Read A Year in the Life of Downton Abbey: Seasonal Celebrations, Traditions, and Recipes for Free Online Page A

rather delicious to me, but the children may not have had much choice as to whether or not they were going to eat it.
    Stuffed with food, the babies would be rolled out for a walk in their perambulators dressed in – to our modern eyes – extraordinary outfits. Despite those past generations being used to freezing-cold houses (no central heating, remember), there seems to have been a real fear of a child catching a chill when they went outside. Whether hot or not, until 31 May, an infant would typically be dressed in a vest, a woolly binder (a sort of soft baby corset, to keep the tummy warm), mackintosh knickers over the cloth nappy, wool knickers, a voluminous starched petticoat, a robe and finally a pelisse (a long-sleeved cotton coat) with a big cape collar.

FRENCH TOAST
    Comfort food for children and grown-ups alike, ‘eggy bread’ is a great standby dish for breakfast, tea or indeed any other time of day. Serve with bacon or fresh fruit, or spread with jam – or just as it is.
    SERVES 1 ADULT AND 2 CHILDREN
    3 eggs
    2 tablespoons milk
    salt and pepper
    butter, for frying
    4 slices white bread (slightly stale is best)
    sugar and cinnamon, for sprinkling
    Crack the eggs into a wide, shallow bowl. Add the milk and whisk well with a fork. Season with salt and pepper.
    Heat a frying pan over a medium heat and add a knob of butter. Slide a piece of bread into the egg mixture, coating it all over. When the butter is sizzling, place the eggy bread in the pan and fry for a few minutes on each side until golden. Repeat with the other slices of bread, adding more butter for frying if necessary.
    Transfer the French toast on to plates, sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon and cut into triangles or fingers to serve.

PANCAKES
    Traditionally eaten on Shrove Tuesday, pancakes are a way of using up any milk, butter and eggs in the house before the abstinence of Lent. These are the thin, French-style crêpes which were popularised in England in the eighteenth century.
    MAKES 12–14
    2 cups all-purpose flour
    a pinch of salt
    2 eggs
    2 ½ cups milk
    butter, for frying
    superfine sugar and wedges of lemon, to serve
    Sift the flour and salt into a mixing bowl. Make a well in the middle of the flour and break the eggs into it. Add half the milk and start to whisk the eggs and milk with a balloon whisk, gradually incorporating the flour from the edges. Pour in the rest of the milk and carry on whisking until you have a smooth batter.
    Heat a frying pan over a medium heat and add a knob of butter. Swirl it around until melted and then pour any excess into a saucer, leaving just a coating of grease in the pan.
    When the pan is nice and hot (but not smoking), pour a ladleful of batter into the pan and tilt the pan from side to side so the batter runs evenly over the surface. As the pancake starts to set, lift the edges with a spatula and when it looks golden and lacy underneath (this should take no longer than a minute), flip it over using the spatula. Cook for less than a minute on the other side and then slide on to a warm plate.
    Continue to cook the pancakes in this way and pile them up on the plate, covered with a clean tea towel to keep warm.
    Serve with a squeeze of lemon and a sprinkling of sugar.

    READING AND WRITING
FROM THE MOTHERCRAFT MANUAL (1921)
These have no place, biologically, before six years, and some psychologists say they belong psychologically after eight years, in the period of interest in symbols, abstractions and rote learning. It is known that normal children who enter school at nine years usually finish the grades with those of their own age who started three years earlier. It is evident that with a natural outdoor environment, the child will acquire a better physique, a larger acquaintance with realities, and a richer development of invention, initiative, self-expression, than he does in the schoolroom. The ancient Greeks taught only games, dancing and music to children under nine.

    The nurseries themselves