Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/215

 COTTAGE DWELLINGS IN VARIOUS STYLES. 191 ment would have been more suitable for a room, the windows of which must necessarily be darkened by having so wide a portico over them. Again, the doors from this room into e and f ought to have been opposite to each other, in order to maintain the same principle. There ought to have been another press, both in e andy"; and the fireplaces ought to have been exactly opposite the windows in both of them. In the back kitchen, the press door ought to have been exactly opposite the door of the pantry ; the outer door to have been in the centre ; and the window, now there, in the position of the door. These alterations woidd render every thing regular, but the two sm..ll lean-tos contain- ing w, /;, i, and k. The doors of g and k, at present, answer to each otlier. Remove the partition between i and h ; reverse the positions of the window and door of g ; let the door of k be in one end ; turn its present door mto a window, to correspond with that of g ; build up the door of ;, and take down the partition between it and h, thus forming a dusthole and place for poultiy in one apartment ; and the thing is done, with a door less, and only one additional window, and without the slightest interference with the use of any one apartment. As minor faults in this Design, we object to the columns (even though they are notliing more than the trunks of trees with the bark on), for not having stone plinths and wooden caps. The former are of real use, in preventing the ends of the wooden columns from rotting, and of apparent use, by seeming to take a larger bearing on the surface of the soil ; though this is rendered unnecessary, in reality, by sunk stones, or masonrj', brought up as high as the surface. The wooden caps always give, or seem to give, a more secure bearing for the wall-plate or architrave, which is placed over them, besides protecting the end of the wooden column from the weather. Both the caps and the plinths have also the great advantage of calling forth the associ- ations which belong to them, as parts of the orders of Grecian Architecture. It ought to be the maxim of all architectural improvers, never to neglect an established association, when it can be made use of without interfering with the principles of fitness and ex- pression of purpose. Design LVII. — Tivo Dwellings under One Roof, Tivo Stories high, ivith Four Rooms in each, and other Conveniences- SSI. Accommodation. Each dwelling contains an entrance, and stair to the bed-room floor, a ; kitchen, b, with closet under the stairs ; small bed-room, or parlour, c ; pantry, d ; back kitchen, e ; place for fuel, /; dusthole, g ; privy, h ; and root-cellar, i. The chamber floor contains two bed-rooms, k and /, with a closet to each, m and n ; and a staircase, o. 382. Construction. The most suitable material for a building having so many in- ternal walls is brick. The outside walls may be eleven-inch work, with a vacuity between, as shown in fig. 7, § 25 ; and all the others may be brick nogging on edge, with the exception of the party walls, which may be brick nogging flat, and of the chimney stacks, which should be solid brickwork. The roof is shown covered with semi- cylindrical tiles, -which, though they are much used in Italy, and commonly called Italian, are, in reality, Moorish, and, as we are informed, the oldest description of tiles in the world. In Barbary, they are bedded in clay, laid on reeds. 383. General Estimate. Cubic contents of both houses, 22,050 feet, at 6d. per foot, £551 : 5s. ; at M., £S61 : s. ; and at 3d., £275 : I2s. : 6d. 384. Remarks. We have engraved this Design as it was sent to us ; because, though it is full of faults, it contains the germs of great beauty and interest ; and because it affords a very good example of the kind of impracticable Designs w hich are frequently made by picturesque architects or amateurs. The plan is so far commendable, that all the apartments and appendages are obtained under one roof, and that the general form is symmetrical ; but, in the ground plan, it is bad to have a place like f, without the means of either light or ventilation. It would be much better to divide the contents of that apartment between g and c, which could easily be done, by making the division h narrower, and that of i shorter. The division g would then serve its own purpose, and that of / also. The two false windows shown in the plan of the ground floor, and the two in the plan of the bed-room floor, which are seen in the elevations of both, are uncalled for, and add to the expense, without being requisite to carry on any idea of symmetrj'. The small windows shown in the ground plan, close to the staircase, are, or ought to be, intended for lighting the closets under them ; but in the elevation they are placed much too high for that purpose, being even higher than the w indows of the apart- ments b and c. Placed where they are, they could only light the staircase, which is superfluous, as this is already done in an ample manner by the broad mullioned windows over them. The boilers in the back kitchen are also badly placed, because they are against an outside wall, instead of an inner one ; in w hich last case their heat would have served to increase the temperature of the interior, instead of being in a great