Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/377

 FURNITURE FOR COTTAGE DWELLINGS. 353 tablets six inches or eight inches square, of eminent men, remarkably well cast, may be had in London by retail, at 6il. each; casts of Venus, Cupid, Adonis, and of various cele- brated antique statues, eighteen inches or more high, may be had at 5.s. each ; busts of a large si/o may be had at the same price, and Swiss figures in terra cotta at 'is. Gil. each. Uy sizing over plaster casts wlien they are first bought, and quite clean ; and afterwards, when the size is perfectly dry, washing tliem over with copal varnish, they may be made to look almost as beautiful as marble sculpture. (Mevh. May., vol. xiv. p. 96.) Excel- lent engravings of subjects of every description may now be had for a few halfpence each : tiie commoner sorts the cottager may paste on the back of his settle, fig. G?yG, § 636, or kitchen screen, and varnisli them ; and the better kinds he may frame with common deal, ])ainted to imitate majile, and either glaze or varnish tliem according to his means. When there is a good broad chimney shelf, there will be room for other ornaments of a smaller description than busts or sculptures, such as curious stones, spars, ores, or other minerals, or coins, and objects of art and antiquity ; and these the cottager will collect as he can. The public taste for articles of this description has improved in an astonishing degree within the last twenty years; and, as knowledge spreads, and the working classes acquire tJiat leisure which, in consequence of this spread of knowledge, will become a necessary of life to even the most hard-working country labourer, this improvement will increase. But the objects with which, above all others, we should wish to see the cottage ornamented are books ; and every room, even the kitchen and bed-room, ought to have its book shelf. If we were asked what sort of books we should recommend generally to the cottager, meaning in this term to include the very humblest class of society, as well as the more elevated, we should reply that, as our aim is to render him free and independent alike mentally as physically, to fit him in short for taking care of himself, we recommend, first and principally, works on morals and politics : the former, that he may know the principle on which the social duties of all individuals are founded ; and the latter, that he may learn the use and duty of public government. Next, we recommend books on his own art, trade, and manner of living ; and, for the rest, we leave him to his own taste. Every cottager ought to possess a general encyclopaedia, and to take in a newspai)er. The penny magazines, and other cheap literatiire of the present day, though more calculated to amuse the cottager, than to instruct him how to improve his condition, will end in creating a demand for something better. 700. Retiiarks. Some other articles of furniture and decorations suitable for cottages might be enumerated ; but we have, we think, done enough, in Designs both for cottages and furniture, to prove the assertion with which we set out (§ 14), that all that is essen- tially requisite for " health, comfort, and convenience, to even the most luxurious of man- kind," may be obtained in a cottage, the wails of which are of mud, as well as in a palace with walls of marble ; in a working man's college of one story, as well as in the magnificent halls of Oxford and Cambridge, or in the elegant clulvhouses of London. A number of our readers will, no doubt, object to many of our Designs, both of cottages and furniture, as being beyond the reach of the great majority of British cottagers; but let such recollect that, in our Introduction to the Book of which this is the conclusion (see § IS), we in- cluded under the term cottager, not only labom-ers, mechanics, and country tradesmen, but small farmers and cultivators of their own laud ; and the gardeners, bailiffs, land stewards, and other upper servants, on gentlemen's estates. Let them consider, also, that our plans and views extend to both hemispheres (see § 1 ) ; and that the citizen of America, who thinks with his countryman, Dr. Dwight, that all private dwellings should be a,s much as possible alike in accommodation, and that architectural display should be confined, as in ancient Greece, chiefly to public buildings, may on his part not only find the Designs given not too good, but may even object to our making any distinction between Cottages and Villas. The British cottager or workman is, no doubt, at present in a widely different situation from the American ; but we anticipate for him a new era, and a condition very different from that in which he now is, at no great distance of time. All the evils which have so long afflicted him have arisen from his own moral and poli- tical ignorance, and from his consequent incapacity for self-government, either indivi- dually or collectively ; and they will be dispelled by the education of the rising generation, and the new order of things which will thenceforth be established. The working classes will then be able to take care of themselves ; and never, till this shall be the case, will they obtain those comforts and enjoyments which ought to be in the possession of the industrious labourer, as well as of the wealthy capitalist Every country is essentially the property of its inhabitants; and it is only in ages and in countries where education is partial or unequal, that wealth and the enjoyments of life can be very greatly different.