Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/1004

 9S0 COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLA AliCHlTECTUIlK. the kind which we had ever seen. All these four splendid con- servatories are heated by steam-tubes, conducted under the paths. 1961. As an Example of detached Conservatories not architec- tural, we shall give the glass dome erected in 1827, for Mrs. Beaumont, at Bretton Hall, Yorkshire. This structure, fig. 1732, was one hundred feet in diameter, and sixty feet high. It was con- structed entirely of cast and wrought iron ; all the perpendicular supports being of the former, and all the sash-bar composing the ribs of the roof of the latter, material. It was ventilated by horizontal shutters in a low upright wall, or rather iron screen ; by upright windows, which opened inwardly at the base of the upper dome ; and by a skylight which was raised by weights under the terminating gilt coronet. It was heated by steam from a boiler placed in a house at some distance from it, the tubes being conducted under the floors of the paths. The cost for the ironwork alone was between if 3000 and ^''4000. It is worthy of remark, that there were no rafters or principal ribs for strengthening the roof besides the common wrought-iron sash-bar, which is two inches deep, and half an inch thick in the thickest part, and weighs only about one pound to the lineal foot. The upper dome had an in- dependent support from cast-iron pillars. When the ironwork was put up, before it was glazed, the slightest wind put the whole of it in motion from the base to the summit ; and so much alarm did this create in the party for whom it was to be put up, or their agents, that the contractors for the work, Messrs. W. and D. Bailey, of Holborn, London, were obliged to covenant to keep it in repair for a certain number of years. As soon as the glass was put in, however, it was found to become perfectly firm and strong, nor did the slightest accident, from any cause, happen to it, from the time it was completed, in 1827, till, on the death of Mrs. Beaumont, in 1832, it was sold by auction, and taken down. It brought only about £560, though it is believed to have cost in all upwards of if 14,000. In the north of Europe, the conservatory or orangery is often used as an entrance-hall, and sometimes it forms a pas- sage, connecting the centre of the house with its wings, as in the palace of Lazenki, at Warsaw ; or to connect the house with the stables and farm offices, as in the elegant Italian villa of Count Kownatski, near Brody, of which a sketch, partly from memory, is given in fig. 1733. Plans and elevations of a number of other architectural conservatories will be found in the Gardener's Maga- zine, and in the Encyclopcedia of Gardening. 1962. The Flower-garden should generally adjoin the conserva- tory, or at all events be connected with it by a veranda, colonnade, arcade, or covered way of some description. There is not a greater luxury about a villa, either in winter or summer, than a broad veranda facing the south or south-east, and looking out on a flower-garden in the foreground, with pleasure-ground scenery in the middle distance, and a fertile populous valley, with a river be- yond. The last part of the landscape is by no means necessary to the comfort afforded by the veranda, though it adds to the effect of the view from it ; but the flower-garden in the foreground is essential, because in early spring, the spectator may walk dry and sheltered under the cover, and in summer in the shade, and in both cases be interested by the flowers immediately under his eye. There is a fine veranda of this sort at Ashridge Park, which con- nects the conservatory with the French flower-garden ; and there is one at Bayswater, where the roof is covered with glass, by which means China roses and other early flowering half-hardy shrubs may be trained on the back wall so as to flower early in the season. Shade is produced so as to render the veranda agreeable in summer, by training vines on a trellis under the glass. 1963. Architectural Flower-gardens are very suitable garden de- corations for adjoining conservatories and verandas. The walks of such gardens are paved with flags, and the edges to these walks are of worked stone. Sometimes also there are baskets, boxes, vases, or other raised architectural vessels constructed entirely of stone. 1730 e3^ SSSBSS I