Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/490

 466 COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLA ARCHITECTURE. the mode of building farm houses and farmeries, such as we have given above, has been furnished us by jMr Newall : — Specification of the Mntcrialu and Works required to build a DweUing-house, and a Steading of Farm Office Houses at agreeable to given Plans for 908. Digger and Leveller. The whole of the surface mould is to be stripped from the site of the buildings, the dung and court yards, and to the extent of 2 feet beyond the respective outside walls of the buildings, and it is to be laid into the proposed garden. The site for the buildings is to be properly levelled, agreeably to the sections and plans ; and these levels are to be taken from the level of the principal floor of the dwelling-house, which is marked by a post fixed into the ground at the south corner of its site. The cellars under the parlour are to be sunk to the depth of at least 9 feet 6 inches below the level of the principal floor of the house. If it be found, after these levellings and excavations are made, that there are any soft parts in the ground along the lines of the foundations, trenches are to be cut through these parts for the footings of the walls, to a sufficient depth to insure a proper foundation. All the earth, rubbish, &c., of these excavations and levellings, together with all the rubbish that will accumulate during the building and finishing of the houses, are to be removed to such place or places as shall be fixed upon before entering into contract. 909. Dwelling-House. — Mason's Work. Foundations. The foundations of the thick walls are to be laid with large suitable flat-bedded stones (stones level on the under siu-face), which are to be at least 6 inelies thick, and so broad as to leave offsets on each side of the respective walls, as shown by the sections of the footings. 910. E.vternal Walls. The walls of the front and gables are to be built with coursed rubblework (courses of unequal height, but of hammer-dressed stones), neatly dressed, and closely jointed ; all the other external walls are to be of good rubble building, neatly dressed ; and the inside thick ones to be likewise of good rubble building. All these walls are to be properly built in the heart (in the centre or middle of the walls) with good lime mortar ; and they are to have such a proportion of in-bonds (bond stones stretching across the wall) throughout the whole of them, that these shall not be more than 4 feet apart in any direction on either side of the walls : these in-bonds are not to be less than 1 8 inches in length, and 16 inches into the wall ; but they are not to be more than 9 inches in height. 911. Hewn Works. The whole of the window rybets (reveals), sills, and lintels ; the entablatures over the windows, and all the other dressings round the front and gables ; the portico and doors, ingoings (jambs or sides), and stair of the front entrance-door ; the wall head cornice and gutter, with a 6-inch course under the cornice, are to be of neatly polished freestonework ; and all the entablatures, cornices, and other dressings, are to be cut to the respective drawings. All the other door and window rybets, sills, and lintels ; the wall head tabling of the low buildings ; the chimney tops (or stacks), and the exter- nal corners, and base course, are to be of droved (a particular mode of hewing with a broad chisel, called a drove by masons, which leaves its marks, not unlike the squares on a chess-board, but smaller) freestonework. 912. Chimney-pieces, Hearth, ^c. The chimney jambs and hearth are to be of fine polished freestonework, and those of the two parlours are to be cut to imitate marble ones, as shown by tlic drawings. The chimney flues are to be built oval, and neatly plastered. The hearths of the first (ground) floor are to be laid in mortar over a mass of dry whinstones (granite, or any local stone, not freestone), enclosed with rubble building. 913. Stairs. The stairs are to be of polished freestonework; and the fronts of the steps, &c., to have torus and fillet mouldings; and the whole to be finished with polished stone skirting. 914. Stone Floors. The floors of the entrance-lobby and passages are to be laid with fine polished pavement, at least 2 inches and a half thick. Those of the kitchen and scullery are to be laid with the hardest pavement that can be procured in the quarry ; and the flags are to be at least ,'5 inches and a quarter thick. Those of the dairy and cellars are to be laid with good droved pavement ; the flags to be 2 inches and three quarters thick. They are all to be sqviare-jointed at least 2 inches from the face, and set with lead and oil putty to a similar breadth. Preparatory to laying these floors, all the earth, rubbish, &c., is to be cleared from the resjiective apartments, to the depth of at least 18 inches below the level of the floors; and these spaces are to be filled with clean small whinstones to the depth of 12 inches, over the top of which a stratum of lime riddlings (or any such mixture) is to be put, so compact that the sand (or mortar) in which the flags are laid will not pass through it. All these stone floors are to be finished round with polished stone skirting, at least 5 inches high. 915. Stone Tables. The dairy is to have polished stone tables (or shelves) round it, as shown by the ijlans, and they are to have polished stone skirting along the top of them, at least 6 inches high.