Posted by Jock on October 09, 2007 at 15:52:58 from 87.105.81.146 user Jock.
Since the Beckfoot plumbing thread has been flushed down the toilet by Peter H, I thought it was time that we moved on to something more basic: food, a subject always close to Roger's heart, and more specifically, how were perishable foodstuffs kept cool in those long hot summers by the lake?
A clue is provided by Susan (in SD I think) who expresses the notion that a larder should be 'well-aired'. Peter Duck's cave had a natural chimney making it extraordinarily like the ice cellar at Ruskin's Brantwood. The latter is little more than a short mine adit in the side of the hill with a hole in the top down which each winter the ice was tipped.
But ice cellars were a luxury that most households had to do without. So how does a well aired larder, which in summer would presumably entail a draft of hot air, keep food cool? I enclose a link to Mrs Beeton who gives directions on how to run a household with only a Cook and Housemaid and, like AR, likes her larders well aired.
Answers by next Friday please. The winner may buy me a pint.