Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/116

 92 COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLA ARCHITECTURR. jind Switzerland, and has the advantage of never exposing the clothes to perpendicular rain; with the disadvantage lfi9 170 of running the risk of having the larger articles blown against the wall, and dirted and discoloured, in windy weather. Where very long lines are stretched from tree to tree, it is customary to support the line in the middle, or in one or two places by a prop, forked at one end, figs. 169, or 170; the weight of the clothes keeps these props steady. The clothes are kept fast on the lines by what are called clothes' pegs. These are commonly formed of a piece of cleft wood, held together by a fillet of tinned iron ; but an elegant improvement on them has lately been made by Mr. Stenning, of Haslemere, under the direction of our highly talented contributor, Mr. Perry, of Godalming, fig. 171, by which the fillet of tin is rendered unnecessary, and all risk of iron-mould on the linen avoided. 189. General Estimate. Cubic contents, 9,828 feet, at 6rf. per foot, £245 : Us. ; at 4d., £163 : 16s. ; and at 3fi., £122 : 17s. 190. Expression. It is clear that something more is intended in this elevation than mere expression of purpose; else why the pilasters, the far projecting 172 roof with its cantilevers, the semi-cylindrical tiles, and the swallow corniced chimney top ? The manner intended to be expressed is evidently of the Italian kind, which is only diminished a little by the English sash window. If it were desired to decorate this cottage, it might be done by placing four ornamental tulip-shaped chimney pots, fig. 172, on the chimney tops, raising a low wall or parapet in the Italian manner, in bricks and tiles, at a very trifling expense, round the outer margin of the platform ; and placing vases in harmony with the chimney pots, at the corners. An ornamental water-gutter, tig. 173, ought also to be used instead of a plain one. The dwelling might then be said to be in the enriched Italian style, and if no more trees were placed round it than what are shown in the ground plan of the garden, it could hardly fail to look well from every point of view. We leave our readers to embody 173 ^^l' ,&( these ideas in geo- metrical and per- spective sketches of - their own; and we 11 i 11 11"^^- may further suggest '^r' ^P ^^ ' that by increasing the width of the ter- race and veranda, and adding a second story, a very handsome elevation, and a tolerably comfortable habitation (the walls still of earth), might be produced. The Italian manner of building cottages must naturally have more charms for such as have been in Italy, or are conversant with the works of the great painters of that country, tlian for those who have never travelled, or paid much attention to prints or paintings ; but even to such persons an Italian cottage may please, when first erected, from its novelty ; and afterwards, this satisfaction may be con- tinued on the principle of contrast, or the difference between such a cottage and the generality of cottages in the neighbourhood. It is evident, however, that the great beauty of an Italian cottage, that in which the imagination is engaged, can only be fully realized by those minds in which it will call up associations connected with Italy. An old English cottage has this great beauty to every Englishman, educated or uneducated, that, in addition to all its comforts and conveniences, it operates upon his imagination, and recals to mind a thousand associations connected with his earlier years, with his parents, his kindred, his school companions, and, in short, with all the vivid feelings of his youth. It ought to be the business of the young architect, therefore, not only to inform himself on all that relates to actual fitness in a building, and to whatever contributes to the expression of purpose, but to those circumstances, in style, which are calculated to operate on the imagination. For this purpose, we recommend to him the careful and repeated perusal of Allison's Essays on Taste, Wood's Letters of an Architect, and Diigald Stewart s Philosophical Essatjs