Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/246

 22^ COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLA ARCHITECTURE. living-room, with a wine closet, c, and a store-room, d ; e, the principal room, with a china closet, f, and book closet, g ; h, the passage leading to a staircase, with a light pantry under it, i ; k, the kitchen ; I, the lobby to the back entrance ; m, the water- closet ; n, a coal and wood-house ; and o, the yard. We object to this plan, and also to that of the original Design, fig. 367, on account of the chimneys being placed in the outside walls ; but this evil may be mitigated by an increased thickness, and by forming a vacuity all round the chimney and flue, so as to lessen the conducting power of the wall. Whoever, in a climate where iires are necessary one half the year, employs an Architect to design a dwelling, whatever may be its rank, from the cottage to the palace, ought to make it an indispensable condition, to have no chimneys in the outside walls ; and none that shall not draw well. Every person looking through this work, with a view to make choice of a design, ought to bear in mind the same principle. With respect to the elevation, as shown in Design LXXL, p. 215, we cannot approve of carrying through, between the lower and the upper windows, the forms of battlements, as shown in the section fig. 370, in the manner of a string course ; because such an ornament has neither the appearance nor the reality of use. A string course, or horizontal band, has the architectural expression (to speak technically) of binding and tying together the work below it, as well as, to a certain extent, of protecting it from the rain. It is true that the battlement forms, carried through, as in fig. 370, will also protect what is below from the rain ; but they have not that expression, for every one knows that their usual pur- pose, on a building, is to form the termination of a wall. The effect of these battlements on the outline elevation, fig. 372, can hardly fail to deceive tlie unpractised eye ; and, by raising the idea that the basement story of the building projects outwards, considerably beyond the upper story, creates a beauty in the design, as seen in an outline elevation on paper, which it could never have in reality. The shaded perspective view, Design LXXL, p. 215, may be referred to in proof of this assertion, as showing the advantages of such views in conveying correct ideas of the efTect of architectural designs. We may further observe that it would be an improvement, to raise the angular towers two or three feet higher, so as to detach their summits more distinctly from the gable ends. The effect of this, as of all distinctness and bold relief in buildings, is to make the parts ap- pear more decidedly what they are ; in short, to add to the strength of their expression.