Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/467

 and Sentiments. 447 fufpended ; as the gallows turned upon hinges, the pot could be moved over the fire, or from it, at pleafure, without being taken from the hook, and as the crooks, of w^hich there were ufually more than one, were of different lengths, the pot might be placed lower to the fire or higher from it, at will. From the rharaaer of fome of thefe adjunfts to the fireplace, it is evident that the hall fire was frequently ufed for cooking. The fixteenth century was the period at which ornamentation was carried to a very high degree in every defcription of houfehold utenfil, and to judge from the valuation of fome of thefe articles in the inventories, they were no doubt of elegant or elaborate work. Numerous examples of ornamental ironwork, fpecially applied to fire-dogs or andirons, will be found in Mr. M. A. Lower's interefting paper on the ironworks of Suffex; and many others, ftill more elaborate, are preferved in fome of our old gentlemen's houfes in ditierent parts of the country; but this ornamentation was carried to a far higher degree in the great manu- fa6tories on the continent, from whence our countrymen in the fixteenth and feventeenth centuries obtained a large portion of their richer furni- ture. The figure in the middle of the group of fire-irons reprelented in our cut No. 280, is an example of a fire-dog of this elaborate defcription, preferved in the colleftion of count Bran- caleoni, in Paris, whence alfo the other articles in the cut are taken. Moll: of them explain themfelves ; the implement to the right is a fomewhat fingularly formed pair of tongs; that immediately beneath the fire-dog is an infi;rument for moving the logs of wood which then ferved as fuel. As a further example of the remarkable manner in which almofi: every domeftic article was at this period adorned, we may point out a box-iron, for ironing linen, 8cc. (cut No. 281), which is alfo preferved in one of the French colleftions; fuch an article was of courfe not made to be expofed to the a6tion of the fire, and this circumftance gave rife to the contrivance No. 281. A Box-iron., Sixteenth Century.