It has already been mentioned that the late Sir J. Risdon Bennett did not think it beneath his dignity to write a prefatory note to a Cookery Book.  He has also pointed out that Cookery is a subject which deserves more attention at the hands of those who have the welfare of temperance at heart.  He believed that a knowledge of wholesome Cookery would do much to make home happy; to keep the men away from dissipation and intemperance; and to make the children healthy and cheerful.  The same idea is expressed by Sylvester, who remarked that Cookery should be most popular, because every individual human being is directly interested in its success.  As he says, the real comfort of the majority of men is sought for in their own homes, and every effort should be made to increase domestic happiness by inducing them to remain at home.  And long, long ago a quaint old book, Markham’s English Housewife, published in 1637, contained the idea in a nutshell, as the following quotation will show:  “To speak, then, of the knowledges which belong to our English housewife, I hold the most principal to be a perfect skill in Cookery.  She that is utterly ignorant therein, may not, by the laws of strict justice, challenge the freedom of marriage—­because, indeed, shee can perform but half her vow—­shee may love and obey, but shee cannot cherish and keepe her husband.”

Opinions such as these are based on the soundest common sense, indeed no one could honestly oppose them.  But it powerfully adds to their weight to find them thoroughly endorsed by the representative medical authority of the British medical journal and the lancet; the former has from time to time insisted upon the self-same truths, and strenuously urged their practical adoption.  These contributions are somewhat too lengthy for complete reproduction, but the views expressed may be briefly referred to.  It was maintained that English people have much to learn from the French methods of Cookery; that these are not merely tasteful and appetising, but that they are extremely economical; that materials which the English housewife throws away as useless, her French sister skilfully converts into toothsome and nutritious food; and that it is only an increased knowledge of Cookery which the poor need to render life more agreeable.

The lancet also, in an admirable article on “Culinary Civilisation,” spoke of the need of women becoming acquainted with the modes of concocting palatable food, if they wished to maintain their domestic power.  It was further pointed out that if the husband was to be prevented from neglecting his family, the wife must see that he had well-cooked food at home.  And lastly, it was tellingly set forth that when women had fully mastered this lesson a step in civilisation would have been gained, which would show in increased health, increased prosperity, and happier domestic hearths.