Of Chimney Fireplaces. 56 1 



to bring down the throat of the chimney nearer to the fire, 

 when it happens to be situated too high. 



This I have not only recommended in my Essay on 

 Chimney Fireplaces, but have given the most particular 

 directions how it is to be done (see page 531), and, to 

 mark the importance of the object still more strongly, 

 have accompanied those directions by an engraving. 



It is indeed a very important point, that the throat 

 of the chimney should be near the fire, and it should 

 always be carefully attended to. It is likewise very im- 

 portant to " round off the breast of the chimney" though 

 this, I find, is very often entirely neglected, even by 

 workmen who have had much practice in the construc- 

 tion of the fireplaces I have recommended. 



The breast of a chimney should always be rounded 

 off in the neatest manner possible, beginning from the 

 very front of the lower part of the mantle, and ending 

 at the narrowest part of the throat of the chimney, 

 where the breast ends in the front part of the perpen- 

 dicular canal of the chimney. If the under surface of 

 the mantle is flat and wide, it will be impossible to 

 round off the breast properly ; and that circumstance 

 alone renders it indispensably necessary, in those cases, 

 to alter the mantle, or to run under it a thinner piece of 

 stone, or a thin wall of bricks, supported on an iron 

 bar, in order that the breast of the chimney may be 

 brought to be of the proper form, and the throat of the 

 chimney may be brought into its proper situation. 



If the under side of the mantle be left broad and flat, 

 it is easy to perceive that the cloud of dust or light 

 ashes that rises from a coal fire nearly burned out when 

 it is violently stirred about with a poker, striking per- 

 pendicularly against this flat part of it, must unavoid- 



VOL. II. 36 



