Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/117

 COTTAGE DWELLINGS IN VARIOUS STYLES. 93 Design XXIII. -A Dwelling of One Story, for a Man and hU Wife with a Family of Children ; having a Cow-house and Pigsty attached. 191. Accommodation. The plan consists of a long broud portico, a, well adapted for drying clothes under, and protecting the children from the sun or rain while at play ; an en- trance lobby, h ; a kitchen, c ; a wash-house, d ; three bed-rooms, e, /, and g ; a pantry, /* ; dairy, (store-closet, A- ; pigsty, / ; privy, m ; cow-house, n ; and open shed for fuel, o. 192. Construction. The walls may be of earth ; the props of the portico, and of the open shed, trunks of trees with their bark on ; the roof is thatched with reeds, heath, straw, or the shavings and dressings of barrel hoops, made from greeti rods, as practised in various parts of England. In countries where timber is very abundant, and other materials dear, the roof may be covered, with shingles ; but materials so liable to be con- sumed by fire, should never be employed if it can ' be avoided. The rustic columns may be placed on stone plinths, and have square wooden caps, fig. 174, jD. In a country having a long winter, and liable to heavy falls of snow, it might be de- sirable to have the roof of such a cottage con- siderably steeper ; because the melting of snow on flat roofs, or even any roofs which are under an angle, or pitch, as the technical term is, of 45°, is generally attended by water penetrating to the interior. Thatched roofs in snowy countries, unless very steep, are of particularly short duration ; and the same may be said of roofs covered with bark, heath, moss, ferns, or spray. These kinds of roof occur often in Sweden and Norway, but they are never resorted to when the builder can afford slate, or flat stone, or iron. One of the best modes of con- structing flat roofs in a country Hable to heavy falls of snow, would be to employ flat brick arches, tying the abutments together with wrought-iron rods, in the manner which will be afterwards mentioned. In Italy, and in other countries where stucco, puzzulano earth, or any other cement is abundant and cheap, flat roofs are not uncommon. The joists, or rafters, are first covered with boards, then with tiles, or sometimes with reeds ; and after- wards, first with a coat of stucco, mixed with gravel, or very coarse sand ; and, lastly, with a finishing coat of finer material. 193. General Estimate. Cubic contents 14,622 feet, at Qd. per foot, £365:11*.; At Ad., £243 : 14s. ; and at M., £182 : 15s : Qd. 194. Expression. This cottage pretends to no- thing more than what it is ; a simple, humble dwelling, but not with- out comfort. In a cold country, we should pro- pose to heat all the floors by flues conducted from one fireplace in the back kitchen, d ; thereby rendering the dwelling, at a mere trifle of expense and trouble, as comfortable as even a first-rate mansion could possibly be (see § 34). This would also greatly diminish the expense of fuel, the labour attendant on keeping up fires, and that of cleaning fireplaces. As a finish to this cottage, the platform may be bordered with a neat hedge of box, or furze, or butcher's broom, or an ivied trellis ; or by a rustic fence, com- posed of the trunks of small pine or fir trees, driven into the ground at equal distances, sawn evenly over at the height of two feet and a half, and finished with a horizontal railing of the same material, or of worked timber painted, fig. 175, to a scale of a quarter of an inch to a foot. Ornamental urn chimney pots, fig. 176, and one or two creepers, would complete all the ornaments proper for such a cottage. 17(5