Sales catalogue 505: Maggs Bros

Date:
1928
Reference:
WA/HMM/CM/Sal/13/63
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sales catalogue 505: Maggs Bros. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    465/482 (page 863)
    WOODROFFE (BENJAMIN): ADVICE TO A YOUNG MAN JUST MARRIED— continued. The advice as to conduct at table, and with guests, is very interesting :— ‘¢ Invite noe man to yr Table to heare how well you can scold with yr servants, ’tis as if the company could afford no better discourse, & they will never thinke themselves wellcome when the Entertainer is out of humour.”’ ‘‘Dislike any thing att yr owne Table looke like a secret prohibition to eate of it, whilst an hearty & open return to wt you sett before yr friends is a Treat be ye meale never so indifferent, in weh ’tis discretion to lett most of yr dishes be undisguised & plain, because there is ye least expence in them & they are withall ye most wholesome, a wise man will spent wt God & Nature plants about him, & thinke ye Calfe tastes as well out of his owne slaughterhouse, as ye Butchers, & it may be if as cleanelie drest.”’ ; ‘‘Tn giveing a due wellcome to all whom you admitt to yr Table, it will not be amisse to recommend of this dish, or that glasse of wine to ye severall Guests, and when you drinke to any stranger to lett it be ya health of his absent friende, or Patron. For by yt you oblige him, that’s absent, who will most certainly be told, yt you dranke his health, & you grace ye person who sits by you, because you take notice of his relation or Friendship to soe worthy a person, & you give ye company occasion to respect him, if not for his owne, yet for his Friend, or Patron’s sake.”’ ‘‘They who affect ye Character of being civil, will avoid giving occasion to disputes att board, for tis ten to one, none of ye Drs of ye Chaire will be there to moderate, & tis not proper for you to bestowe ye faith on one, because another is out of yr minde.’’ Etc. Instructions as to trading, etc. :— ‘‘TIn any bargaine you make, where you finde ye fraud & dishonesty of ye Mechanisk growing upon you, never say in yr minde, this but ye other crowne, or ye other twenty shillings, or ye other five pounds; For yt humour will make every thing deare; & when ye seller shall finde you are in love with his Ware, you shall buy yr owne affection as well as his commodity; & finde ye cheate soe propagated, that one Mechanisk to justify his dealings with you in this sorte, will finde out others with whom you deale, & so ye Frolick of being cheated must goe round to you from them all.”’ ‘‘You neede not choose ye proudest of ye Art to deale with, for then you must pay for his telling you yt ye thing, such a Duke, such a Lord, or such a Privy Counsellor had of ye same; & you must then either refuse ye bargaine, or be obliged to be cheated in complement to ye greate man, whom he names to you, & will be apt ye next time, he sees him, to tell him how meane, & huckster-like you dealt with him.”’ Etc. ‘You will take heede of calling yt Bounty & generosity in yr dealing, wch he with whom you deale will be apt to call folly & indiscretion in you, & knowing yt he putts ye cheate upon you & enhances his price by making you pay for yr Titles & Quality in wt you buy from him.’’ Words of wisdom as to the married state :— ‘Ags you are come now into a married Estate, you must consider how farre the Duty of the 5th Comandmt is now enlarged upon you. You have now new relations to whom you owe the respect of a Son, of a Brother, of a Nephew, of a Cosin, &c., all whom you must in their severall stations regard, & without any reflections on what is past, consider wt becomes you now to doe, tis not ye least meritt yt they stand soe neare allied to soe discrete a Lady as your wife, & remem- ber you must love her in lesse pleasant objects, then herselfe.”’