Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/362

 3.S8 COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLA ARCHITECTURE. spectator from without, or to the occupant within, that we could wish no cottage, however humble, to be without them. For the same reason, we should wish cottage windows to be large, that the curtains may be displayed without too much obstructing the light. Window curtains give the mistress of the house an excellent opportunity for exercising her taste in their anangement ; and it is but doing justice to the French and Germans, to state that they are far in advance of the British, or, indeed, of any other people of Europe, in this particular. From Stockholm to Naples, the room of a French- man may always be known, before entering it, by the curtains of his window. It is not that they are formed of expensive materials, for these are seldom employed, except in a superior description of houses ; but muslins, cottons, and lenos, of different colours, sometimes accompanied by shawl bordering, sewed upon the cottons, are put up with a degree of style and taste which indicates both talent and a love of home in the occupant. It would be easy to introduce the same taste in Britain, if it were once properly pointed out to young females, and exemplified by the comparatively enlightened cottager ; for example, in the dwellings of the married upper servants of country gentlemen. The first step, however, is to have large windows. Fig. 705, p. 339, is a very plain style of hanging curtains. A round pole of wood is supported at each end by a bracket, fig. 706 a, 706 ]^ which is fixed by screw nails to the architrave of the window. The pole is kept securely in its place by the screw-pin, b, which passes through the bracket, and is screwed into the pole so as to keep it quite firm. On the pole are fourteen rings, generally of brass, but for a common cottage they might be made of iron bronzed ; and in the lower part of each ring there is a small eye, c, in which is inserted the end of the wire hook, d, -which is sewed along the inside of the upper margin of the curtain. By these means the curtain can be unhooked, and taken down to be cleaned at any time. The curtain, when not drawn, may be supported by a wooden pin, by a brass pin, by a brass band, e, which fits into a socket, f, and will stand either upright, or horizontal, at pleasure, accord- ingly as the square^tenon of the band maybe introduced. In fig. 705, this band is shown at g g, placed horizontally ; in fig. 706 it is shown placed upright. Instead of a pin or band, a piece of riband or curtain line, with a ring on each end, might be hooked on two knobs, and thus loop up the curtain. The manner in which this curtain, which opens in the middle, is made to draw from the centre to each side of the window, is shown in fi"-. 707. A line, /(, is passed round the small pulley which works in the pulley rack, ;' ; it is then carried over another pulley at A-; then over a third at /; and a fourth at m, return- ing to the pul- ley rack, where it is joined to its other end. There are two rings at n and o; one of which, the curtains being closed, is attached to the inner edge of one curtiiin, and the other to the inner edge of the other. The ring n is then fastened to the upper line, by a small eye on the outer edge of the ring, which may be seen in the figure ; and the ring o to the under line, by similar means. On inspecting the figure, it will be evident that, when thus arranged, by pulling the line p, the curtain to which the ring o is attached will he pulled towards m, and that to which n is fixed towards I; and thus the curtains will be opened. The reverse will be of course effected by pulling the line /;. The curtain rod may be formed cither of iron or of any hard wood ; and it should