its business; but they have not the slightest idea of the meaning or the
beauty of such things as hobs, and hearths, and Christmas blazes; and we
should, therefore, expect, _à priori_, that there would be no soul in
their chimneys; that they would have no practiced substantial air about
them; that they would, in short, be as awkward and as much in the way,
as individuals of the human race are, when they don't know what to do
with themselves, or what they were created for. But in England, sweet
carbonaceous England, we flatter ourselves we _do_ know something about
fire, and smoke too, or our eyes have strangely deceived us; and, from
the whole comfortable character and fireside disposition of the nation,
we should conjecture that the architecture of the chimney would be
understood, both as a matter of taste and as a matter of comfort, to the
_ne plus ultra_ of perfection. Let us see how far our expectations are
realized.

67. Fig. 7, _a_, _b_ and _c_ are English chimneys. They are
distinguishable, we think, at a glance, from all the rest, by a
downright serviceableness of appearance, a substantial, unaffected,
decent, and chimney-like deportment, in the contemplation of which we
experience infinite pleasure and edification, particularly as it seems
to us to be strongly contrasted with an appearance, in all the other
chimneys, of an indefinable something, only to be expressed by the
interesting word "humbug." Fig. _7 a_ is a chimney of Cumberland, and
the north of Lancashire. It is, as may be seen at a glance, only
applicable at the extremity of the roof, and requires a bent flue. It is
built of unhewn stones, in the same manner as the Westmoreland cottages;
the flue itself being not one-third the width of the chimney, as is seen
at the top, where four flat stones placed on their edges form the
termination of the flue itself, and give lightness of appearance to the
whole. Cover this with a piece of paper, and observe how heavy and