Gunda Béla et al. (szerk.): Ideen, Objekte und Lebensformen. Gedenkschrift für Zsigmond Bátky - István Király Múzeum közelményei. A. sorozat 29. (Székesfehérvár, 1989)

Alexander Fenton: The Hearth as a Marker of Social Change: the Scottish Example

Fig. 4.: A house at Gifford, East Lothian, with an outshot chimney. From R. Marshall, 1983—84, 42.

in towns, where many houses with thatched roofs clustered together, was considerable, and the regulation was no doubt based on experience. On this evidence, we should look more intensively at urban records in order to try to get a clearer picture. There was, however, an undoubted northwards movement of the hanging chimney. It is known, for example, that such kitchen hearth chimney forms reached the most northerly parts of Scotland in the late 18th century, and spread in the course of the 19th century. What is more important, perhaps, than the direction of spread is the reflection of social and economic improvement which, though represented in different ways, had nevertheless touched almost the whole country by the first quarter of the 19th century. The sequence

Fig. 5.: A substantial 18th century fireplace on the upper floor of an old house near Preston Tower, in Prestonpans. It is a kind of upper class version of the hanging chimney. The sides of such fireplaces could be formed of clay and straw as well as of plaster.

From MacGibbon and Ross, V (1892), 56—57. Cl8523.

was well summed up by a writer on the Scottish Highlands speaking of hearths in 1824:

‘The progress can be traced now in this country, just as it crept on in England: at least when things are left to take their natural course. The fire in the middle of the house is first transferred to the gable; a canopy with a chimney is next placed over it; those who formerly sat near the fire, then sit within the fireplace; in progress of time, this is contracted so as to exclude them; and lastly, this eventful history ends in Carron grates and Bath stoves and registers, in bright brass and brighter steel, the pride of housewives, the dread of chilly guests, and the torment of housemaids.

This comment is entirely relevant to the writer’s period. However, it presents a scenario in which changes appear to be relatively simple and in orderly sequence. This simplicity is a reflection of a time of general improvement in living conditions and in housing. It conceals or distracts attention from earlier conditions, when hearth arrangements appear to have been more varied than is commonly thought, and to some extent mirror wider traditions by no means exclusive to Scotland. One example, linked with evidence already touched on, may be looked at here.

As has been shown, in parts of south Scotland the canopy chimney could take two forms: an inverted funnel in the middle of the kitchen, or a wide canopy against the wall in each case big enough to allow sitting space below it. In other words, the canopy, built of material other than stone, demarcated an important living area within the general kitchen accommodation unit. The question is, are there any parallels in stone? The answer is that there are, though it remains a task to explore the full European range and implications of the form of hearth which, whether shaped of stone, wood, or some slighter material, demarcates also a living area of particular family importance.

(33) J. Macculloch, The Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland, 111(1824), 14.

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