Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/736

 712 COTTAGE, FAIJM, AND VILLA ARCHITECTURE. on their outsides, they have two deep grooves, that form a kind of handle for taking hold of them. When they are fixed 'in their places, their joinings with the doorway into which they are fitted are made tight by filling up the crevices with moist clay. The flues are cleaned by means of a strong cylindrical brush, made of hog's bristles, fixed to a long flexible handle of twisted iron wire. The open chimney fireplace was constructed in order that an open fire might be made on its hearth (which, as appears by the plan, was on a level with, or was a continuation of, the top or upper surface of the mass of brickwork in which the boilers wei'e set), should any such fire be wanted ; but the fact s, that, although this kitchen had been in daily use more than five years when Count Rumford wrote, it had not yet been found necessary to light a fire in this place. When any thing is to be fried or broiled, the cook finds it very convenient to perform these processes of cookery over the two large stoves that are placed in the front of this open fireplace ; as the disagreeable vapour that rises from the frying-pan, or from the gridiron, goes off immediately by the open chimney : and these stoves serve likewise occasionally for warming heaters for ironing, and also for burning wood to obtain live embers for warming beds, or for keeping up a small fire for boiling a tea-kettle, or for warming any thing that is wanted in the family. When this fire is not wanted, the register in the ash-pit door is nearly closed ; and the top of the stove is covered with a fit cover of earthen- ware, by which means the fire is kept alive for a great length of time, almost without any consumption of fuel ; and may, at any time, be revived, and made to burn briskly in less than half a minute, merely by admitting a larger current of fresh air. Near the right hand corner of the room may be seen a front view of one large roaster, and part of the front view of a smaller one, situated by the side of it ; both with their separate fire- place doors. The fireplace door of the larger roaster, as also both its blowpipes, are represented as being open ; but the ash-pit door of this roaster is hid by the mass of brickwork in which the boilers are set. The convenience, in a family, of being able to have a brisk fire in the kitchen in a moment, when wanted, and to check the combustion in an instant, without extinguishing the fire, and without even cooling the fireplace, when the fire is no longer wanted, can hardly be conceived by those who have not been used tc any other methods of making and keeping up kitchen fires than those commonly used in the kitchens in Great Britain. Fig. 1355 shows a front view, or, mo:e strictly spe-kiug, an elevation, of the kitchen. In this plan, the ash-pit doors, with their registers, are distinctly seen ; and also the ends of the earthen stoppers, which close the openings into the fireplaces of four of the principal boilers. The covers of the principal boilers, as also of several of the stewpans, are seen above the level of the upper surface of the mass of brickwork. The height of this mass of brickwork, a b, measured from the floor or pavement of the kitchen, is just three feet. Fig. 1 356 shows a horizontal section of the mass of brickwork, in which the boilers, &c., are set, taken at the level of the horizontal flues that carry off the smoke from the boilers, stewpans, and saucepans into the vertical flues, which convey it into the chim- ney. The smoke from three of the principal boilers, situated on the left hand, is carried