Believe me, very truly yours,
W. Peel, Lieut.-Col.,
Commanding 11th Hussars.
Scutari, August 11th, 1856.
My dear Sir,—The department to which I belong having been broken up consequent on the return of the English army from the East, I hope you will allow me, before I leave this country, to express to you the obligation I feel for your invaluable services in the hospitals here and at Kululee. To the important information and improvements which from the first you brought to bear upon the culinary department at each hospital, have the sick been indebted for much of the comforts they enjoyed when in hospital; nothing does tend to console a patient, or to restore him, so much as the nicety of the food which is given him: on the other hand, the badly-cooked food which is so often found in hospitals where the cooks have not been trained, retard no doubt the convalescence of the sick, the patient rather turning from his meal than desiring it. It was not so, however, with the hospitals here from the time you commenced your improvements in the kitchens.
I could not, for myself, have desired anything better than the meals which, through your management, were furnished daily to the patients. I think the general management of the kitchen has been admirable, and, considering the vast numbers which had to be cooked for, in every way successful. I believe your system introduced into the general hospitals of the army generally, would be attended with incalculable advantage in every way, to the sick as well as the convalescents, and, I have no doubt, with much economy.
You are aware how much pleasure it gave me to see the working of your excellent field-kitchens at the First Division, when I visited the Crimea in September last on duty. So much was I struck with their excellence, and the little expense attending them, that I addressed a letter to Sir Benjamin Hawes on the subject at the time, suggesting the propriety of at once introducing them into the hospitals in the front, where I believe they were very much wanted. I can only hope that ere long not a regiment in the service will be without them; and I am sure that will be the wish of all who have seen them in operation.
Wishing you a happy return to England, where you left your family and friends with the patriotic and humane object of rendering your gratuitous services to the army in the East at a time when so much suffering was endured by the soldiers both in hospital and in the field, and with my thanks for your valuable assistance to my department,
Believe me to be, yours very sincerely,
T. Scott Robertson,
Purveyor-in-Chief.
To Monsieur Soyer.
Malta, September 8th, 1856.
Sir,—In reply to your letter requesting me to give you my opinion on the subject of your military cooking stove, I now beg to give you the opinion I have formed of them.