Foreword

I first encountered Crale as a boy of nine, during the summers my family spent at Hartenden. He was my grandfather's butler and managed the household with an authority I have seldom encountered since.

My grandfather, a difficult man to impress, said Crale was the only person in the house who never required instruction and never offered an opinion unless it was correct. This was not quite true. Crale held opinions upon many subjects, but delivered them briefly enough that one mistook them for facts.

At ten or eleven, I once appeared at table with my collar askew and my hands in a state Crale described as 'agricultural.' After the meal, he explained the use of soap and a collar stud. The correction took less than a minute and proved sufficient.

Much that was once learned through instruction, habit, and correction has slipped from common use. Capable people are often left to discover ordinary procedures by accident. This guide records some of them.

Crale explains the work plainly and assumes the reader can carry it out. That assumption is probably a compliment.

Sir Edward Astley-Pemberton, Bt., KCVO

Hartenden, Wiltshire, 1908