d be laid to soak in another tub, in a liquor composed of
1/2 lb. of unslaked lime to every 6 quarts of water which has been
boiled for two hours, then left to settle, and strained off when clear.
Each article should be rinsed in this liquor to wet it thoroughly, and
left to soak till the morning, just covered by it when the things are
pressed together. Coppers and boilers should now be filled, and the
fires laid ready to light.

2377. Early on the following morning the fires should be lighted, and as
soon as hot water can be procured, washing commenced; the sheets and
body-linen being wanted to whiten in the morning, should be taken first;
each article being removed in succession from the lye in which it has
been soaking, rinsed, rubbed, and wrung, and laid aside until the tub is
empty, when the foul water is drawn off. The tub should be again filled
with luke-warm water, about 80 deg., in which the articles should again be
plunged, and each gone over carefully with soap, and rubbed. Novices in
the art sometimes rub the linen against the skin; more experienced
washerwomen rub one linen surface against the other, which saves their
hands, and enables them to continue their labour much longer, besides
economizing time, two parts being thus cleaned at once.

2378. After this first washing, the linen should be put into a second
water as hot as the hand can bear, and again rubbed over in every part,
examining every part for spots not yet moved, which require to be again
soaped over and rubbed till thoroughly clean; then rinsed and wrung, the
larger and stronger articles by two of the women; the smaller and more
delicate articles requiring gentler treatment.

2379. In order to remove every particle of soap, and produce a good
colour, they should now be placed, and boiled for about an hour and a
half in the copper, in which soda, in the proportion of a teaspoonful to
every two gallons of water, has been dissolved. Some very careful
laundresses put the linen into a canvas bag to protect it from the scum
and the sides of the copper. When taken out, it should again be rinsed,
first in clean hot water, and then in abundance of cold water slightly
tinged with fig-blue, and again wrung dry. It should now be removed from
the washing-house and hung up to dry or spread out to bleach, if there
are conveniences for it; and the earlier in the day this is done, the
clearer and whiter will be the linen.

2380. Coloured muslins, cottons,