SOLON ROBINSON, 1851 499 



A Farmer's Kitcken of Old Times in New England. 



[New York American Agriculturist, 10:298-99; Oct., 1851] 



[August ?, 1851] 



A PICTURE of one of these scenes of comfort has lately 

 fallen under my observation. What can be more cheerful 

 and pleasant than the view of a farmer's kitchen, taken 

 during the evening meal of a cool autumn day. It is a 

 picture of the calm happiness of rural life. 



The kitchen of the old farm house of New England is 

 not the scullery, or mere cooking place of some modern 

 houses — a dirty hole or comfortless out room, or sort of 

 human bake oven where the cook is almost as much 

 cooked as the food. No, it is a room perhaps 24 feet long 

 and 16 wide, well lighted, warm, neat, and every way 

 comfortable. Upon one side, there is a fireplace large 

 enough to roast a whole ox, in which a great fire of logs 

 sends up a cheerful blaze, lighting up the whole room so 

 its brightness might be seen through the great uncur- 

 tained windows like a beacon light to the traveller as he 

 comes down the slope of yonder hill two miles away, and 

 makes him involuntarily thank God in anticipation, for 

 the good things spread out upon the great table standing 

 between the window and the fire. 



Let us take note of this old-fashioned meal. At the 

 head of the table sits a matron of some 60 summers — 

 though in appearance there is nothing of the winter of 

 old age about her — her dress is a gown of homespun wor- 

 sted, well fortified with flannels from the same manufac- 

 tory, that bid defiance to the autumn winds of a rigorous 

 climate. She wears a cap on the head, and shoes, and 

 stockings upon the feet that were made in pursuance of 

 the best medical recipe ever written — "Keep the head cool 

 and the feet dry and warm" — for the stockings are the 

 product of busy fingers at idle moments with many house- 

 wives, and the shoes of stout leather, were made for serv- 

 ice, and the cap is a mere ornament — a snow wreath 

 among raven locks — and her face is the indication of 

 health and happiness. Upon her right hand, sits the 



