Editing Enquire Within upon Everything (section)

== Topics ==
The book was created with the intention of providing [[Encyclopaedia|encyclopedic]] information on topics as diverse as [[etiquette]], [[parlour games]], [[cake]] recipes, [[laundry]] tips, [[holiday]] preparation, and [[first aid]]:<ref name="Culshaw">{{cite web |url=http://www.geoffsgenealogy.co.uk/articles/enquirewithin.htm |title=Article: Enquire Within Upon Everything |last=Culshaw |first=Geoff |date=September 2004 |work=Shropshire Family History Society Journal |pages=118–120 |access-date=7 January 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070916151135/http://www.geoffsgenealogy.co.uk/articles/enquirewithin.htm |archive-date=16 September 2007}}</ref> To quote from the editor's introduction:

{{blockquote|<poem>Whether You Wish to Model a Flower in Wax;
to Study the Rules of Etiquette;
to Serve a Relish for Breakfast or Supper;
to Plan a Dinner for a Large Party or a Small One;
to Cure a Headache;
to Make a Will;
to Get Married;
to Bury a Relative;
Whatever You May Wish to Do, Make, or to Enjoy,
Provided Your Desire has Relation to the Necessities of Domestic Life,
I Hope You will not Fail to "Enquire Within."</poem>}}

Though not rich in such material, ''Enquire Within'' also provided the basics of an English-usage [[style guide]], and also preserved examples of regional dialect usage (which it tended to mock as faulty).  Several editions between the 1880s and 1910s provide one of the only surviving records of the rules of the English version of [[trucco]], a somewhat [[croquet]]-like form of [[ground billiards]].  Though some attempt was made to group related topics, in general the organization was chaotic, and required looking up topics in an index, then finding their numbered sections in the main text.