*SPECTATOR, ROSINA, SOPHY E., CORDELIA, C. T. SAXON.-We have read your poem with mech
RYE, NANCY, ANNA GREY, MIGNONETTE, EMMA BUT-pleasure; but we must ask you to "try again," for
TERWORTH, ISABELLA, MARY H., STANTONVILLE, it is not yet quite up to publication mark.
CAVALIER, ZETA, and ROSALIE are thanked. To
the latter we say-Try again, and again, and again.
MAX is silent, and EDWARD W. H. does not re-
spond; CHARLIE F. is angry with us for not writing
by post; and ALEX. ERSKINE has not yet had
time to write. To each and all we send our most
cordial Christmas wishes.

OUR LETTER-BOX.

190. COLOURING FOR CONFECTIONERY.-Pink: You may make a pink colour with either archil, lake, Dutch pink, or rose pink. Take as much of either of them as will be enough for your purpose, and moisten it with spirits of wine; grind it on a marble slab till quite fine, and add spirits of wine, or gin, till it is of the thickness of cream.-Red: Red colour is made with cochineal. Grind half-anounce of cochineal fine enough to go through a wire sieve; put into a two-quart copper pan half-anounce of salt of wormwood and half-a-pint of cold spring water; put the cochineal into it, and put it over a clear fire; let them boil together for about a minute; mix in three-quarters of an ounce of cream of tartar, and let it boil again; as soon as it boils, take it off, and put in of powdered rochealum rather less than half-a-teaspoonful; stir it well together, and strain into a bottle; put in a lump of sugar, to keep it; cork it up, and put it by for use.-Scarlet: Vermilion, ground with a little gin or lemon juice, and then mixed with water, makes a bright scarlet; but in using it be careful not to take too much, for it is highly pernicious.Cherry red: Boil an ounce of cudbear in three half pints of water over a slow fire, till reduced to a pint; then add an ounce of cream of tartar, and let them simmer again; when cold, strain them; add an ounce and a half of spirits of wine to it, and bottle for use. This is rendered red when mixed with acid, and green with alkali; it is not a good colour, and Dutch grappe madder may be substituted for it: take two ounces, tie it in a cloth and beat it in a mortar with a pint of water, pour this off and repeat the same operation until you have used four or five pints, when the whole of the colour will be extracted; then boil it for ten minutes, and add one ounce of alum dissolved in a pint of water, and one ounce and a half of oil of tartar; let it settle, and wash the sediment with water; pour this off and dry it, and mix some of it with a little spirits of wine or gin.-Blue: Dissolve a little indigo in warm water, or put a little warm water into a plate, and rub an indigo stone_on it till you have sufficient for your purpose. This will do for ices, &c. But to use indigo for sugars, you must first grind as much as you will require as fine as you can on a stone, or in a mortar, and then dissolve it in gin or in spirits of wine, till of the tint you wish. You also make a good blue by grinding Prussian or Antwerp blue fine on a marble slab, and mixing it with water.-Yellow: You may get a yellow by dissolving turmeric, or saffron, in water or rectified spirits of wine. Tincture of saffron is used for colouring ices, &c. The roots of barberries prepared with alum and cream of tartar, as for making a green, will also make a transparent yellow for sugars, &c. Saffron or turmeric, may be used in like manner.-Green: Boil an ounce of fustic, a quarter of-an-ounce of turmeric, two drachms of good clear alum, and two drachms of cream of tartar, in half a-pint of water, over a slow fire, till one-third of the water is wasted; add the tartar first, and lastly the alum; pound a drachm of indigo in a mortar till quite fine, and then dissolve it in half-an-ounce of spirits of wine. When the ingredients you have boiled (and which make a bright yellow) are cold, strain the solution of indigo,

and mix it with them. You will have a beautiful
transparent green; strain it, and put into a bottle
stop the bottle well, and put it by for use. You
may make a darker or lighter by using more or less
indigo. This may be used for colouring boiled
or other sugars, or any preparation in ornamental
confectionery.-Brown: Burnt umber ground on a
colour, and you need not use much to obtain
marble slab with water will make a good brown
the same purpose.
the tint you require. Burnt sugar will also answer

markable for an extraordinarily large crop of
191. QUINCE MARMALADE.-As this year is re-
quinces, I have sent you my way of making mar-
malade. I was induced to try my plan, in conse-
quence of seeing some of my neighbours cut their
quinces into such very small pieces, and they were
boiled no end of time, and still they were hard. I,
therefore, tried the following plan, and which has
been very successfully adopted by all who have
tried it. To one gallon of quinces, three pounds of
good loaf sugar. Pare the quinces and cut them
in halves, scoop out the cores and the hard strip
that unites the core with the string; put the cores
and some of the parings in a saucepan with about
a quart of water, put the halves of quinces in a
quinces are softened by the steam; then mash
steamer that fits the saucepan; boil them until the
them with a wooden spoon, in a dish, and pour
the water from the saucepan on them, which is
the sugar in a stewpan or enamelled saucepan,
now of a thick glutinous substance; put them with
and let them boil for about half-an-hour, keeping
them well stirred.-C. T. RYE.

192. COMMON PLUM-PUDDING.-Beat together three-quarters of a pound of flour, the same quantity of raisins, six ounces of beef-suet, finely chopped, a small pinch of salt, some grated nutmeg, and three eggs, which have been thoroughly whisked and mixed with about a quarter of a pint of milk, or less than this should the eggs be large. Pour the whole into a buttered dish, and bake an hour and a quarter.

193. POTATOE SCONES.-Mash boiled potatoes till they are quite smooth, adding a little salt; then toast, pricking them with a fork to prevent them knead out with flour, to the thickness required; blistering. When eaten with fresh or salt butter, they are equal to crumpets, and very nutritious.

194. POTATOE SNOW.-Pick out the whites, potatoes; put them in cold water; when they begin to crack, strain, and put them in a clean stewpan before the fire till they are quite dry and fall to pieces; rub them through a wire sieve and serve hot.

195. POTATOES FRIED WHOLE.-When nearly with butter, or beef dripping; shake them about boiled enough, put small potatoes into a stewpan to prevent burning, till they are brown and crisp; drain them from the fat. It will be an improvement if they are floured and dipped in the yolk of crumbs. This is the ordinary French method. an egg, and then rolled in finely sifted bread

196. CARROT MARMALADE.-Boil one pound of carrots, and scrape off the outside; make syrup as for other sweatmeats, only adding one ounce of ginger to one pound of sugar; boil it well, and strain till the carrots are quite clear.

197. POTATOES ESCOLLOPED.-Mash potatoes temperature of the heart. Need I say, when these in the usual way; then butter your scollop-saucepan and pans, or saucers; put in your potatoes: make them smooth at the top; cross a knife over them; strew a few fine bread-crumbs on them; sprinkle them with a few drops of melted butter, and set them in a Dutch oven. When nicely browned on the top, take them carefully out of the shells, and brown on the other side. Cold potatoes may be warmed up this way.