Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/214

 190 COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLA ARCHITECTURE. 375. General Estimate. Cubic contents, 29,348 feet, at 6d. per foot, jf 733 : 14s. ; at 4rf., i'489 : '2s. : Sd. ; and at 3d., £366 : 17s. 376. Remarks. The veranda in this Design being an object of luxury, or at least of elegant enjoyment, the wooden columns ought to have had plinths and caps, and the steps to the platform an air of more consequence conferred on them. However, the general form of this building, being that of a cube, is good, and the idea of the veranda on three sides is highly commendable. Design LVI. — A Dwelling of Four Rooms, with other Conveniences, and a large Rustic Portico. 377. Accommodation. The entrance is direct into the kitchen, a, from wluch there is a passage, b, to the back kitchen, and to the cellar stairs ; staircase to the bed-room, c ; d is the back kitchen, from which there is a pantry, ^ ; e is the parlour ; f, a bed-room, or second parlour, in case this building should be matle a public house, for which the lar^e space under the portico is well adapted ; g may be a place for fuel ; h, a dusthole ; i, a place for ducks or other poultry ; and k, a privy. On the chamber floor there are a good bed-room, m, and a closet, n. 378. Construction. The walls are shown of sufficient thickness to admit of their beino' built of rammed earth; but we are informed, by the contributor of this Design, that it is erected as a small public house by the roadside in South Wales ; and that the walls are actually formed of the land- 335 stones of the country, thickly coated over with plaster within, and covered with rough-cast without. The columns which support the portico are of native larch fir, with the bark on, joined to the roof in the manner shown in the section, fig. 335, to a scale of half an inch to a foot. The roof is first thatched with straw, and then finished with a coating of heath over it. The ground floor of the house is raised about eighteen inches above the surface, and the floor of the portico about one foot above the surface. We have shown the ground on which the portico stands, higlier in the Design, tliink- ing one foot insufficient, either for the purpose of dryness, or of dignity of effect. 379. General Estimate. Cubic contents, 14,798 feet, at 6rf. per foot, £369: 19s.; at 4d., £-246 : 125. : M. ; and at 3d., £'184: 19.?. : 6d. 380. Remarks. There is comfort in this building, and also economy. The three cellars under a, e, a,nAf, (which have no light, or means of ventilation, in order to lessen the risk of variations of temperature,) are well adapted for a public house, as is the pantry or store-room from the back kitchen. The presses shown in each of the rooms are also very suitable for a public house, being well adapted for holding glasses and china or earthenware. The apartment g, though used for keeping fuel, may be very properly substituted for a stable ; though this public house does not belong to the class of occupiers who receive travellers on horseback, for the night. It is needless to add that the great width of the portico affords an excellent protection to guests enjoying themselves in the open air. Having said thus much of the fitness of this building, ath reference to its use, we shall next consider its fitness, as expressive of architectural design. It is an acknowledged principle, that whatever idea obviously pervades a building, taken as a whole, ought also to pervade all its separate parts. If the idea of the whole were that of an irregular mass, the parts ought to be irregular also ; if the whole were regular, or symmetrical, so ought to be the parts, and not only the parts, but their details. We do not say that these principles ought to be enforced in every building, whether or not they be consistent with comfort or convenience ; but we do assert that it is the mam business of the Architect to accomplish this object, whenever it can be done without sacrificing the higher principle of purpose ; and that it is his duty to aim at this in the very smallest and most humble buildings, as well as in the larger and more important ones. Now, on looking a» the ground plan of the Design before us, we shall find that the entrance front and the back front are regular and symmetrical in their general masses, and yet irregular in the details of these masses ; that is, in the disposition of the doors and windows. In the apartment a, for example, the entrance door is on one side, and a window on the other ; whereas, to preserve the principle of symmetry, the door ought to have been in the centre, with a window on each side: and this airangc-