During the 17th and 18th centuries, tax was paid on the size of the house, which was determined by the number of chimneys that house had. Keen to avoid tax, richer households would connect fireplaces together to the main chimney using smaller and smaller flues. They became so tiny that the only way to get them clean was to ram a child up them, which everyone knows wealthier Victorians did with reckless abandon.
