Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/275

 COTTAGE DWELLINGS IN VARIOUS STYLES. 2,^1 number of families in a quadrangle of the same dimensions as fig. 444, by diminishing the ground area of each dwelling one half, and raising a story over it, for completing the requisite accommodation. A second range of dwellings forty or fifty feet beyond the first, so as to form a double quadrangle, would give 1 20 additional dwellings of the same size and arrangement as those in fig. 440, making in all '200 ; and 400 might be obtained by having two stories. The situation of the dwellings of such an outer quadrangle is indi- cated by the dotted lines, marked one to fifteen, in fig. 440. The mode of having a double quadrangle would in general be much more economical than raising the buildings three or four stories high, and thus rendering a heating-pipe necessary for the living- rooms on the third story. In buildings of two stories, there would be no occasion for any other heating-pipe than that on the ground-floor ; because the heat would readily ascend from that to the bed-rooms. If the occupants were to agree to dine at three separate hours, and to breakfast and sup in their own houses, no additional dining-rooms would be required ; and the only alteration in the public offices would be an enlarge- ment of the schools. Much more might be said on the subject of this Design, and on the immense advantages which would result from working men's colleges, to the labour- ing classes of every description ; but the rising generation must be prepared for such a result by education. The first step towards living together in communities is being educated together in Infant and Lancasterian schools. In the mean time, those who have entered into the subject will be aware, that, by enlarging the separate dwellings, and using a superior description of materials and finishing in their construction, this plan might be rendered suitable for persons of any income ; even so large as to require a set of stables and coach-houses, assembly rooms, a theatre, walled gardens, conservatories, hot- houses, pleasure grounds, and a park. The principle is the same in all, — that of produc- ing in masses, by machinery, and by a division of labour, what has hitherto been effected in scattered fragments, by manual labour, and by every individual family for itself; and the advantages are, that by the cooperative system each member of the conamunity ob- tains a much greater portion of comfort and enjoyment for a given sum or quantity of labour, than he could possibly have done singly. It would be foreign from this work to enter more ftilly into the subject, and we refer our readers to its enthusiastic advocate, Mr. Owen, and to an able exposition of the cooperative principle, as applicable to persons possessing from £"'500 to £"1000 a year, given in the paper before referred to, in the Neie Monthly Magazine for August, 1832. Design LXXXI. — A Portable Cottage for the Use of Emigrants and others. 509. The principal object of this portable cottage is, to supply emigrants with comfort- able and secure lodgings immediately on their arrival at a foreign settlement. It is well known that in all new countries the rent of houses or lodgings is extremely high : it follows, therefore, that when an emigrant arrives with his family at the sea-port town of the country where he is to be put in possession of a grant of land, he must take a lodging for his family and goods ; probably for some weeks, or even months, till he has visited the interior of the country, examined it, and fixed upon the situation of his future residence. A single room at Hobart Town, in 1830, was often let at £1 a week ; hence it may be easily conceived that a portable cottage, like that given in this Design, which costs in London £30, will afford, though only containing two rooms, a considerable saving to a family of three or four persons of different sexes. Security from thieves, and protection from vermin, are also other recommendations. 510. As secondary uses of a poriahle cottage, we may mention, that it may be carried in ships making long voyages, for the purpose of being set up on shore wherever any stay is made, either for the benefit of invalids, or the use of scientific persons ; that it may be employed as a shooting-box, wherever there are tolerable roads, as it weighs little more than a ton, and might therefore be easily drawn by one horse. (It weighs about three tons ship's measurement, which is forty cubic feet to a ton ; but as a cubic foot of Baltic fir timber weighs only thirty-four pounds, even if the 140 feet forming the three ship's tons were solid, the weight would be little more than one himdred weight and a half. Not being solid, it is found not to weigh so much by half a hundred weight.) Where public works are going on in any remote district, one of these cottages would form a very convenient dwelling for the overseer ; and, being put on six wheels, might be moved forward as the work proceeded. W^hen that stupendous undertaking. Napoleon's road over the Simplon, was being executed, the chief engineer, a general of high rank, lived in a portable cottage, about ten feet square, which was carried forward by men, from one position to another, as required; and the remains of which we saw in 1819, at a village near to where the road commences in the Valais, on the Swiss side of the mountain. A party exploring a river in any country, and wishing to study the natural history of the country on each side, or even to shoot and fish, would, if they had such a