Local History

THE ORIGINAL DOMESTIC Goddess

In its first year, sales of Mrs Beeton’s eponymous Book of Household Management topped 60,000 making it one of the most famous cookery books ever published

It is over 150 years since the first instalment of Isabella Beeton’s Book of Household Management was published, navigating many a young newlywed through the art of running a household. Aimed at a captive middle-class market of women who had little practical experience or household skills, the book gave a step by step guide to carrying out domestic tasks and advice on topics ranging from childcare to managing servants. It was also the first to format recipes, listing ingredients before explaining how to cook the dish, in a layout that is still followed today. Although she had little experience of running a large household much of Isabella’s knowledge was garnered from her childhood. Born in 1836 in London, Isabella Mayson was the eldest of four children from the marriage of Elizabeth and Benjamin Mayson. After her father died her mother married Henry Dorling, Clerk of the Course for Epsom races, who ran a successful printing and publishing company in Epsom with his father, William. Between them the couple had eight children - and went on to have another 13 - so accommodation in the Dorling premises was cramped. In 1845 Henry leased the Grandstand, a building which had been constructed 15 years earlier by Epsom Grand Stand Association.

An Unusual Childhood

Henry bought a new printing press and moved his business to the Grandstand basement, leaving his father and sister Lucy to run the bookshop and stationers in Epsom High Street. He began reforms to the building and the races, laying out a new Derby course in 1847 and building a new wing for the grandstand. As the eldest, Isabella was expected to look after the youngest of the brood who were sent off to live in the vast building which could accommodate 5,000 spectators. On race days, when the grandstand returned to its original purpose, the children were packed off to Brighton. In 1856, after a brief courtship Isabella married Sam Beeton, an entrepreneurial publisher who had realised that cheap books and magazines were selling well, because growing numbers of people had been taught to read for the first time. He also realised that there were two gaps in the market, no-one was publishing anything specially aimed at women or children.

The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine was the first cheap publication of its kind. Sam set essay competitions; commissioned columns and did his best with correspondents to Cupid’s Letter-Bag. Within a few months Isabella had taken over the household hints and cookery columns in the magazine. She added a third on childcare, the arrival of her own first baby did not interrupt the

flow of work. Within a month of her debut she had evolved a characteristic style - brief, blunt and clear, supported by epigrams or proverbs.

An Erudite Cookery Book

Isabella spent three years planning the Book of Household Management from the couple’s home in Pinner, and had it issued in parts along with the Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine. Apart from some training in German pastry making, which she received at finishing school in Heidelberg, and some subsequent lessons at Barnards the confectioners in Epsom, Isabella had never needed to cook herself. Most of her recipes, though she tested them, came from earlier books. Only one recipe in the book Baroness Pudding, from the Baroness de Teissier of Woodcote Park, has an Epsom link.

The Secrets of Organisation

The Book of Household Management was the best organised publication of its kind. There had been other works on the same subject, but none had the same cool efficiency. Isabella had watched her mother cope with 18 children and her father manage 250,000 racegoers, and she knew the secrets of organisation. The success of the book, which remains in print, led to future projects. In 1861 Isabella was called in to edit women’s features for a new magazine entitled The Queen. Three years later she helped plan a girl’s magazine, the Young Englishwoman, and early in 1865 while working on the Dictionary of Cookery she gave birth to her fourth child.

Article and pictures courtesy of Bourne Hall Museum

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