during the course of my apprenticeship with messrs. negri and gunter, in berkeley square, many housekeepers to noblemen and gentlemen, on special occasions, were frequently present, in order to observe our peculiar method of preparing confects.

since i left messrs. negri and gunter, i have had frequent applications from those persons, as well as others, for receipts and information respecting improvements and additions to this art. but being engaged in the service of several noblemen, and thereby deprived of the opportunity of attending to the numerous applications from respective housekeepers for new receipts, i determined to form the following treatise, that they might present it to their friends; and that it might supply the place of personal application, i have comprized in it every article that is necessary to render the reader a proficient in the art.

from the nature of my occupation, and the time necessary to acquire a due knowledge of it, i cannot be supposed qualified to write in a masterly stile; and am therefore inclined to hope the candid reader will be disposed to overlook ivany little errors that may be observed in this treatise, considering it not as the production of a scholar, but the essay of a man, who has devoted the greater part of his life to the pursuit of the art under consideration.

i presume my having served an apprenticeship to men of such eminence in the line of confectionary, and such respectability in their connections as messrs. negri & gunter, that it will be considered as a recommendation of the following sheets; and as all the treatise i have seen contain only old and exploded receipts, render it necessary that something new should appear on the subject; and as the receipts i have given are the result of my own practice and experience, i think it will add a sanction to the present undertaking.

upon the whole, as i have not omitted any article that can be useful to housekeepers in particular, and families in general, i trust i have not arrogated to myself a right to which i have no claim, in prefixing to my work the title of

the housekeeper’s valuable present.

r. abbot.