Dressing the chimney for summer

A correspondent signing C. L. picked up on a London bookstall Hannah Woolley’s Queen-like Closet of 1681 and sent Hone her directions for dressing a fireplace for the summer, when no fire was needed. A packthread was fixed round the inside of the chimney, and old green moss from trees, dipped at the wrong end in melted beeswax and rosin, was pressed onto it row by row down to the bottom, with pale stiff mosses, empty snail shells and old velvety toadstools set here and there. The hearth was laid with sprigs of orpine, which would grow where it lay, and fresh flowers and sweet briar were stuck in every week. The moss lasted until it was time to light a fire again, and Hannah Woolley promised it would grace a room exceedingly.