"When bricks are used they should be covered with a thin coating of plaster, which, when it is become perfectly dry, should be white-washed. The fire-stone should likewise be white-washed... and every part of the fire-place, which is not exposed to being foiled and made black by the smoke, should be kept as white and clean as possible. As white reflects more heat, as well as more light than any other colour, it ought always to be preferred for the inside of a Chimney Fire-place; and black, which reflects neither light nor heat, should be most avoided."