wman, a few years later than Villani, speaks of a "chambre with a
chimney" in which rich men usually dined. But in the account-book of
Bolton Abbey, under the year 1311, there is a charge pro faciendo camino
in the rectory-house of Gargrave. Whitaker's Hist. of Craven, p. 331.
This may, I think, have been only an iron stove or fire-pan; though Dr.
W. without hesitation translates it a chimney. However, Mr. King, in his
observations on ancient castles, Archaeol. vol. vi., and Mr. Strutt, in
his View of Manners, vol. i., describe chimneys in castles of a very old
construction. That at Conisborough in Yorkshire is peculiarly worthy of
attention, and carries back this important invention to a remote
antiquity.

In a recent work of some reputation, it is said:--"There does not appear
to be any evidence of the use of chimney-shafts in England prior to the
twelfth century. In Rochester Castle, which is in all probability the
work of William Corbyl, about 1130, there are complete fireplaces with
semicircular backs, and a shaft in each jamb, supporting a semicircular
arch over the opening, and that is enriched with the zigzag moulding;
some of these project slightly from the wall; the flues, however, go
only a few feet up in the thickness of the wall, and are then turned out
at the back, the apertures being small oblong holes. At the castle,
Hedingham, Essex, which is of about the same date, there are fireplaces
and chimneys of a similar kind. A few years later, the improvement of
carrying the flue up the whole height of the wall appears; as at Christ
Church, Hants; the keep at Newcastle; Sherborne Castle, &c. The early
chimney-shafts are of considerable height, and similar; afterwards they
assumed a great variety of forms, and during the fourteenth century they
are frequently very short." Glossary of Ancient Architecture, p. 100,
edit. 1845. It is said, too, here that chimneys were seldom used in
halls till near the end of the fifteenth century; the smoke took its
course, if it pleased, through a hole in the roof.

Chimneys are still more modern in France; and seem, according to Paulmy,
to have come into common use since the middle of the seventeenth
century. Jadis nos peres n'avoient qu'un unique chauffoir, qui etoit
commun a toute une famille, et quelquefois a plusieurs. t. iii. p. 133.
In another place, however, he says: Il parait que les tuyaux de
cheminees etaient deja tres en usage en France, t. xxxi. p. 232.

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