title: Counting My Chickens . . .: And Other Home Thoughts
author: The Duchess of Devonshire
description: The duchess of Devonshire, youngest of the famous Mitford siblings, is best known for Chatsworth, her historic Derbyshire home, which she keeps open for more than 400,000 visitors each year. Unlike sisters Nancy or Jessica, the duchess is probably a better estate manager than a writer as Stoppard puts it, as "a literary moll, the Duchess is a hoot." This slim volume collects many previously published pieces, however, some of the works are not readily available to American readers (e.g., the British Goat Society Yearbook). Some dwell on the idiocies of modern life: impenetrable packaging, incomprehensible remote control devices for televisions and the ubiquity of consultants. A few revisit Mitford family history, the best being Deborah's account of bringing her goat from the Hebrides to sister Nancy's house in London in 1939, while others discuss obscure British writers. It's when she comes to livestock and gardens that the duchess hits her stride. Her description of the "five stages of gardening" is hilarious: people "begin by liking flowers, progress to flowering shrubs, then autumn foliage and berries; next they go for leaves, and finally the underneaths of leaves." While many of the duchess's pronouncements incite reactionary sentiments e.g., she'd "do away with" women "who want to join men's clubs" and "female weather forecasters," and she'd like to bring back "housewives" and "nurses in uniform" American readers, at least, may find it camp rather than offensive. Reading the duchess is a bit like visiting an old aunt: you swallow the dreary bits politely, knowing there will be a few delightful morsels when you least expect them.<br />Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
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  The Diary of Samuel Pepys, May/Jun 1662  
    
  
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  # The Diary of Samuel Pepys, May/Jun 1662
  
  
  ### Translator: Mynors Bright, Editor: Wheatley
  
  
  This page copyright © 2001 Blackmask Online.
  
  
  http://www.blackmask.com  
    
  
      
      
      This etext was produced by David Widger—widger@cecomet.net
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  May 1st. Sir G. Carteret, Sir W. Pen, and myself, with our clerks, set
  
  
  out this morning from Portsmouth very early, and got by noon to
  
  
  Petersfield; several officers of the Yard accompanying us so far. Here
  
  
  we dined and were merry. At dinner comes my Lord Carlingford from
  
  
  London, going to Portsmouth: tells us that the Duchess of York is brought
  
  
  to bed of a girl,—[Mary, afterwards Queen of England.]— at which I find
  
  
  nobody pleased; and that Prince Rupert and the Duke of Buckingham are
  
  
  sworn of the Privy Councell. He himself made a dish with eggs of the
  
  
  butter of the Sparagus, which is very fine meat, which I w