FIRKI I.Ai KS. 



27 



forefathers sat on their heels around 

 ,i lire made in a little pit in the ground, 

 which made them quite cosy in front, 

 hut very chilly behind, dc.wn to our 

 own times, the tendency has been con 

 tinually to reduce the size of the actual 

 fireplace, until it became a sort of 

 lireclay box in which coal could be 

 raised to an incandescent heat. 



These practical details must needs 

 In- emphasised it the development of 

 the fireplace and its design is to be 

 properly understood. This is especially 

 tine of the design, because the lattei 

 \\.is wholly intluenced by the question 

 ol how to consume the fuel of the 

 moment economically, and in this way 

 was parallel to the broader issues ol 

 architecture, which were evolved out of 

 .1 M-ru-s ol constructional problems over- 

 &amp;lt; oine, one by one, with resulting phases 

 that we now dub Norman, Decorated, 

 or Perpendicular, as the case may be. 

 It is extremely interesting to note how 

 long it took in the case of the design of 

 1 1 replaces to drive into the heads of 

 (lie builders the fact that a grate 

 suitable tor burning logs was utterly ;j 



unsuitable tor coal. As instancing how 

 a detail, started in the first case for a plainly utilitarian 

 architectural feature, an illustration is given of an 



38. HOBS ENCLOSED WITH ARCHED TOP. 



reason, may develop eventually into a recognisable 

 old fireplace of canopied form. The primitive 

 type was undoubtedly a simple timber- 

 framed contrivance cantilevered from 

 the wall on brackets, so placed to 

 catch puffs of smoke from the tin-place 

 under ; as time passed the frame was 

 concealed in stone, and marble came to 

 be the familiar type to be seen in many 

 a French chateau. So the old builders 

 when they came to the fireplace part 

 of their houses did not say. here we will 

 have an ingle-nook, here a dog-grate, 

 here a hob-grate and so on, but titled 

 the type of fire that was in use at the 

 period, with little more emotion than 

 we in our time select a tap for the 

 kitchen sink. They surrounded their 

 fireplaces in a variety of ways, but 

 always appropriately and with regard 

 to their use. Not being very scientific 

 people, they were content to waste a 

 large proportion of the heat generated. 

 That there is no need for us to follow 

 their example is shown by an illustra 

 tion of the dining-room at Heathcote, 

 where Mr. Lutyens has fitted a modern 

 grate into an extremely dignified sur 

 rounding fireplace. The stove, with its 

 encircling marble slabs, looks small, 

 and is perhaps not so satisfactory a 

 centre for the design as an open fire 



