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or chafing-dishes.* The reredoss has been so frequently noticed in thisWork, that a repetition here would be unnecessary and tedious. Touch-ing andirons and creepers, we shall transcribe an account from theGentleman’s Magazine for February 1789, by an intelligent writer ofthat time: it forms part (and the only clear and satisfactory part) of along discussion which then took place on these subjects.

“ Andirons are a larger and higher sort of irons, made to support thewood, and have usually long necks, rising up before, to keep the woodfrom falling off into the floor. And creepers are smaller, and lower irons,with short necks, or none at all, which are placed between the andirons,to keep the ends of the wood and the brands from the hearth, that thefire may burn more freely. But the superior dignity of the andironsdemands an enlargement upon their history; and being myself master ofseveral different pairs, I think myself qualified to undertake the office oftheir historiographer.

“ Now, there being in a large house a variety of rooms, of varioussizes, and for various purposes, the sizes and forms of the andironsmust reasonably be supposed to be various. In the kitchen, wherelarge fires are made, and large pieces of wood laid on, the andirons inconsequence are proportionably large and strong, but usually plain, orwith very little ornament. In the great hall, that ancient seat of

* In an inventory of effects belonging to Henry VIII. , in the Tower, taken after his death,is the following entry:

“ Item, twoo rounde paunes of iron, made six square gratewise, being upon wheales, tomake fire in.” (Vessels for conveying fire from one room to another.) The same article occursin the “ Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VIII .” where we find the price of two in 1531 was41. 13s. Ad.—Retrospective Review, Second Series, vol. i. p. 133.