Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/253

 sWAiAd COTTAGE DWELLINGS IN VARIOUS STYLES. 229 of bricks projecting at equal and regular distances,) to finish with at top ; in order that the lower part of the weather-tiling, which is to cover the bed-room walls, may incline outwards, for the purpose of throwing off the water, and preventing it from running down the walls of the ground floor. The external partitions of the chamber floor should be formed of timber framing, lathed horizontally, to receive the tiling, which may be of any pattern, according to fancy. Our contributor has sent sketches, figs. 392 to 402, of all the different kinds which he recollects having seen ; but as two or three sorts are generally used together, arranged alternately, it would be fruitless, he says, " to attempt sending all their combinations. It is very common to have two, three, or more courses of ornamental tiles, separated by a row of plain ones, which has a good effect." For the present Design he recommends employing successive courses of figs. 393, 394, and 395, separated by a course of fig. 392, as shown in fig. 402, " which would produce an agree- able play of light and 402 shade, showing off some of the most pleasing alternations of straight and waved lines that this species of material is capable of producing." It will generally be found advisable to colour the whole of the weather- tiling a light stone or cream colour, and the brick or stone walls below may be left un- coloured, or not, accord- ing to whether the natural tint of the ma- terial employed is agree- able or otherwise. The roof is to be covered with the common plain tiles, and its picturesque beauty will be much improved if they are old ones that have lost the glaring hue which all tiles have when they are fresh from the kiln." With respect to colouring the materials of a building, it may be observed that it is not liable to the same objections as either plastering them over, or roughcasting or whitewashing them ; because colouring, being much thinner, does not, to the same extent, disguise the nature of the material, and thus either destroy the natural expression of, or give a false expression to, the wall. A wall may be said to have its true and natural expression, when, at the first glance, it shows the materials of which it has been constructed ; the manner in which these materials have been put together ; and the principles of construction on which it depends for its stability, strength, and duration. Now, a brick or stone wall, on the external face of which the distinct shapes of the bricks or stones are clearly discernible to the eye, is the same thing, in point of the useful qualities mentioned, whatever may be its colour ; but if the joints of the stones or bricks, and their surfaces, are covered with plaster or roughcast, or with such a thick coat of whitewash as to obliterate their forms and lines, the wall has lost its natural expression : it may be of brick, or it may be of hewn stone ; but as every body knows that whitewashing is generally applied for the pur- f i 403 pose of disguise or conceal- ment, it is fair to conclude that, wherever it occurs on the external walls of buildings, they are made of lath and plaster, or mud. To return to our Design, the general effect of the weather-tiling will be seen in the elevation of the entrance, or north-west front, fig. 404 ; in the south-west side, fig. 405 ; in the south-east end, fig. 406 ; and in the north-east side, fig. 407. The use of weather-tiling in England is chiefly confined to the marine