Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/476

 452 COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLA ARCHITECTURE. figures, a aa are upright pieces of oak three inches square, sunk in the ground at the lower end, and kept steady by braces, b, at their upper ends. At a foot from the ground, and also near the top, these posts have double ledges, or horizontal pieces, c c, nailed on behind, and in front, for the movable cheek-pieces to traverse in ; they being fixed with pivots at e e. These pieces lean back to admit the cow's head at /, and they are then moved to a perpendicular position, as shown at i, and kept in place by catch-pieces, g g, which have mortise holes which fall down on tenons on the ends of the cheek-pieces : these catch-pieces also move on pivots, which are fixed in the uprights. The calf-pens, h, at the further end of the cow-house, are enclosed by boards five feet high from the ground, with a door to each ; but the floor of the pen is raised one foot above the floor of the cow-house, and is formed of stout oak boards pierced with holes to allow the escape of urine : each pen has a door two feet wide. The drainage of the yard is to a hollow space between the pigsties and the central hovel ; this space being central to the piggeries, the stable, the cow-house, and the cattle-shed, which are the great sources of manure, and to the three barns, which are the great sources of litter. In this situation the dung- hill is at the farthest point from the house ; and, therefore, least likely to be offensive by its smells. There is an open gutter surrounding the interior of the yard, so as to receive the water from the caves of the roofs, and conduct it out by the back gate, there to irrigate a grass field. 890. Remarks. This Design was furnished us by Mr. Main, who informs us that it is very nearly a fac simile of the Warren Farm in the parish of Chalfont, Buckinghamshire. It does not exhibit the modern improvements of a threshing-machine, or a liquid manure tank ; but, considering it as a farm house and farmery of the old school, it is, perhaps, as complete a thing of the kind as is any where to be met with. There is nothing super- fluous or extravagant, and yet nothing wanting, either for the business of the farm or the comfort of the farmer. As compared with the two spacious Scotch farmeries before given, we cannot help remarking the difference between the essential requisites in the appendages to an English and a Scotch farm house. Here, in a house for a farmer occupying only 1 50 acres, and that of poor flinty clay, we have every convenience for baking, brewing, and keeping ale and beer ; a large pantry, and a large daily ; poultry- houses for three kinds of poultry ; and well contrived piggeries and calf-pens. Besides the lawn or flower-garden, and the kitchen-garden, there is an orchard ; for apple puddings and damson pies are necessaries of life to the English farmer, though they are hardly ever seen on the table of a Scotch one, whose indulgence in this way lies in marmalades, jellies, and other sweetmeats. There are no less than three privies to this comparatively small establishment, while there is but one to each of the magnificent Scotch quadrangles, p. 442 and p. 446, the dwelling-house to one of which has three sitting-rooms. The propriety of the situation of the privies, in Mr. Main's Design, is also worthy of notice : that of the workmen being placed in the most obscure corner of the yard, and that of the maid-servants being near the wood stack. In countries where the threshing-machine is in general use, the smallest of the barns would have sufficed ; and, in others where the importance of liquid manure was fully understood, there would probably have been a liquid manure tank under the dunghill, communicating by under- ground gutters with the stable, cow-house, and pigsties ; and probably, also, the dunghill would have been covered with a roof: but these constitute the chief improvements which would probably be introduced, if this farmery were to be reconstructed at the present day. Looking at it as a piece of Architecture, it wUl give no pleasure to the Architect, as an artist, because it does not display externally any thing of architectural style ; but that it has the beauty of fitness in an eminent degree, and that it is characteristic of an English farmery built of timber, we think no one wUl deny who has gone over the details. Design VI. — A Farm House and Farmery for a Farm of 600 Acres of Turnip Soil, in Ayrshire, under a Rotation of Five Fears, and employed partly in breeding and partly in feeding Stock, 891. Accommodation. The general appearance is shown in fig. 917 ; and the ground plan in fig. 918. The ground plan of the house shows a common parlour, 1 ; best parlour or dining-room, 2 ; kitchen, 3 ; scullery, 4 ; pantry, 5 ; and dairy, 6. The chamber floor, fig. 916, contains two good bed-rooms, a, b; two second-best bed-rooms, c, d; a lumber-room, e; a maid-servant's bed-room, f; and three closets, g g g. The farmery, fig. 918, exhibits a stable, 7, for eight 916 horses in separate stalls, forty-eight feet by sixteen feet ; a hay-house, 8, eighteen feet by sixteen feet ; another stable, 9, for nine horses in separate stalls, fifty-four feet by sixteen feet ; a cart-house, 10, for seven carts, fifty-four feet by sixteen feet ; a tool-house, 1 1, eight feet by sixteen feet ; a cart-way, or place for backing a cart loaded with