rrz. 



HOUSES AND GARDENS 



however, the door is moved down the side wall to the position shown in No. 

 2, the comfort of the fireside is destroyed, while the window at the opposite 

 end of the room is also in a bad position for 

 giving light at the fireplace, and cannot be opened 

 without a direct draught. 



The arrangement No. 3 is also defective, owing 

 to the direct draught from door to fireplace ; while Jf V 

 No. 4 is good, though not so entirely satisfactory as 

 No. i. 



These remarks, of course, presuppose that the 

 room is one where the custom of gathering round 

 the fire may be reasonably implied, and in other 

 apartments the position of the fireplace may be 

 governed to some extent by other considerations. 

 In the specialised dining-room, for instance, the posi- 

 tion of the fireplace should allow for ample space 

 between it and the dining-table ; and in the bedroom, 

 while it is desirable that the fire should be visible . , 

 from the bed, it is not necessary that it should bear 

 any special relation to door or window. As, how- 

 ever, the future uses of a room cannot be foreseen, 

 it is well that wherever possible the fireplace should 

 meet the demands of the sitting-room. 



The construction of the ingle-nook must take 

 us back to that point in the evolution of the fire- If 4. 

 place when the fire had been placed in a recess 

 in the wall, but when that recess was large enough 

 to accommodate not only the fire but those who 

 gathered round it. On the great hearth of stone 

 or brick the burning logs rested, partially supported PLAN> 



by the fire-dogs, with their primitive arrangements 



for cooking, the toothed rack for the spit and the rings for holding 

 pots and pans and the wide oven built in the wall. Cooking in those days 

 had a fine romantic quality, and the hissing of the birds on the spit and 

 the bubbling of the steaming pots added to the homeliness and cheerfulness 

 of the ingle. Those who sat in the wide chimney-corner could, by glancing 

 upwards, see through the swirling smoke a patch of the dark sky, with, 

 perhaps, a star or two. At times, it must be confessed, the wind which 

 howled in the chimney must have driven the smoke into the room, and hail 

 and rain would sometimes fall in miniature fusilades on the fire ; and on a 

 cold and stormy night this constant reminder of the external warfare, these 

 occasional glimpses of the moon, pursued by flying clouds, and the expiring 

 kisses of rain upon the fire, kept the occupant of the ingle-nook constantly in 

 touch with the outside world and constantly conscious of the warmth and 

 comfort of his surroundings. Perhaps the sympathetic reader will realise the 

 spirit of romance which belongs to such a picture of " fire and sleet and 

 H 57 



