138 ARCHITECTURE. BOOK I. 



bailiffs, and to inspect himself the general mode in use in the 

 particular part of the country in which they are to be erected. 

 He may then devise improvements and incorporate them with 

 the old plan ; for to alter the style of the internal disposition, 

 or indeed of any useful part, all at once, will not often be agree- 

 able, particularly to that class of mankind. The most impor- 

 tant improvements are such as relate to the construction of 

 fire-places, and the adoption of particular utensils for preparing 

 food. Having attended to and compared most things proposed 

 as improvements in these branches of cottage architecture, as 

 well as made a great many experiments myself on the nature 

 of heat*, I think that I have formed some general conclusions 

 of considerable importance. Here I shall only advise the in- 

 troduction of a mode of constructing a fire-place which will be 

 found to throw out more heat from a given quantity of fuel 

 than perhaps any other hitherto proposed, however intricate 

 in their construction. It is so simple, and so similar to the 

 general form, that I should think no cottager could find any 

 objection to it.. 



Let A (Plate VI. fig. 4.) represent the ground plan of the 

 gable or end in which the fire-place is to be erected. B the 



* Some of which, relating to hot-houses, are noticed in my treatise on that: 

 subject. 



