Open Writing

'At last the dinner was all done, the cloth was cleared, the hearth swept, and the fire made up. The compound in the jug being tasted, and considered perfect, apples and oranges were put upon the table, and a shovel-full of chestnuts on the fire. Then all the Cratchit family drew round the hearth, in what Bob Cratchit called a circle, meaning half a one.'

Thus does Charles Dickens paint a delightful word-picture, in 'A Christmas Carol', of the Cratchit family gathered round the hearth after a hearty Christmas dinner.

In 'The Cricket on the Hearth', Dickens tells how the Cricket starts to chirp when Mr Peerybingle is sitting by the fire:
'And as he soberly and thoughtfully puffed at his old pipe, and as the Dutch clock ticked, and as the red fire gleamed, and as the Cricket chirped; that Genius of his Hearth and Home (for such the Cricket was) came out, in fairy shape, into the room, and summoned many forms of Home about him.'

In that passage we see a familiar warm phrase: 'hearth and home'. Charles Dickens did not invent it, though. Nor is it modern, as Wikipedia implies. It's been around since ancient Roman times. In Latin, it is 'arae et foci'. An ara was an altar or a refuge. Foci, focus, meant 'fireplace' or 'home'. Yes, that's were our word focus comes from.

The focus was a stone altar in a Roman dwelling, at which sacrifices were made to the domestic god. They were laid on the hearth. We get our word hearth from ancient roots which mean 'the floor of a fireplace'. In the 1920s G. K. Chesterton wrote in his book 'The Victorian Age' that the Victorians were the first generation “to worship the hearth without the altar”.

William Shakespeare, the master of words, used the word hearth three times in his play 'Coriolanus'. We read:
AUFIDIUS. That I would have spoken of.
Being banish'd for't, he came unto my hearth,
It seems to me that the word here means home, not fireplace. It had been used in that way for about six centuries before Shakespeare's time.

How long fireplaces have been used is another question. This statement can be found copied on many websites:
'Though we may think of fireplaces (translated from Latin as a “hotbed”) as an invention that has evolved over the last few hundred years, they have been used by every culture in the world in some form or other for over 1 million years.'

Apart from the fact that the first part is meaningless, it is very doubtful that fireplaces have been used for over a million years. More authoritative sources estimate that homo sapiens discovered how to control fire between 100,000 and 500,000 years ago. A fireplace in those times would have been a simple hole in the ground or a group of rocks to keep the burning wood together.

There are wonderful examples of centuries-old houses at the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum in Sussex, England. They are not copies or models but reconstructions of real houses found when more recent alterations were stripped away. In a 13th century cottage and a 14th century farmhouse, the fireplace is an area in the middle of the floor of the main room. A 15th century hall has the luxury of a new invention: a chimney, which was added in the 17th century. A 17th century house has a hearth and fireplace set in a wall, also with a chimney.

Those of us who spent our childhood in the northern hemisphere have fond memories of sitting round the fire in the 1940s. Like Bob Cratchit's family we formed a half-circle with our chairs. There was a coal scuttle and an andiron. The poker and coal-tongs were there, ready for use. Also the toasting-fork, with which we could toast a slice of bread or a pikelet, keeping it away from the flames lest it get burnt. A pikelet? Yes, that's what we in the Midlands called a type of crumpet or muffin. You won't find real freshly-made pikelets in the shops nowadays.

Nor will you find many real fireplaces, alas. They have been replaced by central heating, ducted heating, reverse cycle air conditioners, convection heaters, all sorts. I wonder if there is a primordial yearning for fireplaces as they used to be? Why else would we have gas and electric heaters with cleverly made imitation logs that have little flames flickering round them? At least they do their bit to recreate the feeling of 'hearth and home'.

© Copyright Brian Barratt 2011