beautifully, sitting down at the table too without any furry or mess
 The dish of the north is roast beer and Yorkshire pudding. Tn old fashioned houses the beef is roasted turning on a spit in front of the big kitchen nre and the pudding made of egg, flour ana milk, is rolled out in thin sheets and set in dripping pan under the spit. lne dripping from the beef falls on the pat ter and gradually it cooks and becimes crisp and cracklv. It's about the best dish ever tasted.
 They don't go in for fancy sweet dishes but specialize on rich pastry ana buildings. The women put up enormous quantities of fruit in rich preserves ana jellies which they serve at almost every meal The social meal of the day is tea. It isn't like tea in the rest of England but more like supper you get on an old fashioned New England farm. There are hot biscuits shortcake, all sorts of fancy crullers and cookies, cheese, fish pie and cold game in season. Here all the family gathers and it's the time visitors choose for calling. The meal Is laid out In the dining room in great style and extra stacks of plates and cups are always ready on the side table for the unex- pected guest. Tn Yorkshire it's the tra- dition to cook and serve extra portions of everything so that there may always be enough for more than the family This is one of the pleasant little relics of the days when people rode from town to town stopping at chance where they happened to be, when Yorkshire was first divided into what are known as the north, west and east ridings, distances being measured by the time it took to ride from one place to another.
 It isn't so expensive to have children nthe north as it is in the south. They are not nurse-raised but live with the family as our children do. They are taught to be self-relant and early learn how to go about alone and manage money for themselves The girls some times 20 to private schools but the boys % to public elementary schools, which are the best in the country. After that thev attend the big grammer schools, run by big school companies, where the milton costs about $70 a year and here thev are prepared for their own city uni- versailles.
 Family life is very close and intimate The children know all about fathers husiness and all relations are discussed in the family circle. A girl has to oring her sweetheart time after time right into the family and the girl young man chooses has also to pass that trying ordeal. This, of course results In good deal of intermarrying. For genera tions the sons and daughters of certain great families of the north have married mil if almost goes by consent that they shall do so.
 Vacations are usually taken by the whole family together, which IS not so common in the south. If there are any in-laws or prospective in-laws they go along too and so are able to have taste of what life will be like as one or the family. After, this trial it is not con- .;dared dishonorable to withdraw.