Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/51

 COTTAGE DWELLINGS IN VARIOUS STKLES. 2' of architectural style. The object is to show how some of the improvements in the Model Designs, may be applied to even the smallest dwellings ; and, how with all, or with any of these ameliorations, or without them, various degrees of architectural style or beauty may be produced in cottages. For the attainment of these objects, we have accompanied each Design by such remarks, as we think calculated to enable the reader to form an opinion of his own ; grounded on sound principles, as to what is, and what is not, beauty in Cottage Architecture. These Designs might have been arranged according to the degrees of accom- modation, or their scale in respect to architectural style ; but considering that the first appearance of this work will be in periodical portions, we have preferred giving a miscel- laneous selection in each portion. Design IV. — A Dwelling for a Man and his Wife, without Children. 55. Accommodation. This dwelling, we consider as exhibiting the minimum of accom- modation, which ought to exist for a man and his wife without children, even in a country where there is an unequal distribution of civil rights. It contains one room, a, in which the cooking and ordinary avocations of the family are carried on, and which serves at the same time as a sleeping-room ; a wash-house, b, which must also serve as a store-room, pantry, and for various other purposes ; a porch, c, for wood or other fuel, and for tools of husbandry and out-door work ; a privy, d, and an enclosed yard, with a dung-pit, e, forming a circular basin, and having a well in the centre for liquid manure from the privy. 56. Description. The house is placed on an artificial platform, which is ascended by four stone steps, seen on the plan, near the entrance door. The surface of the platform, which may be laid with gravel, or paved, forms a walk, on three sides of the house, leading from the door of the house, to the door of the court-yard. The greater part of this court-yard is on a lower level than the platform ; the descent to this level being by an inclined plane from/ to g. The pit, under the seat of the privy, communicates with the well, e, four or five feet deep, by an under-ground drain, which may either be formed in the usual manner, by bricks or stones, or by earthenware pipes ; so that whenever the e]l is emptied for the purpose of taking out the manure, (formed by what is thrown in from above, and what is communicated below by the drain from the cesspool, under the privy-seat,) the privy will be emptied also. In consequence of this arrangement, the seat will never require to be removed for the purpose of emptying the cesspool ; and the opening in the seat may com- municate with the cesspool by means of a tube, either of boards, or earthenware, which, with double covers, will prevent the rising of smell. In the section of this cottage (p. 29), it will be seen that the floor is laid on loose stones ; if it be desirable to heat this mass of stones with a view to the economy of fuel, horizontal flues can be built among them, commu- nicating with an oven, in the wash-house, at one end near the boiler, and with an additional flue in the chimney stack at the other, in the manner shown in describing the model cottages. To every dwelling there must be some source for supplying water for the purposes of food and cleanliness. The common resource is a well, from which the water is drawn either by a windlass, or lever and bucket, or a pump ; but the water which falls on the roof may be applied to domestic purposes, as described in the preceding chapter. 57. Construction. The walls of this cottage are here shown eighteen inches thick, with a view to their being built of rubble stone (stones rough from the quarry); oi pise (to be described hereafter) ; of mud blocks (which is nearly the same thing as build- ing in pise) ; or of compressed blocks of common earth (also described hereafter). The footings, or lowest parts of the foun- dations of the walls are shown, in this Design, and most of those which follow, as only a few inches below the surface of the ground, h ; partly because the footings being covered and surrounded by the platform, are not likely to be after- wards disturbed ; and partly because very little depth of foundation is wanted for buildings, generally of one, and sel- dom of more than two stories high. The roof may be covered with flag-stones, or slates, or Grecian tiles ; the eaves being sup- ported by wooden blocks, or cantilevers, as shown more clearly for the purposes of the e2