HOME-STOVE AND FENDER.

the King’s House, Southampton ; the Jews’ House, Lincoln, and other edifices of the same, period, containfireplaces and chimneys closely resembling in principle and construction those of the present age. Some of these,as at Conisborough, are ornamented with columns and other decorations. Frequently the only fireplace wasin an upper story; that in the Jews’ House, Lincoln, is immediately over the entrance-door, above whichthe chimney is corbelled out. The flues did not always rise to the roof, but were carried through the wallhorizontally, or in a sloping direction. In the ordinances or assizes, passed in 1189 and 1212 for theregulation of buildings in London , there is no provision for chimneys in party-walls; whence it may beinferred, as some examples prove, that they were carried up the front or rear walls of the gable.

Mr. Turner shows, that in the thirteenth century many chimneys in the royal residences and elsewherewere made of plaster, for the temporary accommodation of the sovereign and his most distinguished guests.The records of the reign of Henry III . contain frequent orders to raise the chimneys; and in some apartmentsbuilt for him the mantels of the fireplaces were constructed of marble, carved or painted with designs ofthe twelve months, or the signs of the zodiac, the wheel of Fortune, the root of Jesse, &c. One mantel inthe Tower of London was painted with a representation of Winter . The permanent flues of this periodwere cylindrical shafts of masonry, rising above the ridge of the roof.

Many examples of plain and ornamented chimneypieces, from the twelfth to the fifteenth century, presenta general similarity of form. In Tattershall Castle, Lincolnshire, are two remarkable examples of the latterdate, adorned with a number of armorial bearings. All of these, however, being for the consumption of wood,had the well-known appendages termed and-irons, or fire-dogs, on which the fuel rested. These and-irons, avariety of which were also used upon the hearth placed in the centre of the hall, were frequently of elaboratedesign, and were richly ornamented with heraldic ornaments, foliage, scroll-work, and monograms; sometimeswith brass or silver work. In Mr. Lower’s account of the extinct iron-works of Sussex, will be found descriptionsand engravings of many and-irons and ornamented chimney-backs, dating from the fifteenth to the seventeenthcentury inclusive.

In the reigns of the Tudors the chimney became an important architectural feature, surmounted by tallshafts of brickwork, no less elaborate in design than in execution; and at the same time the chimneypieceassumed much greater consequence in internal decoration. The sumptuous apartments of the reign of Elizabethpresent many specimens of ornamented chimneypieces, and the taste for them increased under her successor.*Harrison quaintly informs us, that the old men of his village “ did particularly note the multitude of chymneyslatelie erected; whereas in their young daies there were not above two or three, if so manie, in most uplandishtowns of the realme (the religious houses and manour places of their lords alwaies excepted, and peradventuresome great personages), but ech one made his fire against a reredosse in the halle, where he dined anddressed his meate;” and he reproaches the effeminacy of the “tenderlings,” who complain of “ rhumes andcatarrhs,” whereas when they had none but reredosses their heads did never ache.f Sir John Haryngton,about the same period, in his “ Metamorphosis of Ajax,” claims as his own invention the cowl for the cureof smoky chimneys, which their increasing number had rendered necessary.

In the year 1603 the furniture of Hengrave Hall comprised “two payer of andyorones, with heads andforeparts of copper;” “one fier sholve made like a grate to seft the sea cole with;” “one payer of tongues;”together with “one cradell of iron for the chimnye, to borne sea cole with.” The poker was originally afire-fork, adapted both to wood and coal. An iron grate, “caminum ferreum,” was in use for cooking froma very early period; and it may not be superfluous to remark that the term “grate,” applying to the formof the barred or grated object, was in a similar sense used to designate a basket, a basket-maker being styleda “grate-maker” in 1582. The earliest grates for burning coal were moveable, and made to rest upon theolder and-irons. Among the fire-backs engraved by Mr. Lower is one representing Charles II. in the RoyalOak.

As the consumption of coals increased, fixed grates became more frequent in dwelling-houses. Those ofthe eighteenth century were large, inelegant, and unscientific in construction; and the humbler classes of thecommunity were indebted to Count Rumford for the introduction of a cheap and convenient grate, which longbore his name. It would be impossible within our limits to enumerate the improvements, both in principleand execution, which have been made within the last fifty years; nor will it be necessary to those whoremember the admirable variety of grates, stoves, ovens, and ranges, in the Great Exhibition of 1851.

* Iachimo’s description of the chimneypiece and and-irons in the chamber of Imogen is familiar to every reader of Shakspeare.

t “Description of England,” prefixed to Holinshed’s Chronicles, 1587.