384 Fundamental Principles of 



receiving a stew-pan or kettle, and narrow at bottom, 

 with holes through its sides near the bottom, for letting 

 in air under a small circular iron grate, and other small 

 holes near the top for letting out the smoke, may be in- 

 troduced with great advantage. By making use of this 

 little portable furnace (which is equally well adapted to 

 burn wood or coals) one eighth part of the fuel will be 

 sufficient for cooking, which would be required were the 

 kettle to be boiled over an open fire. To strengthen 

 this portable furnace, it may be hooped with iron 

 hoops or bound round with strong iron wire ; but I 

 forget that I am anticipating the subject of a future 

 Essay. 



Much good may also be done to the poor by teach- 

 ing them how to prepare various kinds of cheap and 

 wholesome food, and to render them savoury and pala- 

 table. The art of cookery, notwithstanding its infinite 

 importance to mankind, has hitherto been little studied ; 

 and among the more indigent classes of society, where 

 it is most necessary to cultivate it, it seems to have 

 been most neglected. No present that could be made 

 to a poor family could be of more essential service to 

 them than a thin, light stew-pan, with its cover made of 

 wrought or cast iron, and fitted to a portable furnace 

 or close fire-place, constructed to save fuel, with two 

 or three approved receipts for making nourishing and 

 savoury soups and broths at a small expense. 



Such a present might alone be sufficient to relieve 

 a poor family from all their distresses, and make them 

 permanently comfortable ; for the expenses of a poor 

 family for food might, I am persuaded, in most cases 

 be diminished one half, by a proper attention to cook- 

 ery and to the economy of fuel ; and the change in 

 the circumstances of such a family, which would be 



