(We have received a short note on the Hostel at The Old Rectory, Bath-wick Hill, Bath, from the Superintendent there. The Hostel was opened last January and promises very well.)
The Old Rectory is for training high-grade mentally defective girls for domestic service; though in the short time they have been here we have found those girls who have been steadily improving in character in an institution and are good plodding workers are the ones that fit in most readily and easily. If after some months they prove capable enough (and suitable situations can be found for them) they go out to daily work and return here at night, until they are considered fit for permanent situations. The first girls came on January 20th of this year; the Hostel is not yet full, for the Committee find it inadvisable to admit more than two or, at the most, three girls at a time.
There has been so far a greater demand for house-parlourmaids than any-thing else?but I think there is no doubt that we shall find that it will be much easier to place those who have had a little general knowledge and experience of work all round in cooking, house-parlourmaid's work, laundry, neat sewing and even gardening. J. Hammond.