Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/104

 80 COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLA ARCHITECTURE. Correspondence. The elevation of this cottage, in the event of a second story being added, will admit of adopting different styles of architecture, and a variety of the decorations or features belonging to each style. The castellated Gothic may be adopted, as in fig. 138 ; the monastic Gothic, as in fig. 139 ; the Indian Gothic, the Italian style, with a campanile-like watch tower, or the Elizabethan style, fig. 140. It may appear improbable to some, that a person purposing to build so small a dwelling, should think of applying any of these styles to it ; but in particular situations in Britain, it is sometimes considered desirable to render such dwellings striking objects in a view ; and in America, we are informed that the proprietors in easy circumstances are commencing not only to build good, comfortable cottages, but to display architectural style in them. Sometimes, also, the object is to create particular associations. It may appear singular to a resident in Britain, that a British emigrant in Van Diemen's Land should wish to build his dwelling in the form of an English church tower; but, duly considered, the feeling will be found to be quite natural. The associations which an object so characteristic of British scenery and civilization is calculated to raise up in the minds of Britons, resident in far distant, and, as yet, scarcely peopled countries, surrounded by primeval forests or wastes, can hardly be conceived by those who have never experienced them. Design XIX. — A Dwelling of Two Rooms for a Man and his Wife without Children. 165. Accommodation. This dwelling contains what, in our opinion, ought to be the minimum of apartments for a man and his wife, without children, in any country. It is certain that, without this degree of accommodation in England, no country labourer considers himself at all comfortable ; and in new countries, where the first settlers are obliged to put up with huts, or log houses, if they commence with one room, they never rest satisfied till they have obtained, at least, two. The room, a, in this design, is supposed to be used as a kitchen, and as the place for sitting and eating in j the bed-room is marked b ; and from the kitchen are divided off a lumber closet, /, and a pantry, e. The bed-roo^ii has, in like manner, separated from it by partitions, two closets, c and d ; one of which may be used as a store-room, and the other may serve as a place for clothes. The size of all these apartments is comparatively small ; but they are all well lighted, and ten feet high from the floor to the ceiling. The privy, dung-pit, and manure tank, to this dwelling, are supposed to be placed at a short distance from it outside the garden ; in our opinion, not the best arrangement, but in some particular situations unavoidable. The well for water is also supposed to be placed outside the garden, but in an opposite direction to, or at all events, at some distance from, the tank for manure. 166. Situation. This building is well calculated for being placed on the summit of a gentle elevation, in a situation where it will be seen from all sides. The reasons why it is suitable for this purpose, are, first and chiefly, the nearly cubical form of the building, which, from whatever point it is viewed, has a massive, substantial, and secure appearance ; secondly, from the chimney being in the centre of the roof, thus giving an expression of symmetry, or of a whole, of which the chimney top is the finishing part ; and thirdly, from the number of openings being the same on every side ; for though these openings are irregu- lar in size, yet they are regular in number, and mere regularity, though a minor beauty, has the ad- vantage of being recog- nised and acknowledged by ordinary minds, while, at the same time, it is al- ways more or less satis- factory to those even of the most refined taste. When we add to these particulars, the effect of the elevated platform on which the cottage stands, it being placed on the flattened summit of a knoll, and forming, as it were, an architectural plinth to this little cottage castle, it will not be denied that the result v be a somewhat dignified, though formal expression of purpose. One conspicuous fault