Fire-places and Kitchen Utensils. 205 



as appears by the plan, is on a level with or is a con- 

 tinuation of the top or upper surface of the mass of 

 brick-work in which the boilers are set), should any 

 such fire be wanted ; but the fact is that, although this 

 kitchen has been in daily use more than five years, it 

 has not yet been found necessary to light a fire in this 

 place. When any thing is to be fried or broiled, the 

 cook finds it very convenient to perform these processes 

 of cookery over the two large stoves that are placed 

 in the front of this open fire-place, as the disagreeable 

 vapour that rises from the frying-pan or from the grid- 

 iron goes off immediately by the open chimney ; and 

 these stoves serve likewise occasionally for warming 

 heaters for ironing, and also for burning wood to obtain 

 live coals for warming beds, or for keeping up a small 

 fire for boiling a tea-kettle, or for warming any thing 

 that is wanted in the family. When this fire is not 

 wanted, the register in the ash-pit door is nearly closed, 

 and the top of the stove is covered with a fit cover of 

 earthen-ware, by which means the fire is kept alive for a 

 great length of time, almost without any consumption 

 of fuel ; and may at any time be revived and made to 

 burn briskly in less than half a minute, merely by 

 admitting a larger current of fresh air. 



The convenience in a family of being able to have 

 a brisk fire in the kitchen in a moment, when wanted, 

 and to check the combustion in an instant, without 

 extinguishing the fire, and without even cooling the 

 fire-place, when the fire is no longer wanted, can hardly 

 be conceived by those who have not been used to any 

 other methods of making and keeping up kitchen fires 

 than those commonly used in the kitchens in Great 

 Britain. 



