<\/p>
Name:\u00a0<\/strong>Isabella Mary Beeton<\/p>\n Born:\u00a0<\/strong>12 March 1836 in London<\/p>\n Married: <\/strong>Samuel Beeton, a wealthy publisher<\/p>\n Died:\u00a0<\/strong>6 February 1865 (from an infection following the birth of her fourth child)<\/p>\n Famous for:<\/strong>\u00a0Her writing on cookery and house-keeping, specifically her now-famous\u00a0Beeton\u2019s Book Of Household Management\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>\u201cEarly rising is one of the most essential qualities\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Isabella and her husband Sam were indeed early risers, to the point of eccentricity. They both seem to have got up at about 6am before immediately catching the early train from Pinner into London, where Sam, a publisher, had his office. The other commuters disliked having a lady present since it meant they could neither swear nor smoke. Sam often missed the last \u2028train back and, rumour has it, once walked the whole way home, about 13 miles. Isabella would regularly leave his supper for him on the stove, having long since gone to bed. \u201cCold or tepid baths should be employed every morning\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n When the Beetons moved into their semi-detached house on a brand new housing estate in Pinner in 1856, there was no bath. Baths with running water were new-fangled, and even considered dangerous. Most people made do with a washstand in their bedroom. Isabella, though, was adamant that she wanted a bath and so an extra cistern had to be installed on the first floor to accommodate her modern tastes. Descendants of Mrs Beeton were brought up on the story that the reason two of her children died is that she subjected them to too many cold dips. \u201cFriendships should not be hastily formed, nor the heart given at once to every newcomer\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Mrs Beeton gives her readers strict guidelines for sociability. The moment a young matron moves into a new neighbourhood, she should make a courtesy call on her neighbours. In return, she should expect to be \u201cat home\u201d several times a week. No-one should bring their children or their dog with them, and gossiping about your husband\u2019s shortcomings is strictly forbidden. In fact, Isabella was not very sociable and there\u2019s no evidence that she ever made a morning call. Perhaps because she was the eldest girl in a tribe of 21 children, she spent most of the time socialising within her vast clan. Her best friends were her sisters Bessie and Esther, who remained fiercely loyal even after her marriage. They blamed her husband Sam for her early death at 28, declaring that he\u2019d made her over-work on the Book of Household Management<\/em>. \u201cCharity and Benevolence are duties which a mistress owes to herself as well as to her fellow-creature\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Isabella herself did indeed have a social conscience. In the very hard winter of 1858 she cooked up each week nine gallons of \u201cUseful Soup for Benevolent Purposes\u201d which she distributed at her back door to local needy families. The soup\u2019s ingredients included a few bones, an ox cheek, salt and an ounce of black pepper. Whether the poor of Pinner ever came back for second helpings is not recorded.<\/p>\n Most of us think of Mrs (Isabella) Beeton as a middle-aged matron with decades of kitchen experience. So it may be a surprise to learn that she was just 21 when she started writing her now-famous Beeton\u2019s Book of Household Management<\/em> in 1859, and had only been \u2018keeping house\u2019 for 12 months. Although she gave the impression she was a well-to-do lady presiding over an affluent and well-run home, the truth was she was a girl from a lower-middle class background battling everything from poverty to disease. And far from being middle-aged, she died at the age of just 28.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> \u201cA housekeeping book should invariably be kept, and kept punctually and precisely\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Sam Beeton was a reckless businessman, borrowing too much and over-spending wildly. In the last weeks of Isabella\u2019s life in 1865 it became clear he faced bankruptcy. By contrast, Isabella seems to have been a thrifty housekeeper. In a diary from 1860, she wrote down everything that she and Sam spent on food before crossing through each item, as though she was keeping track of expenditure. If she had not died prematurely she might have wrested Sam\u2019s company back into profit. As it was he went bankrupt in 1866 and had to sell the highly profitable Book of Household Management<\/em> to another company which reaped its vast profits over the next 150 years. \u201cExcellence in the art of cookery, as in all other things, is only attainable by practice and experience\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Isabella had been cooking for just a year when she first started compiling the 2,000 recipes that appear in the Book of Household Management<\/em>. With the exception of the Soup for Benevolent Purposes (see above) she copied all her recipes from earlier cookery books, some of them dating back to the 17th century. She did, however, improve their lay-out, by listing all the ingredients at the start and giving exact cooking times. All the same, if she had been alive today she might have been prosecuted for plagiarism.<\/p>\nMrs Beeton\u2019s guide to a good life: 10 pieces of advice from Mrs Beeton\u2019s book<\/h3>\n
Wake up early<\/h3>\n<\/div>
Have a cold bath<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n
Choose your friends wisely<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n
Give to charity<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n
Myth-busting Mrs Beeton<\/h4>\n
Keep a record of your finances<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n
Eat well and try new recipes<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n