Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/103

 COTTAGE DWELLINGS IN VARIOUS STYLES. very well for the side screen. If heat were the great consideration, no plant could answer the purpose better than ivy ; and it may be observed Incidentally, that such a trellis-work 137 and screen would form a veryhand- some cover- ing for any building in a garden or pleasure grounds, which it might be desirable to conceal, though a great ob- jection to all such coverings is their harbouring insects, unless birds are so abundant as to keep them under. The greatest im- provement, however, of which a cottage, such as Design XVIII. is susceptible, is by adding another story to it. This might be done in various ways ; the cheapest would be by turning the two small closets into one economical stair- case, of the kind shown in ^=^9 fig. 137. This description of staircase occupies exactly one half the space of a stair- case on the ordinary plan. This may be easily con- ceived, when it is observed that every step rises twice the usual height. The space occupied by these two closets is four feet by three feet six inches, and supposing the tread or width of each step of the stair to be eight inches, and the rise eight inches, then the depth of the closet being eight feet, it will ad- mit of carrying the stair eight feet high. After this, the stair may project into the kitchen till it gains the height of the surface of the bed-room floor. This height is exactly eleven feet six inches from the surface of the ground floor, none of our ceilings being lower than ten feet. If the projection of the top of the stair into the kitchen were an insuperable objection, then the bottom might either pro- ject two double steps into the bed-room below, the door shutting against the riser (perpendicular board) of the third step ; or a trap stair, composed of the two lower steps, and made to fold up, might be resorted to. This practice is to be met with in France, and it is remarkable that the celebrated Jefferson, when making a tour in that country, was so struck with the contrivance, that he made a note of it in his journal, which has since been published in his