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Some of the other suggestions made by the committee show a certain lack of touch with realities, in particular a suggestion with regard to girls, outside the scope of the Children Act, but below 17, who have no parents or guardians, or worse than none, and are falling into bad associations or exposed to moral danger. These, it is proposed, should be liable to be treated as juvenile delinquents -a phrase that at present has no precise meaning,—though they have not committed any specific offence. This would be a very remarkable extension of the law; but admittedly the evil is a very great one, and possibly measures could be framed to meet it. But the suggestion that the local education authority should be charged with the duty of enquiring into such cases and bringing them, when required, before the Juvenile Court, suggests—what was not the case-that none of the members of the committee responsible for this report were themselves members of an education authority. Education authorities have many curious duties, some of them very slightly connected with teaching, but to suppose that they would be willing or qualified to be responsible for the morals of young people who may have left school for nearly three years, and to prosecute them in suitable cases, shows a failure to realize obvious facts which is at least surprising.

On the whole, however, there can be no doubt that the report is fully worth the great labour that has been given to its preparation; and it is to be hoped that the legislature may be able to embody most of its suggestions in a properly drafted Act before the march of events diminishes its value. One point at least will probably be made plain by the evidence when it is available. And that is, that all the more important officers who are carrying out their different duties under the present law relating to juvenile offenders are doing so in a way that will commend itself to their countrymen, and with a full knowledge that every part of the law is capable of improvement to an undefinable

extent.

HARRY STEPHEN

ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH COOKERY

I. A Forme of Cury. (circa) 1390.

2.

3.

A Proper Newe Booke of Cokerye. (circa) 1546.

The English Hus-wife. By GERVASE MARKHAM. 1615.

4. Choice and Experimented Receipts compiled by Sir Kenelm Digby, K.C. 1668.

5.

The Compleat Housewife or Accomplish'd Gentlewoman's Companion.
By E. SMITH. 1729.

6. The Cook's Oracle. By WILLIAM KITCHINER, M.D. 1817.

7. The Cook and Housewife's Manual. By Mrs. MARGARET DODS of the Cleikum Inn, St. Ronan's. 1826.

8. The Lady's Country Companion; or How to enjoy a country life rationally. By Mrs. LOUDON. 1845.

9. Margaret Sim's Cookery. 1883.

SEVENTY years ago, English cookery was extremely good,

and it may still be found in out-of-the-way places; but, during the last thirty years, it has been represented chiefly by mass cooking served in cheap restaurants, and consequently its reputation is under a cloud.

The direction taken by the higher education of women in 1850 is partly responsible for the unpopularity of housekeeping and domestic service. It was logical and natural for that education to be modelled on the education of boys in the public schools and at the universities of that day, as this was the best form then to be had in England; but it diverted girls' interests from home-life and occupations. Much water has flowed under London Bridge since then, and as some of us are not even yet satisfied with modern progress it ill befits us to sit in judgment on our forbears. At the same time, facts should not be forgotten, and it is important to remember that our educational ideals were for a very long time purely academic, producing a generation of women who thirty-five years ago openly despised domestic work, and fought for the same opportunities in public life as those enjoyed by men.

It is not the business of this article to discuss the rightness or wrongness of this mental attitude, but it is necessary, in order to understand the present position of English cookery, that it should be clearly stated. One or two more facts are worthy of

note: thirty-five years ago young and old women who cared little for academic distinction began to devote themselves enthusiastically to cycling, tennis, and later on golf; sport gained the ascendancy and occupied a great deal of time; seventy years ago, at the universities, Adam Smith's doctrine that domestic workers are unproductive labourers was still taught; and the application of economic principles to household administration is still an unrealized dream, though there are indications of movement in this direction.

The practical result of these facts is summed up in the following delightful letter which appeared in a daily paper :

THE SERVANT'S SIDE.

Small wonder is it, " W.M.," that " The anguished British housewife " cries ceaselessly to you that she cannot get good maids, however much she pays them! That same housewife forgets that she is also filling your columns with complaints of the ceaseless drudgery of housework.-Domestic.

Whether this be genuine or faked is immaterial; it indicates the mental attitude of working girls during the last twenty years; although for obvious reasons since the war less has been heard of the "dullness of home-life " than in pre-war days. The point is that cookery in England as an occupation lost its popularity for many years because few people realized its possibilities, its economic importance, or its interest and agreeableness as an occupation. These advantages are still to a great extent unrealized though there is a distinct revival of interest in food and the technique of its preparation for the table.

