Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/259

 COTTAGE DWELLINGS IN VARIOUS STYLES. Q35 70. Extra Expenses to the Exterior of the House. Eighty-one feet lineal three-quarter-inch deal eaves, fascia beaded, £ s. d, with lath and stucco soffits and backings, and cast-iron eaves gut- ters, and painting 8 : 2:0 Thirty feet lineal of two-inch cast-iron pipes, with heads and shoes 2 : 0:0 Sixty-six feet lineal one and a half inch verge board to gables, ten inches wide, wrought, moulded, and cut, with stuccoed soflSts 4 : 19:0 Two oaken pinnacles : 12:0 I,abel moulding to three windows : 15:0 Seventy-six lineal feet of beading round the ceilings of the living- room (fig. 418.) 0: 19:0 £11: 7:0 James500 (talk) 16:31, 28 January 2020 (UTC)^ 471. Sumniart/ of Estimates. Bricklayer and Digger 92 : 18 : 8 Carpenter 68 : 14 : 3 Plasterer 13 : 3:2 Stonemason 7 : 4:0 Sundries 16 : 3:0 Total expense of the building, 418 plain ^£-'198: 3:1 Extra work for the porch 14 : 9:0 Extra expenses to the exterior ... 17 : 7:0 Total expense with a porch and other extras ^£229: 19: 1 472. General Estimate. The cubic contents of this dwelling are 11,686 feet, which, at 6d. per foot, make ^,'292 : Ss. ; at 4rf., i;194 : 15*. 4rf. ; and at 3d., ^'146: Is. : 6d. As Mr. Laxton's estimate amounts to ,£229 : 19s., it thus appears that about 4'^d. per foot is a fair price for buildings of this description, in the neighbourhood of London, in the year 1832. 473. Remarks. The general effect of this building is good; but, for comfort, and especially warmth, the chimneys ought not to have been in the outside walls. In comitries where fuel is abundant, or in those where fire is wanted chiefly for cooking and washing, this will be no great objection; but, in Britain, no exterior beauty or cha- racter can, in our opinion, compensate for having the fireplaces in the outside walls. When the chimneys are in the interior walls, they not only keep the whole house warm, but they invariably draw better. Knowing, and being deeply impressed with, these two facts, chimney shafts, when rising from the centre of a roof, always appear to us more beautiful than in any other position; and in this sentiment we think we are correct, because the origin of all beauty must necessarily be utility. The difference between us and those who prefer the chimney shafts on the gable ends, consists in their judging with reference to a different standard. If we ask what that standard is, we shall generally be told that it is picturesque effect ; sometimes, perhaps, the imitation of particular styles of cottage building, which have resulted from accident; and occasionally, though rarely, synunetry and regularity. In our opinion, the grand and fundamental principle of exterior beauty in dwellings is to be found in their internal accommodation and comfort. Whatever is required by or consonant with this, must be beautiful in the eye of reason; and all exterior beauty inconsistent with this, must depend on associations, which, not having their origin in reason, may be called arbitrary or accidental, and ought there- fore not to be relied upon. All Architecture being founded on necessity and reason, and not on the imitation of any objects whatever, either of nature or art, it follows that the external beauty of any edifice as a whole can never be truly judged of, without a knowledge of the uses for which it is designed. So also the beauty or propriety of the various parts and details of a building, such as walls, supports, openings, &c., cannot be properly appreciated, unless we know the nature of the materials em- ployed. We cannot, for example, decide as to the width of a doorway or a window, unless we know the materials of the wall in which the opening is made ; as well as the mode, whether by an arch or a lintel, m which that opening is covered. Neither can we estimate the weight which any prop or colunm will bear, unless we know the material of which it is composed. The proportions of a colunm, in timber, which may be very suitable for what it has to support, and therefore beautiful, would be more than sufficient, and therefore cinnbrous and inelegant, in stone, and stiU more so in iron. It is true, that, in judging of doors, windows, and colunms, a very small portion of man-