Soyer's Culinary Campaign: Being Historical Reminiscences of the Late War.: With The Plain Art of Cookery for Military and Civil Institutions

never dream; besides, our lives are more in danger here in the hospital than in the open air. The observation I made to the Minister-at-War, respecting the camp, was this,--that unless I could invent a cooking apparatus for the army to supersede the tin kettles I had seen at Chobham, it would be useless to attempt to teach the men to cook. An officer who happened to be present observed, ‘You’re right. Monsieur Soyer; they appear very unfit for a heavy company.--I have remarked that myself.’ By-the-bye, have you seen the French canteens--_marmites_, as they call them? They are very superior, and much larger than ours, besides being made of better metal. One soldier is, however, required to cook for every sixteen men with them, and they present the same difficulty with respect to open-air cooking.[11] This is especially the case on a long march--while those stoves, the model of which I had submitted to the War Office, were quite free from any such inconvenience.” “They will be ordered,” said Mr. Milton, “as soon as they are approved of by the Crimean authorities.” “I am glad to hear you say so; but my greatest anxiety now, Mr. Milton, is to see the new purveyor-in-chief, and have a fair understanding with him, so that during my absence he may not undo what you and I have so successfully commenced.” “You may depend upon it that I shall advise him for the best on that subject,” said Mr. Milton. The evening was spent cheerfully at Doctor Macgregor’s. The American clock upon the doctor’s chimney-piece deceived his guests, if not the doctor, who was at once good-natured, amiable, and uncommonly fond of anecdote, and, like a true Scotchman, professed an immense deal of veneration of, and attachment to, his whisky-toddy. “The day,” he used to say, “is for manual labour, the evening for comfort and sociality; but, alas! in my case, night and day are the same--I may be called at any hour; therefore, the longer you favour me with your company, my friends, the better I shall like it, you may depend.”