Detail from Mary Dudgeon's housekeeping book, 1752-1755 [Adv.MS.2.1.9].
Full page from the book
This detail from Mary Dudgeon's housekeeping book, written on 2 August 1753, shows culinary items which are still popular in homes today. Items listed include:
- A dozen lemons
- Sugar loaf
- Loaves of bread
- Two dozen eggs
- A pound of beef.
Historic Scottish measurements such as 'a peck' of barley also feature in Mary's housekeeping book. A peck was about two imperial dry gallons.
Mary was housekeeper to the lawyer James Erskine, Lord Alva. Her accounts relate to expenditure for both their Edinburgh townhouse and their country house at Alva in Stirlingshire.