Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/721

 I'lNlSHING OF COUNTRY INNS. t)97 ^^ at m m. When the second description of rising cupboard 1329 is used, it is necessarj' to have one for each floor ; but tlie former kind may serve all the floors of a house, openings being made at the proper height in each floor, for a person to put in his hands in order to take out, or to put in, articles, and to move the cord either upwards or down- wards, as may be required. The second mode is much the most convenient for large inns; but the first is sufficient for small ones. One of the cupboards, in fig. 1328, is sup- posed to contain the principal dishes of a single course ; and while the other is at the bottom, ready to receive the dishes of the second course from the kitchen, it is at the side- board in the dining-room, or in any other convenient place near it, for receiving and takino- down the empty dishes. Fig. 1327 may be seen in action at the shop of Mr. Rope, Con- fectioner, in Lamb's Conduit Street; and fig. 1328, adapted both to the ground floor and the first floor, at the Albion Tavern, Drury Lane Theatre. The latter was constructed by Mr. Argent, Bricklayer and Carpenter, Seabright Place, Hackney Road, and is found to save a great deal of labour in carrying the dishes up and down stairs, besides keeping the articles hot. Indeed, by having a cast-iron plate, heated by steam, at the bottom of each trunk, it may be rendered a hot closet, for all its length ; and, when the apparatus of the rising cupboard is not used, it might serve for conveying heat from the kitchen to the upper rooms. In some inns the cupboard is raised or lowered at pleasure by a cord and pulley, operated on by a rack and pinion in the kitchen ; orders being given by the waiter above through a speaking-tube, and attention being directed to the tube by the waiter in the bar or upper room first ringing a bell. In some eating- houses, in London, the tube is circular, and about a foot in diameter, that size being suflScient for sending up dinners for individuals in two or three covers placed one over another ; but in inns where large parties are given, the tubes are two or three feet square, and the boxes, which move up and down in them, are fitted up with shelves, and may be kept perfectly hot by a vessel of hot water or an iron heater being placed in the lowest shelf. The tubes in which these boxes move are generally formed alongside the staircase. In some private houses in Russia, for example, at Astankina, near Moscow, there is, or was, when we saw it, in 1814, a contrivance for the descent and return of the entire dining-table to and from the kitchen ; the dining-table, in this case, being sur- rounded by a fixed margin, on which the wine was kept. This also can, however, be seldom wanted in a country inn, where the kitchen may almost always be on the same floor with the principal dining-rooms. A horizontal tube, or hot tunnel, with grooves for a small cai-riage like a railway waggon, to be drawn from one end to the other by cords, one at each end, for conveying the dinner from the kitchen to a distant part of the house, may possibly, in some cases, be wanted, and could easily be constructed along the side of a straight passage^ 1458. Among the Fixtures of the Bar may be included a folding register grate, which costs, in London, £1 : Is., and is one of the best things of the kind in use either for a bar, a library, or any other room where valuable papers are kept ; or for a sick-room, or nursery, or even for common bed-rooms, where the expense is not an object. The doors of this stove are in two parts, the upper and the lower ; and each part consists of four divisions, which are hinged to each other, and fold back so as to present the appearance of fig. 1 330 when not in use. When it is desired to blow the fire, after being newly lighted, or if it gets low, the upper half of the doors may be shut, as in fig. 1331. On the other hand, when the fire burns too rapidly, or it is not wanted, the lower doors may be shut; which, by excluding the draught of air through, the fuel, wiU prevent combustion. On leaving the room at any time, or on retiring to 1330 1331