CHIMNEY-PIECES 



377 



FIG. 302. Chimney-Piece in the Deanery, Wells. 



But to return to the question of fireplaces, and more 

 particularly to the chimney-pieces which surrounded them. The 

 method adopted in William III.'s time of having merely a bold 

 moulding round the opening, tended to establish the practice of 

 having chimney-pieces of one stage in height instead of two. 

 In Jacobean time most of the large chimney-pieces reached from 

 the floor to the ceiling ; so they did in the mid-seventeenth 

 century under Inigo Jones and John Webb, although a few of 

 their designs show one stage only. When the " Designs of 

 Inigo Jones" were published by Kent in 1727, they gave an 

 impetus again to the two-stage type, such as that shown in 



