Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-09-10
HISTORYOF THE HEARTH
r.
TRADITIONS WHICH CLUSTER
ROUND THE Logs AND AND1RoNs
Return Of Modern Architecture to the
Hospitable Fireplaces of Col
.onial Times.
From the New York Evening Post,

" Z
| From the New York Evening Post
The fire on the hearth Is one of the Oldest
| of human institutions, and has become
| symbolic of the traditions and associations
| which are dearest to the heart of man.
| The primitive family gathered about the
| single hearthstone of the rude hut and le-
| gends were told; the history of the race
| was preserved, while the unity of the fam
| lily strengthened, and the good fellowship of
| the community was kept alive. To the mod
| ern the thought of the open fire has a two
fold happiness of suggestion; of genial COM
| partnership when the hearth is shared with
others. and of absorbed waking dreams
when he sits alone
| Certain 1t is that by no other means in
doors can the illusion of being in the pres
| ence of nature be so potently preserved as in
watching the fire, and listening to the
moaning and cracking of the logs, driven by
natures most capricious handmaiden to the
final silence of ''ashes to ashes''
Evolution of the Fireplace.
After centuries Of improvement in the
way Of heating houses, down through the
time of the stove. the built-in range steam,
gas and electr1city-the open fireplace has
come PACK INTO favor as a prominent part
| Of the decorative architecture of modern
houses. Even where comfort is supplied by
the steam radiator in one corner of the
room the instinct for the picturesque Is
satisfied by the often elaborately tiled and
manteled fireplace built in the wall
In spite OF the fact that the open fire.
place Is one of the most ancient devices in
history, the upright f1ue for carrying off
smoke is a comparatively recent invention
The original form was a large stone in
the center of the hut, later the hall-on
which the logs were burned, the smoke
passing OUT OF hole in the roof immedi-
ately overhead. Soon the stone was raised
ABOVE the level of the floor, to escape the
strons ana constant draft from under the
door. Later, central flue was brought
GOWN oss , from a mole In the roof. to within a
saIe distance from the flames The black
cell1nss OF some ancient raftered "halls'
are due to this primitive way of "a rrivne off
the smoke. AS late as the middle of the
nineteenth century some Of the Irish meas
ants still lived In huts with the hole in
the roof as described. The College Hall in
Westminster School had one of these raisei
nearenstones IN the middle of the hall until
recent times About the earliest mention of
a fireplace built in the wall with 1nripbt
nue. Is IN an account of a house In the old
Town OF Cluny France in the twelfth CON
Jury An illustration shows low windows
containing small loaded panes of glass dia-
mond shaped, set in swinging sssbes ohoxa
.he aeep window seats on either side of the
hearth BY this arrangement the family
Gouiu look out on the highway while enjoy
Comfort Of the Fireside.
Another fashion for the comfort of the
hresfde was an arrangement of screens. so
paced as to make an antechamber of that
part of the hail containing the hearth. and
WITHIN this Enclosure, protected from
draughts, the family sat about in the long
winter evenings telling and listening to
tales OF ancient valor and wonder In the
thirteenth century the kitchen became a
part or the main house, and was no longer
separate apartment In which whole sheep
and oxen We're roasted Then the fireplace
IN the main hall underwent notifications
and was increased in size to accommodate
the dual purpose Of cooking and heating,
simplicity was combined with massiveness,
ana granite was the material most used
Inc keystone of the arch often had the
family coat-of-arms cut upon It, Some of
the freplaces in the baronial halls of the
middle ages were thirty feet long and ten
feet high ''Ez- - :. F ~
AS late as the sixteenth century the fire
place built I'm the wall and having an ''up-
right fue' was a novelty and occasioned
surprise, In an account of Bolton Hall Lee
land says: zone thynge 1 muche notyd in
the hands of Bolton, how chimneys were
conveyed by tunnels made on the syds of
the walls betWyxt the lights in the hawle,
and by this mean, and by no covers is the
smoke Of the harthe in the hawle wonder
strangely conveyed.
In Elizabeth's Time.
Although SO long in being invented they
became very popular when once introduced.
In the reign of Queen Elizabeth they were
SO highly appreciated that accounts are
found of apologies from host when he
could not supply all his guests with rooms
containing them, and the ladies were often
accommodated in neighboring houses where
this luxury could be given them
The limitations of the knowledge of the
arrangement of draughts made some places
near the fire more desirable than Others
and an old book contains an account of a
gift by Henry VIII of the revenues of a
convent he had confiscated to a person who
placed a chair for him "commodiousiy be-
fore the fire and out of all draughts'
In 1877 Count Rumford, who wrote much
on the subject of sanitary fireplaces, says
in one of his books: 81 never view from q
distance as 1 come into town this black
cloud which hangs over London without
wishing to compute the immense number
of chaldrons of Goals Of which 1t Is COM
posed; for could this be ascertained 1 am
persuaded so striking fact would awaken
the curiosity and excite the establishment
of all ranks of the inhabitants and per-
haps turn their minds to an object of econo-
my to which they have hitherto paid little
attention.
In spite of many modern designs of elah-
crate accessories to the old forms of mantel
and side jambs the more simple the fire.
place is kept the more artistic is the effect
achieved.