{"id":"01KG6GMPEZ4E6Y7X3BRB6D6NV6","cid":"bafkreiccjoycayo3h7yz73k3pjt552nt4utuwpia2l2yolmfwdr43hndcq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":8899,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T03:55:03.883Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","start_line":8834,"text":"                            I AND MY CHIMNEY\r\n\r\n\r\nI and my chimney, two gray-headed old smokers, reside in the country. We\r\nare, I may say, old settlers here; particularly my old chimney, which\r\nsettles more and more every day.\r\n\r\nThough I always say, _I and my chimney_, as Cardinal Wolsey used to say,\r\n_I and my King_, yet this egotistic way of speaking, wherein I take\r\nprecedence of my chimney, is hardly borne out by the facts; in\r\neverything, except the above phrase, my chimney taking precedence of me.\r\n\r\nWithin thirty feet of the turf-sided road, my chimney--a huge, corpulent\r\nold Harry VIII. of a chimney--rises full in front of me and all my\r\npossessions. Standing well up a hillside, my chimney, like Lord Rosse’s\r\nmonster telescope, swung vertical to hit the meridian moon, is the first\r\nobject to greet the approaching traveller’s eye, nor is it the last\r\nwhich the sun salutes. My chimney, too, is before me in receiving the\r\nfirst-fruits of the seasons. The snow is on its head ere on my hat; and\r\nevery spring, as in a hollow beech-tree, the first swallows build their\r\nnests in it.\r\n\r\nBut it is within doors that the pre-eminence of my chimney is most\r\nmanifest. When in the rear room, set apart for that object, I stand to\r\nreceive my guests (who, by the way, call more, I suspect, to see my\r\nchimney than me), I then stand, not so much before, as, strictly\r\nspeaking, behind my chimney, which is, indeed, the true host. Not that I\r\ndemur. In the presence of my betters, I hope I know my place.\r\n\r\nFrom this habitual precedence of my chimney over me, some even think\r\nthat I have got into a sad rearward way altogether; in short, from\r\nstanding behind my old-fashioned chimney so much, I have got to be quite\r\nbehind the age too, as well as running behindhand in everything else.\r\nBut to tell the truth, I never was a very forward old fellow, nor what\r\nmy farming neighbours call a forehanded one. Indeed, those rumours about\r\nmy behindhandedness are so far correct, that I have an odd sauntering\r\nway with me sometimes of going about with my hands behind my back. As\r\nfor my belonging to the rearguard in general, certain it is, I bring up\r\nthe rear of my chimney--which, by the way, is this moment before me--and\r\nthat, too, both in fancy and fact. In brief, my chimney is my superior;\r\nmy superior by I know not how many heads and shoulders; my superior,\r\ntoo, in that humbly bowing over with shovel and tongs, I much minister\r\nto it; yet never does it minister, or incline over to me; but, if\r\nanything, in its settlings, rather leans the other way.\r\n\r\nMy chimney is grand seignior here--the one great domineering object, not\r\nmore of the landscape, than of the house; all the rest of which house,\r\nin each architectural arrangement, as may shortly appear, is, in the\r\nmost marked manner, accommodated, not to my wants, but to my chimney’s,\r\nwhich, among other things, has the centre of the house to himself,\r\nleaving but the odd holes and corners to me.\r\n\r\nBut I and my chimney must explain; and as we are both rather obese, we\r\nmay have to expatiate.\r\n\r\nIn those houses which are strictly double houses--that is, where the\r\nhall is in the middle--the fireplaces usually are on opposite sides; so\r\nthat while one member of the household is warming himself at a fire\r\nbuilt into a recess of the north wall, say another member, the former’s\r\nown brother, perhaps, may be holding his feet to the blaze before a\r\nhearth in the south wall--the two thus fairly sitting back to back. Is\r\nthis well? Be it put to any man who has a proper fraternal feeling. Has\r\nit not a sort of sulky appearance? But very probably this style of\r\nchimney building originated with some architect afflicted with a\r\nquarrelsome family.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6GKZ3MPDDZB30GXGTJ7ATV","peer_type":"section","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG2T49K0H5GDRB0G4YDTPG8H","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6GMPEZ0QAKA91RPCT5BKX6","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T03:55:08.127Z","ts":"2026-01-30T03:55:19.794Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}