On the other hand, the French cuisine has made rapid progress during the last hundred years, because its merits have been sung in season and out of season, first by Grimrod de Reynière, then by Brillat Savarin, and by many other writers. This has encouraged natural gifts, and produced genius represented by three outstanding names-Carême, Dubois, and Escoffier.

Here, then, we have two interesting examples of psychological influence on national economics: discouragement in England has almost caused the extinction of good English cookery, and has caused it to be replaced by French cookery, which has received every encouragement in foreign lands as well as in its own country. The principal occupation at present in which workers are needed in England is domestic service. But, girls leaving school can

only be induced to enter domestic service if their teachers can whole-heartedly recommend it; and teachers cannot do this unless they realize its interest as an occupation, and also know that the mistresses who engage young servants will give them as good a chance of making progress as they would have in a wellorganized, well-managed, up-to-date factory. The culinary and gastronomic history of the nation, under the circumstances, becomes a topic of general as well as economic interest.

The first record we have of English cookery is "A Forme of Cury," a roll of ancient English cookery said to have been compiled by the master-cooks of Richard II, and to have been undertaken by the assent and avisement of masters of physic and philosophy, that dwelled in his court." It was not prepared exclusively for the royal household, but gave directions "to make common potages and common meates for the household, as they should be made, craftily and wholesomely." It was in the possession of Lord Stafford at the end of the sixteenth century, and was given by him to Queen Elizabeth in the twenty-eighth year of her reign. At one time in the Harleian collection, it was subsequently catalogued and presented to the British Museum, where it is now:-Additional MS. 5016. In the eighteenth century a printed edition, with valuable notes, and a copious. glossary, was brought out by Samuel Pegge, an antiquary, printed in London by J. Nicholls (1780). Warner included it in his Antiquitates Culinaria," printed for R. Blanmire, Strand, London (1791). Mr. Carew Hazlitt gives a brief but interesting account of it in " Old Cookery Books," and says it is well worth studying-as, indeed, it is.

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Another book that will help us in our study of English cookery is " A Proper Newe Booke of Cokerye." The original is a black letter book, undated, once owned by Archbishop Parker, and now in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. It was reprinted in 1913, after it had been edited and provided with a valuable introduction and glossary by Miss Frere. From the point of view of English cookery this book is specially interesting, because it gives several recipes in which flowers form part of the ingredients. There is a tarte of borage flowers, and one of marigolds, or primroses, or cowslips.

Flowers were very much used during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in English cookery: Izaac Walton gives a recipe

for minnow tansy, in which cowslips and primroses appear. Indeed, flowers have a place in cookery up to the middle of the nineteenth century, when our great grandmothers sprinkled rose petals over the fruit of a cherry tart before putting on the crust; whilst their value for making home-made wines has always been recognised. To-day they are again being introduced into salads, soups, etc. Salads have long formed an important part of English dinners. John Evelyn's" Acetaria " is well-known. It is worthy of note that the mixture given for the borage tart is analogous in type to that used for the famous lemon pies of Canada and America, and it is not too much to claim this kind of pie as of English origin. It still survives in both town and country places in the form of old-fashioned cheesecakes, jam tarts; and in some parts of England in the covered apple and bilberry tarts resembling huge mincepies.

Anyhow, in these tarts we have a distinctive form of English cookery, and with them may be mentioned Melton Mowbray pork pies, which are undoubtedly an inheritance from the days when there were no pie dishes and a crust had to be raised to form a "coffyn" to hold the meat, which was packed tightly and seasoned, in some parts of the country with herbs, and in others with raisins. The gravy was poured in afterwards through a hole at the top, as it is to-day. Here we have the old combination of fruit and meat, which survived until recently in our Christmas mincepies, the meat of which gradually lessened as the fruit increased in quantity. Another survival of this type is the Devonshire squab pie, in which apples are still used with layers of fresh mutton and finely chopped onion. Another primitive form of pie may be recognized in Cornish pasties. In short, a whole article could be written on the different English and Scottish pies, which are distinctively national.

But there is a point of interest connected with flowers in English cookery that must not be forgotten: their use indicates a knowledge of the properties of herbs and wild flowers. Here, then, we have two learned sciences, physic and botany, which formed part of our forebears' mental equipment as the administrators of even small establishments; to these we may add simple surgery. And these accomplishments were not exclusive to the lady of the land; every cottage wife was well-up in this lore, and its knowledge lingered on amongst the old women of the village

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