common Method of cleaning Plate._

First wash it well with soap and warm water; when perfectly dry, mix
together a little whitening and sweet oil, so as to make a soft paste;
then take a piece of flannel, rub it on the plate; then with a leather,
and plenty of dry whitening, rub it clean off again; then, with a clean
leather and a brush, finish it.

_Varnish for Oil Paintings._

According to the number of your pictures, take the whites of the same
number of eggs, and an equal number of pieces of sugar candy, the size
of a hazel nut, dissolved, and mix it with a tea-spoonful of brandy;
beat the whites of your eggs to a froth, and let it settle; take the
clear, put it to your brandy and sugar, mix them well together, and
varnish over your pictures with it.

This is much better than any other varnish, as it is easily washed off
when your pictures want cleaning again.

_Method of cleaning Paper-Hangings._

Cut into eight half quarters a quartern loaf, two days old; it must
neither be newer nor staler. With one of these pieces, after having
blown off all the dust from the paper to be cleaned, by the means of a
good pair of bellows, begin at the top of the room, holding the crust in
the hand, and wiping lightly downward with the crumb, about half a yard
at each stroke, till the upper part of the hangings is completely
cleaned all round. Then go round again, with the like sweeping stroke
downwards, always commencing each successive course a little higher than
the upper stroke had extended, till the bottom be finished. This
operation, if carefully performed, will frequently make very old paper
look almost equal to new.

Great caution must be used not by any means to rub the paper hard, nor
to attempt cleaning it the cross, or horizontal way. The dirty part of
the bread, too, must be each time cut away, and the pieces renewed as
soon as it may become necessary.

_To make_ WOODEN _Stairs have the appearance of_ STONE.

Paint the stairs, step by step, with white paint, mixed with strong
drying oil. Strew it thick with silver sand.

It ought to be thoroughly dry next morning, when the loose sand is to be
swept off. The painting and sanding is to be repeated, and when dry, the
surface is to be done over with pipe-clay, whiting, and water; which may
be boiled in an old saucepan, and laid on with a bit of flannel, not too
thick, otherwise it will be apt to scale off.

A penny cake of pipe-clay, which must be scraped