In the Peabody Institute at Danvers, Mass. A good example in marble, but the two canker worms 

 trying to crawl up the sides detract somewhat from the dignity of the composition 



CHAPTER VII 



FIREPLACES, CHIMNEYS AND FIREPROOFING 



T IS a far call from the primitive open fire to a modern fireplace. 

 There is but a slight difference, however, between the fireplace 

 of to-day and that of the Middle Ages. In other words, the 

 development, having reached at a certain point a high measure 

 of fitness to the necessities of the situation, practically ceased 

 thenceforward. 



We can still see, in the huts or wigwams of the savage, the 

 raised hearth which primitive man built in the centre of his abode. The smoke 

 from this escaped through a hole in the roof, or even through any adjacent 

 door or window. During the Middle Ages the hearth was set against the wall and 

 a projecting hood of brick or stone built above it to carry ofF the smoke. This 

 was an approach to a safer and more useful fireplace, and the hood was used for 

 a considerable period. 



Gradually the fireplace was built with two flanking jambs, which supported 

 the hood or breast, and thus the main principles of the present form of fireplace 

 were evolved. The hood was later abandoned and the straight chimney breast 

 adopted. Notable examples of this treatment are those of the Chateau Blois. As 

 the armorial bearing was a prominent feature of decoration in those times, 

 their use in the treatment of the fire breast became common, and the already 

 important fireplace became the central and chief feature of the room. At a later 



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