Fire-side

Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fire-side and his quiet home!

And I even question whether any tender virgin, who was accidentally and unaccountably enriched with a bantling, would save her character at parlour fire-sides and evening tea-parties, by ascribing the phenomenon to a swan, a shower of gold, or a river god.

She had a great deal to insinuate in her own praise as to general attention to the interest and comfort of his family, much exertion and many sacrifices to glance at in the form of hurried walks and sudden removals from her own fire-side, and many excellent hints of distrust and economy to Lady Bertram and Edmund to detail, whereby a most considerable saving had always arisen, and more than one bad servant been detected.

And now, behold, with the first imagination of danger, or, if you will, the first mighty and terrific trial of your courage, you shrink away, and are content to be handed down as men who had not strength enough to endure cold and peril; and so, poor souls, they were chilly and returned to their warm fire-sides.

I am here as Justice of Quorum; / And in my cabin's fore end, / I've a bed for a friend, / With a clean fire-side and a jorum.

"[…]However," she added, wiping her eyes, "that's the price o' your lodgings, as I said; but ye'll get a clean bed, and a canny fire-side, and I'll tend you wi' a' my power to make you cosie and comfortable."

1837, Charles Lamb, Letter to Mr. Manning dated 25 December, 1815, in The Letters of Charles Lamb, London: Edward Moxon, Volume 2, p. 18, You have no turkeys; you would not desecrate the festival by offering up a withered Chinese bantam, instead of the savoury grand Norfolcian holocaust, that smokes all around my nostrils at the moment, from a thousand fire-sides.

But of all the dishes ever brought to table, nothing equals that of the "steamer." It is made by mincing the flesh of the kangaroo, and with it some pieces of pork or bacon. The animal has not any fat, or scarcely any, in its best season; when the meat is chopped up, it is thrown into a saucepan and covered over with the lid, and left to stew or steam gently by the fire-side: it is, from this method of cooking, called "steamer."

For now, since by many prolonged, repeated experiences, I have perceived that in all cases man must eventually lower, or at least shift, his conceit of attainable felicity; not placing it anywhere in the intellect or the fancy; but in the wife, the heart, the bed, the table, the saddle, the fire-side, the country; now that I have perceived all this, I am ready to squeeze case eternally.

[T]he imagination which books and Twelfth-Nights have helped to cultivate, is a great paymaster. We sit here, by our fire-side, and think of all the nights of this description which we have enjoyed; and very young and robust are we, while so thinking.