ABSTRACT
The floor should be made of the silent wooden flooring of which the author have spoken before, and should be stained a real old oak shade, using Jackson’s varnished stain and round the table should be fitted mats about eight feet wide, of either blue pile carpet or else of Eastern carpet which has as much blue in as one can get. The grate should be the “Auvergne” dog grate if wood or turf is easily procurable; if not it should be the ordinary basket kind in beaten iron, and the hearth should be one brick lower than the portion where the grate itself stands; the fender should be beaten iron and copper, as should be the fire-irons and dogs on each side of the hearth. The mistress, or eldest daughter, by the way, must never leave the filling and refilling of these, either to Providence or the head house maid.
