The first fire of the season
The cool season begins at the lounge on the afternoon I light the fire in the board room. I do it myself, and I do it carefully.
The afternoon of the first fire
There is a wood heater in the corner of the board room, a squat iron thing older than anyone on the staff. For most of the year it sits cold, with a vase of dried leaves on its top. On the first properly wet afternoon of the cool season, I clear the vase, lay the kindling and light it, and from that moment the season has begun.
I learned how to lay a fire from my father, who believed that it should be built from the bottom like a small structure: dry sticks across, split wood above, a firelighter beneath. The first flame is always slow. The room smells of dust and old paint, which burns off in half an hour, and then of wood smoke, which stays until spring.
Guests notice at once. They come in out of the rain, take off wet coats at the hooks in the hall and walk through the double doors to find the board room warm. Some stand with their backs to the heater for a full minute before looking at the tables. I think it is the best minute of the evening.
Getting the house ready
The kitchen shifts
Stuart Butler moves the menu to the winter card on the same afternoon. Out go the cold plates, and in come the pies, the thicker soups and the puddings with custard. By the time the fire has caught, the kitchen smells of onions and stock, which is the smell I associate with the beginning of the season.
The care of the heater
A wood heater needs attention, and I keep a small bucket of sand and a metal poker beside it. Guests are asked not to touch either, and not to hang wet coats on the rail. The heater is checked each afternoon, and it is never left alone with a flame after the house has closed.
What the fire changes
The room is quieter when it is warm. People settle further into their chairs, the wheel turns a little more slowly and the poker tables seem to concentrate. It is not scientific, but I have noticed it every year, and the dealers agree. The fire stays lit until the weather turns and I let it die.