a contrivance of the kind above mentioned: it consisted of a glazed screen, or safeguard, of ironwork; the inside of the chimney, where the fireplace was to stand, being a sort of semi-cylinder, or nearly so, with a lining to cover made of metal, and placed at such a distance from the semi-cylindrical wall, or niche, in which the stove is placed, as to afford sufficient room for allowing the safeguard to be slid round into it when the fire is wished to be left open for the reception of fresh fuel, or when the drawer with the ashes is to be removed. The framework of metal, when filled up with glass or wirework, forms a portion of a cylinder, answerable to the curvature of the space between the back of the chimney and the lining above mentioned, made in one or two pieces, and moving in a circular groove in the hearth, which serves to conduct it into its place behind the grate, when the fireplace is required to be left open, as before mentioned. The top of the front of the opening, or chimney-piece, projects in a circular form, or is fitted with a projection of metal, having a circular groove on its under face, of the same radius as the groove in the hearth, for the purpose of guiding the upper part of the frame of the guard. The glass with which the frame of the guard is filled may be stained or painted, which, when the fire is burning, produces a pleasing effect. For nurseries and other rooms, where safety and convenience, rather than elegance, were to be considered, the frame of the screen was to be filled up with wirework.

In 1804, letters patent were granted to Thomas Jowett of London, for fire-guard stove, the contriv ance of which, as regarded the use of a screen to prevent sparks from flying out, was in principle very similar to the preceding invention. Mr. Jowett's stove is an upright cylinder, having the bars at the lower part, and an opening above for the admission of fuel: it is supported upon an iron bar or pedestal, which forms the axis of the stove, and upon which the guard is made to swing or revolve as a centre. This guard, like the

former, is a semi-cylinder of wirework, balanced in its proper situation by means of two arms, or cranks, extending between the guard and the axis of the stove, and which support and direct the screen when brought before the fire, or carry it back to a recess left open for it to traverse behind the stove. It will be obvious that a guard of this description may be applied to almost any form of stove which will admit of corresponding pins or centre pivots being placed above and below for the support of the horizontal cranks. Besides the foregoing, we have seen stoves fitted with a curtain or apron composed of slips of perforated sheet metal, so arranged as to admit of being let down to cover the fire bars, or of being drawn up out of sight under the mantle by the touching of a small knob connected with the machinery, similar to that used in the spring window-blinds. There can be no doubt but each of the above-mentioned defences, as well as others that might be named, affixed to fire-places, would, if constantly attended to, afford security against the greater part of those awful deaths in consequence of the clothes of children and females taking fire, of which every week affords the memorials. But the danger, except in the case of children, is generally so hypothetical and unapparent, and, with ordinary caution, hardly any at all, while the management and the appearance of screens are really unpleasant, - that few persons are willing to sacrifice so much of neatness and comfort as go to the paraphernalia and management of a guarded stove, even for the sake of absolute insurance against being burnt to death.

Within a very recent period a fender has been introduced to the notice of the public, which, combining, as it does, beauty, substantiality, and comparative cheapness, may be said well to merit the general approbation which it has met with. The body or wall of this fender is of cast iron, and may, consequently, not only be made to patterns varying through every gradation of design, from the richest relief to the simplest filigree; but it may also be got up in any degree of expensiveness,

from common black lead to the best appearance of ormolu, verd antique, mosaic, or burnished gold. The most common method, however, of getting up these goods is by bronzing them, as it is called; and in this state, as well as more highly finished, they are ex hibited, in the Sheffield show-rooms, at remarkably low prices.

Connected with the manufacture, as with the use of fenders in most places, may be mentioned the ash-pan, a sort of tray, one end of which passes under the grate, and the other fills the space between the inside of the fender-plate and a line perpendicular from the range, so that this receptacle catches whatever cinders and ashes fall through the grate while the fire is burning. It may appear unnecessary further to allude to a convenience so generally known and possessed; and yet this very simple contrivance exhibits, in a very striking manner, how happily science or art may render valuable tribute to comfort at a trifling expense. In the most superb rooms, and from the very richest grates, cinders and ashes will fall down, and sometimes in such a manner as exceedingly to foul the space withinside the fender; and who does not recollect, especially where the mater domus was noted for cleanliness, having been more or less annoyed by the protracted and noisy operation of a servant with the fire-shovel, while removing the dust and coals from the hearthstone to the coalskip? By means of the tray alluded to, this annoyance is almost entirely obviated; the refuse of the grate falling into the pan is in a minute either carried away or shoved out of sight; and the maid with her dust-cloth now generally enters, and performs her duty, when at all, if not unseen, at least almost unheard. Some of these pans are made with parallel strips of polished steel, overlying one another like the ribs of a Venetian window, so that the ashes fall through and are not seen in the pan. The machine represented below, and called the economical receiver, obtained the approbation of the Society of Arts, as better adapted for the above-men

tioned purpose than the common hearth pan.

It is a

sort of high-backed box, composed of sheet iron, with ornamented front, and covered with a sloping roof of

wirework; so that, on being placed under the fireplace, the ashes, on falling, are riddled or sifted through the grating, while the cinders fall into a receptacle in front, out of which they may be emptied upon the fire. A (fig. 64.) represents the slider by which the ashes are

taken out.

By fire-irons, which it may be proper briefly to mention, the housekeeper and the ironmonger understand a fire-shovel, poker, and pair of tongs. These implements were not all of them found upon the ancient hearths of this country; nor were they all necessary when wood was burned upon a fire-place such as we have before described. In the time of Henry VIII. we find, in the inventory of a respectable housekeeper, that the only accompaniment of the "awnd-irons" was the "fyer forke." In the apartments, however, of the higher classes, the apparatus for trimming the fire were more complete; for instance, in the " perlar" (parlour) of a knight (sir Adrian Foskewe, 30th Hen. VIII.), we find "two large awnd-irons, a fyer forke, a fyer pan, and a payer of tonges." The use of these articles will be apparent. The use of pit coal, and of close fire-places, led to the adoption of the poker now in universal requisition. From a remark by Stowe, elsewhere quoted, to the effect that in the next reign but one began the

making of "steel poking sticks," which were used by laundresses, one might almost be led to suppose that the ancient poker was no sooner made of metal than it was used for the same purpose as our modern Italian irons.

But to return to the fire-irons now commonly in use. These articles, although the indispensable appendages of the stove and the fender, belong, in general, to an entirely separate manufacture. They are made of common iron, of iron case-hardened, of polished steel; and, notwithstanding the misnomer, very frequently of brass. The commonest kinds of these articles are manufactured at and in the neighbourhood of Birmingham, from whence they are distributed to the furnishing ironmongers throughout the country, and by the latter retailed at singularly low prices. These cheap wares sometimes exhibit good proportions, and are ornamented with swells, raised by swaging with bosses, in the manner described in the article on whitesmithery: they are then filed, and afterwards got up at the grinding wheel, with rolling on the stone, and the application of emery and oil, by means of a circular brush. The most expensive description of fire-irons are forged out of good steel, or at least out of a better material than common iron, but in a manner similar to the foregoing; after which, all the swells and ornamented parts are carefully turned at the lathe. They are then, if of iron, casehardened, and subsequently brought to that beautiful polish which some of them bear, by a process analogous to that of finishing razor blades.

The brass articles look very neat when well made, and are easily kept clean; but, as the shanks consist of tubes of brass covering iron rods, and screwed together at the swells, they are liable to get loose and shambling, unless carefully managed by those who have them in charge.

The fire-irons, instead of lying down flat upon the fender, as formerly, are now generally reared upright at each end against two standards, having near their upper