were invented. Most of the old
vessels were strong and lasting, and the materials employed in their
construction were iron, copper, and brass. In Fig. 49 we show a
selection of fat boats and hammered iron grease pans (in the centre of
the plate is an old mothering-iron from Sussex) typical of the vessels
used in open fire roasting. To these may be added basting spoons and
skimmers, in many places called "skummers."

Boilers and Kettles.

It is probable that the cooking pot over the fire has been used side by
side with roasting apparatus from the earliest times, although no doubt
vessels would be required for boiling foods before roasting, in that
discoveries show that the earliest method of roasting a piece of meat or
a small animal was to encase it in clay and then expose it to the fire.
The clay crust could then be broken and would, of course, have been
destroyed.

No doubt the crock antedated the bronze pot, which was at first made of
metal plates hammered and beaten into shape, and then riveted together.
This method was followed by the craft of the founder, who cast vessels
after the same model first in bronze and then in iron. The cooking pot
was indispensable when the food of the common people was chiefly such as
necessitated a vessel containing liquid; the name of this ancient vessel
has furnished us with many apt quotations, and it is still the pot so
many find difficult to keep boiling.

There have been many contrivances by which to suspend the pot over the
fire. Years ago the usual method of suspension was from a beam of wood
or a bar of iron placed across the chimney opening--the name by which
the bar was known in the North of England was a "gallybawk." Simple
contrivances of metal followed, the suspension hooks and chains leading
to improved cranes with rack and loop handles.

No doubt many have noticed the apparent indiscriminate use of the term
"kettle"; the tea kettle as we understand it to-day is a modern
invention. The old kettle was a boiling pot with a bail handle, its
modern survivor being the three-legged kettle of the gipsies, and the
boiling pot or fish kettle of the modern household. Associated with the
early use of tea kettles slung over a fire is the now scarce lazy-back
or tilter, at one time common in the West of England and in South Wales.

[Illustration: FIGS. 47, 48.--TWO WOODEN FOOD BOXES.

(_In the Cardiff Museum._)]

[Illustration: FIG. 49.--A COLLECTION OF IRON FAT BOATS AN