The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-03-06 00:00:00

THE YORK SCHOOL OF COOKERY.

Mr. Buckmaster recently visited the above school and ex-
pressed himself well pleased with its order aud progress.
In the course of his remarks on the subject of cookery he
said:—

The condition in which we find natural substances
is one not favourable to digestion. If we were com-
pelled to live on uncooked food we shou'd all perish
with hunger. The earliest dawn of civilization is
always distinguished by some kind of cooking. Man
soon learns that by the application of heat he
he can make his food more savoury and iniire easily
digested, and therefore better suited to the-purposes
of healthy nutrition. The cultivation of the earth
and cooking of food are the arts of civilized
people, and the history of cooking is the history of our
manners and civilization. Our health, morality,
social life, and prayers of endurance depend very much
on our food, and if it be a Christian duty to cultivate
the earth and make it bring forth food both for man
and beast, it is equally 'a Christian duty to make that
food enjoyable and wholesoine by good cooking. I want
you young ladies to elevate the art of cooking into a
Christip duty, and make it a part of your education ;
so that you may in time be able, if you have the leisure
and inclination, to go into girls' schools and the homes
of the poor, and with such things as you can
find make the best of the materials at your disposal.
I also want you to learn and teach something of the
true nature of focd; and I am glad to see that in con-
nection with this school ladies give familiar lessons on
health and sanitary questions. We may talk and
legislate and appoint inspectors; but so long as people
prefer dirt to cleanliness and drink to food, and who
know nothing and don't care to know anything of those
processes and conditions or laws which God has ordered
as the condition of health, and without health there
can be no happiness, so long as this ignorance and the
prejudices which flow from It exist, all efforts ex
cept teaching will be comparatively useless. A. hun-
dred pounds spent in this school in teaching will
do more permanent good than a thousand pounds spent
on legislation. No law can prevent people from eating
improper and unwholesome food, or accumulating
heaps of filth in the dark corners of rooms, or compel
them to open their windows, or wash their bodies.
Nothing but knowledge or a better education in com-
mon things will ever bring about these desirable results.
It is for these and many other reasons that I am most
anxious about the education of girls. The future of
this country depends on their education. Every girls'
school should have a kitchen, with such appliances
as they would be likely to have in their own homes,
and every young lady should be able to pre-
pare from first to last a nice little dinner. It is a
source of gratification for me to hear of the continued
success of your school. The ladies with whom I have
spoken appear rightly impressed with the importance
of the subject. The history of every good work is the
history of a few pure devoted persons, often ladies, work-
ing with a singleminded purpose for the good of others
and you cannot teach or do good to others without at
the same time doing good to yourselves. At the con-
clusion of his remarks the ladies thanked Mr. Buck-
master, and proceeded with their cooking.