Hearth less than 20 shillings a year and those who paid neither church nor poor rates. Also exempt were charitable institutions such as schools and almshouses, and industrial hearths with the exception of smiths' forges and bakers' ovens. The returns were lodged with the Clerk of the Peace between 1662 and 1688. A revision of the Act in 1664 made the tax payable by all who had more than two chimneys. The tax was abolished by William III in 1689 and the last collection was for Lady Day of that year. It was abolished in Scotland in 1690. Hearth tax records
Shadow on the Hearth the Hearth" has ever been published, although a book club edition appeared. "Shadow on the Hearth" tells the story of "a Westchester woman and her two children after the explosion of a series of atomic bombs on New York". Merril described it as "a very political novel, ... written for political reasons". Merril began writing "Shadow on the Hearth" as a short story; "When it reached ten thousand words," she remembered, "I began to understand that it wanted to be a novel." Although she stopped working on the piece when it reached twice that length, needing to spend more time