Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/376

 352 COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLA ARCHITKCTURE. ordinary table, so that they may sit and eat with their parents; and these, like the pierced chair, ought to be univers;il]y in use. 698. Other articles of furniture might be enumerated, and various hints given for the selection of household utensils and instruments, but we are doubtful whether in this work they would be seen by tiiosc who would feel most interest in them, or to whom they would be most useful. A washing and wringing machine, such as we shall figure in our next Book would be too dear for one cottager ; but we would strongly recommend that half a dozen cottagers should join in purchasing one ; as it would afford a great saving of labour, and that, too, of the most oppressive kind, to the cottager's wife ; since wring- ing is, to a female, almost as great an exertion as mowing is to a man. W;ishing-tubs have hitherto liecn chiefly made round, and Ijy the cooper, probably to accommodate the form to the ancient practice of washing by treading with the feet ; but oblong troughs are much cheaper, and far more convenient. — Every house whatever ought to jjossess the means of filtering the water used in cookery. We have shown how this may be done on a large scale, § 31 and 305 ; on a small scale, the operation may be performed with a common garden flower-pot of a foot or more in height, according to the impurity of the water to be filtered. Over the hole in the bottom of this flower-pot should be placed a piece of sponge; around and over which should be put two or three pieces of smooth clean stones, to keep it in its place, and, at the same time, to prevent the pressure of the filtering mate- rials (to be placed over them) from rendering the sponge so compact as not to allow of the escape of the water. Fill the pot, when thus prepared, to within two inches of the brim, with a mixture of one part of powdered charcoal, and two parts of clean sharp sand, and on the top of this lay a piece of flannel, letting it sink in the centre, but making it fast on the outside of the pot, by a string tied tightly under the rim. The upper sur- face of the pot will now form a shallow basin, lined with flannel, into which the water to be filtered is to be poured, and it will be found to come out rapidly at the bottom, quite clear. As the flannel will intercept the grosser impiu-ities, it should be taken oft' fre- quently, and washed and replaced ; and two or three times a year the sand and charcoal ought also to be taken out and washed. This will be found absolutely necessary ; for the purification is effected simply by the filtering materials attracting the impurities in the water ; the sand the earthy particles, and the charcoal those of organised matter. From this use of the charcoal the reader may learn to increase or lessen its proportion, according to the nature of the water to be purified. — When a cottager keeps a cow, he will require a churn, and one of the cheapest and best is the patent box churn which may now be had at Weir's manufactory, London, for ^1. Butter may be made in this churn with a fourth of the labour requisite with the common plunge churn ; it is, besides, much more easily used, and when not wanted as a churn, makes an excellent vessel for holding water. In the choice of utensils much de])ends upon knowing when to choose iron, and when wood, earthenware, or papier mache. Cast-iron pots, tea lUMis, tea and coffee pots, and parlour candlesticks, are excellent ; but iron tea trays are l)ad, as compared with those of papier mach^, because one of the latter will last out a dozen of the former. The same may be said of all vessels of copi)er or pewter, as compared with those of cast iron. It must never be forgotten that cop])er, pewter, and lead vessels sell for nearly as much by weight, when old and worn out, as when nev/, and that even c:ist iron will sell for some- thing, but that vessels of wrought or turned iron, when worn out, are of no value at all. Sjjoons, forks, and other articles, made of a composition of nickel and other ingredients, and known >mder the name of German silver, or of Beauchamp's British plate, may be recommended as very good substitutes for real silver. 699. Pictures, Sculptures, and other internal Ornaments. There is no cottage or dwelling, however humble, in which there will not be found some object purely ornamental : we have observed this to be the case in the most wretched log-houses in Russia, where engrav- ings of the rudest kinds, and sometimes fragments of glass or earthenware, such as no one would think worth picking up in the street in England, are placed in rooms which cannot boast of either chairs, tables, or beds. The occui)anls of these hovels sleep in their sheepskin clothes, on the stove in winter, and on the floor or out of doors in siunmer ; and their seats and tables are wooden forms or turf benches. It seems, at first sight, difficult to account for a taste for ornament existing among people so circum- stanced ; but the truth is, that man, whether in a state of liarbarism or refinement, is essentially the same animal, and ornaments bis home, because he loves it, and wislies to render it agreeable. The trumpery of the Russian boor, and the pictures and statue of the English gentleman, are collected and displayed exactly on the same principle. It is clear, therefore, that every cottager must have ornaments in his house, as well as flowers in his garden ; and, since whatever it is worth doing at all, it is worth doing well, we strongly recommend him to cover his walls with the best engravings he can get, and to ornament his chimney-pieces with handsome jilaster or terra cotta casts. Such articles may now be had for a mere trifle ; for example, alto relievo plaster portraits, on