CHIMNEY PIECE. As soon as some degree of architectural refinement began to be introduced into the habitations of noble men, external dressings, constituting a chim ney-piece, were added to the fire-place. Some of these, in which the Gothic style was employed, are marked by a fitness and pro priety of character, and a happy union of simplicity with richness. Some examples— one from Tattershall Castle, Lincolnshire, and two from Windsor Castle—are given in Prigin's ' Gothic Specimens,' all of which, in regard to compactness and simplicity of cora: position, accord ranch more nearly with modern taste, and have a much less ' Gothic' air than the cumbrous and extravagantly ornamented chimney-pieces in the Renaissance style of the Continent, and our own Elizabe7 than. In these the design was carried quite up to the so as to form a sort of architectural frontispiece, composed of two or more stages piled upon each other, and adorned with columns, pilasters, caryatides, termini, niches, &e., presenting an overloaded mass of carving and sculpture. But, though such compositions were generally exceedingly capricious, and equally fantastic and coarse in detail, some were real works of art—truly admirable for artistic beauty of design and masterly execution ; such as were in the palace of Fontainebleau; two noted ones in the Hotel de Ville at Courtrai ; and one of matchless beauty for its exquisite carvings in chestnut wood, in the Palais du Franc de Bruges. In our own country, chimney-pieces
of the time of Elizabeth and James I. are by no means uncommon : many are remaining, not only in mansions of that period which are still kept up, but in houses which have been almost completely modernized in all other respects.
As the more regular Italian style gained ground, the fashion of chimney pieces greatly changed. The chimney-piece and fire-place were reduced to nearly their modern propor tions and dimensions, whereas the opening or fire-place had previously been of such size that a person might stand within it. Marble is now the usual material for chimney-pieces even in ordinary houses.