Dear Lisa,

I thought you might be interested in this illustration and passage from a book I have just finished reading, called The Victorian House, by Judith Flanders. It is amusing to read how differently raw milk was regarded by our ancestors 150 years ago! (I don’t know if you can see this, but in the background, just to the right of the tree, stands a mother and child, and behind them against the fence is a tethered cow ready for milking.)

Sara R.

“Sometimes a milkman drove a cow through the suburbs, drawing milk at the door, right into the customers’ jug, to prove that no adulteration was taking place – although this did not prevent the less scrupulous dairymen from ensuring that their cows drank huge quantities of water before setting out. Until the 1880s there was a cow in St. James Park to supply milk on demand for nurses and children out for their daily walks.”