CHAPTER III 



THE COTTAGE FIRESIDE 



The home life of farm and cottage, then as now, settled 

 round the fireside. 



Wide and deep were the old fireplaces, burning great logs 

 of oak and awkward-shaped pieces split out of butts and 

 roots. 



A heavy oaken beam stretched over the opening, within 

 which hung a little curtain of cotton print or of red moreen. 

 This helped the draught by lowering the opening, while it 

 was but a slight impediment to the head-room. 



There were small niches in the wall, within hand-reach 

 of the ingle-nook seats, made 

 by leaving out two half- bricks, 

 one above the other, in two 

 adjoining courses ; so form- 

 ing a handy receptacle for a 

 pipe. The old clay pipes had Clay Pipes 



smaller bowls than those of 

 the present day, and the bowl was set on at an obtuser angle. 



The simpler cottages had a chimney-bar or pot-hook 

 pole, generally made of chestnut, and fixed across the 

 chimney about six feet above the hearth, and hangers to 

 hold the great iron pot. 



Some of the older farm kitchens had that capital con- 

 trivance, the chimney-crane. The best of these, of which a 

 good example is shown, show use and beauty happily com- 



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