Ayrshire Soup.

4 lbs. of lean beef.
2 lbs. of marrow-bones well cracked.
2 onions.
2 turnips.
3 stalks of celery.
Bunch of sweet herbs.
6 large potatoes.
½ cup of oatmeal.
Pepper and salt.
6 quarts of cold water.

Chop the vegetables and herbs; cut the meat fine, and break up the bones. Put the oatmeal to soak in a pint of water. Slice the potatoes, and parboil them in hot water for ten minutes. Add them then to the other vegetables, and put them all, with the meat and bones, into a soup-pot, with the water. Stew for four hours, until the liquor in the pot has fallen one-third. Strain through a colander, set aside two quarts of the stock until to-morrow, after seasoning it all, and return the rest to the fire. Boil up and skim; add the oatmeal, and stew, covered, forty minutes, stirring often, lest it should burn.