A moderate fire in the grate is the only mode of heating, and they seem quite oblivious to the danger of throwing a door open into a cold hall at one's back, while the servants pass in and out with the various courses at dinner.

As we Americans were sorely tried, under such circumstances, it was decided, in the home of my son-in-law, Mr.Blatch, to have a hall-stove, which, after a prolonged search, was found in London and duly installed as a presiding deity to defy the dampness that pervades all those ivy-covered habitations, as well as the neuralgia that wrings their possessors.

What a blessing it proved, more than any one thing making the old English house seem like an American home! The delightful summer heat we, in America, enjoy in the coldest seasons, is quite unknown to our Saxon cousins.

Although many came to see our stove in full working order, yet we could not persuade them to adopt the American system of heating the whole house at an even temperature.

They cling to the customs of their fathers with an obstinacy that is incomprehensible to us, who are always ready to try experiments.
Americans complain bitterly of the same freezing experiences in France and Germany, and, in turn, foreigners all criticise our overheated houses and places of amusement.
While attending a meeting in Birmingham I stayed with a relative of Joseph Sturge, whose home I had visited forty years before.