Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/102

 COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLa" ARCHITECTURE. 1C4. Alterations and Improve- ments. The first and most obvious mode of ornamenting this cottage, is by surrounding it with a veranda, either glazed, or finished with sheet- iron or copper ; and adding a light terrace parapet, and also chimney pots ; for example, as in fig. 133. The terrace parapet may be a very simple wooden palisade, fig. 134 ; and both it and the veranda may be painted of a stone colour. In the suburbs of a town, we should not object to green ; but in the country there is green enough ; and the colour of stone is, by contrast, a re- lief to the eye. Another, and a very simple and economical mode of conferring ornament on such a cottage, is by disguising its 134 roof .with a second roof, supported on a screen front ; both roof and screen front being formed of light trellis work, for the purpose of being covered with plants, fig. 135. The con- struction of this trellis roof will easily be understood from the section, fig. 136, in which o represent the walls of the house, and p p the roof, while q q and r r represent the trellis roof and trellis screen. It deserves to be remarked, that the screen being at the distance of only three feet from the walls, the trellis- work, even when covered with foliage, will throw very little shade on the windows, and therefore not materially darken the rooms. In warm countries, where it is desirable to sit, and even to dine, or receive visiters, under the veranda of a house, its distance from the walls should be double or treble what has hitherto been shown in these cottages. At whatever distance the trellis screen and roof may be placed, they ought to be covered with vegetation ; and for the in- dustrious cottager, we would recommend apples, pears, or vines, as the most profitable trees. We should even prefer elders for the roof, in climates where the apple would not ripen, rather than to cover the whole with merely ornamental plants, though these would do