Butler removes the tea-tray, and the footman the urn, &c. The footman carries in coals, but the Butler manages the candles.

When tea is made below, it is done by the housekeeper, but carried up and handed round by the Butler and footman.

If there is company, the refreshments, wine, ices, &c. are carried up by the Butler, assisted and followed by the footman.

When there is supper, the under Butler or Butler arranges the same, and it is managed like the dinner.

Slippers, dressing gown, night candles, &c. are carried up and disposed by the Butler.

After his master has gone to bed, he goes to his dressing-room, takes down such things as want cleaning or brushing, and gives them to the footman. He then looks over the plate, locks it up, sees that all the men servants are gone to bed, the doors locked, and windows fastened, and then retires to rest himself.

This business is strictly domestic, but he goes out to order things in his department, and he is sometimes employed abroad in any confidential bu iness, to which the under servants are considered unequal.

The wages of regular Butlers, in large families, are from 50 to 801. per annum ; but in smaller families, from 30 to 501. The perquisites, if he perform the duty of valet, are his master's cast off clothes; and as Butler, he gets the pieces of wax candles, the second hand cards, compliments on paying tradesman's bills, or Christmas boxes and wine for his own use. He finds his own clothes, wash

ing, &c. and is expected to be genteel and clean in his person.

In all things connected with the establishment, he is supposed, when no steward is kept, to represent his master; and as various accounts are under his direction, he ought to be able to write a fair hand, and to be ready in the first rules of arithmetic. From this display of his duties, it will appear that bis office is no sinecure; and as the good order and economy of an establishment depends much on the vigilance of the Butler, when no steward is kept, so a Butler who knows his duties, and performs them with zeal, integrity, and ability, cannot be too highly prized by judicious heads of families.

Management of French Wines.

The diminution of the duty on French wines, occasioning a much larger consumption than heretofore, and their general introduction at all well-served Tables, we have obtained, from the best sources, the information necessary for their management in England.

The first object to be attended to previous to laying in a stock of French wines, is to provide a good cellar. The exposition ought to be to the north if possible; it should be properly ventilated, and, as repose is a grand requisite in the preservation of French wines, a cellar under the house ought always to be preferred to one under the street; it must be kept constantly clean, free from cobwebs, and care must be taken that cats cannot enter and deposit their filth in it. Any unpleasant smell in the cellar when French wines are bottling, is calculated to spoil them, so delicate are the

finer kinds, and so susceptible of combining with any offensive odours in the atmosphere. The cellar ought to be of an equal temperature all the year round, if damp, it is very injurious to their quality; in this case they ought to be ranged in the bins, at least three inches from the wall, and the first layer on pieces of wood, so as not to touch the ground; and, if the cellar be very damp, the roof and walls ought to be covered with lead, (that of the tea chests will do) so that all the humidity may be collected, and a channel ought to be made to carry it off out of the cave.

Count Chaptal, in his Art of Making Wines, thus expresses himself in the care to be taken in the choice of a cellar.

1. The exposition ought to be to the north, as the temperature is then less variable than when the openings are towards the south.

2. It ought to be deep enough for the temperature to be always the same.

3. The humidity ought to be regular without being excessive. When too damp, the paper, corks, and casks become · mouldy; if too dry, the casks will give way and the wine will exude.

4. The light ought to be moderate; a strong light dries too much, and absolute darkness, or nearly so, rots every thing.

5. The cellar ought to be free from all shocks. Motion, or sudden agitation, or the shaking by the passage of carriages in the street, stirs up the lees which incorporate again with the wine and remain suspended in it, and thereby often turn the wine sour. Thunder, and all sudden shocks, are calculated to produce the same effect.

6. Green wood, vinegar, and all matters susceptible of fermentation, ought carefully to be kept at a distance from the cellar.

7. The reverberation of the sun's rays, if they enter a cellar, change the temperature and alter the properties of the wine.

8. Hence a good cellar ought to be several fathoms under ground, it opening towards the north, and out of the way of streets, roads, workshops, sewers, currents of water, water closets, wood cellars,&c., and vaulted.

METHODS OF REMEDYING DEFECTS OF CELLARS.

If the cellar be very damp, the wine in wood ought to be placed at a considerable distance from the ground, which must constantly be swept clean. The casks must be examined from time to time, and especially at the equinoxes, at those periods the staves may appear quite good at the top, while the bottom staves are quite rotten; the humidity may be lessened by increasing the air apertures, and by the method we have already laid down, which is in use in powder cellars, under the ramparts in fortified towns.

When the cellar is of a proper temperature, the ullage in a hogshead of French wine, will not be above two or three glasses a month; but, if the cellar be too dry, the evaporation will, sometimes, be as much as two bottles a month; the cellar may be rendered less dry by lessening the admission of air.

It cannot be too strongly impressed on the Butler, that very damp cellars in marshy ground, and infected by bad smells, will spoil all French wines, even those in bottle. Čellars covered with sand are very good for wines in bottle.

The cellar being thus duly prepared, we will suppose the order for wines to be given, the selection depends greatly on the taste of the consumer. However, Clarets form a necessary part of the stock of every good cellar, they will support any climate; whereas the Hermitage wines are very tender and bad travellers; if poor, they turn sour; if good, bitter, especially the Beaune wines, and the tender delicate Volnay. But Chamberton la Romanee, Corton le Roi, and a few others of the

good vintages, may be safely imported, and will, if properly attended to, give the owner a high reputation for the choice of his wines.

The order should be given for the importation of wines when the seasons are temperate, as great heat or great cold is equally injurious to wine; so that they should neither be imported in the depth of winter, nor in the height of summer, especially Champagnes. The wines of the south of France, as Hermitage and the Cote de Rhone wines, are the hardiest, and require the least care.

The wines being arrived at the cellar, they are to be placed for fining perfectly level, and not inclining forwards, as some erroneously advise.

The very best finings are those prepared by M. Jullien, of Paris, and which cost only twopence or three-pence for fining a hogshead; if they are not to be procured proceed as follows: for red wine, draw off a couple of bottles of wine, then take the whites of five eggs, beat them up with water to a fine froth, pour it into the cask and fill it up with the wine you took out, then take a cleft stick and stir the wine well up in every part, to do which, the stick must be long enough to go to the bottom, and all the lower angles of the cask; it must be stirred for five minutes, that the finings may be equally dispersed throughout the whole body of the wine; put in the bung, and do not touch the cask for a week or ten days, in which time it will be completely fine. It is highly important that fine dry clear weather should be selected, both for the fining of the wine and the bottling of it, if not, it may be necessary to fine it over again, on account of its not be→ ing clear.