Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/519

 FARM HOUSES AND FARMERIES IN VARIOUS STYLES. 495 as will be evident by comparing thein with tlie estimate of the Bury Hill Designs, § 863 and § 880. One reason of this is, that in Northumberland stone is got for the working, and the carriage of the greater part of the materials is found by the tenant. 996. Remarks. This Design is another of those so obligingly furnished us by John Green, "Esq., of Newcastle, the first Architect, as we are informed, for farm buildings, in the extensive counties of Northumberland and Durham. It is one of twenty plans and estimates which he made, in the year 1 824, for renovating the farm buildings and cottages on the estate of Beaufront, lying on the river Tyne, between Newcastle and Hexham. By the advice of a kind friend, in the north of the countj^ we applied to this gentleman through our esteemed correspondent IMr. Falla, the eminent nurseryman at Gateshead, near Newcastle, and he has liberally permitted us to examine many of the plans (accompanied by their specifications and estimates) which he has designed and executed on different estates. From these we have selected seven, of which this is the last, and they will give a complete idea to the Architect of the mode of arranging farm houses, farmeries, and the dwellings of farm labourers, in that first of all English agricultural counties, Northumberland. 'We must say, that, highly gratified as we have been with these farm houses and farmeries, we have been proportionately shocked by the scanty accommodation provided for the farm labourers. While the master is lodged in a house which is fit for any gentleman of independent fortune, and the horses and cattle have as ample accommodation as can be desired, the poor ploughman and hind are put into single rooms, each generally about 22 feet long by 1 6 feet wide, with one door and two small windows. At one end of this room a closet or dairy, 5 feet by 5 feet, is partitioned oflT, and lighted by one of the windows ; and a corresponding space serN-eg as a sort of lobby to the outer door. This reduces the room to 16 feet by 16^ feet, which must serve the occupant for every purpose to which a dwelling-house can be applied. The reader may turn to the plan of two of these cottages, marked u u, in fig. 973, p. 487, which he may rest assm-ed are fac similes of all the cottages buUt in Northumberland for ploughmen and farm-labourers. Among IMr. Green's plans, we have met with none with two rooms ; and only with two or three that have privies or places for a pig. These last cottages, we are informed by Mr. Green, were built for labourers to be employed by the landlord in different parts of his estate. To the cottages marked u u, in fig. 973, there is attached no pri^-j- or exterior appendage whatever ; though this is not much to be wondered at, since there is none to the farm house. We are tempted to enquire by what strange circumstance it happens that the art of farming should be carried to such a degree of perfection as it is in Northumber- land, while the farmers, and more especially their servants, live in a state of comparative destitution of many of the comforts enjoyed by the same class in the south of England, where the art of agriculture is at the lowest ebb ; and we can only account for it from the general ignorance both of the labourers and their employers, and from the remaining habits engendered by the oppression of the feudal system. The truth is, that almost the entire produce of the land, beyond the mere subsistence of the farmer and the labourer, is paid to the landlord in the form of rent; because the landed capi- talists, like the great capitalists in trade and manufactures, enjoy a complete monopoly of the market, and they can command their own price for their land, as the others do for the use of their capital. Thus, in the coimtry of great landholders, in the same manner as in the gi-eat manufacturing districts, the operative is scarcely able to exist. This evil can only be remedied by time, and a better system of government, ^hich will effect a more equal distribution of land and capital. In submitting these remarks to the reader, we intend to make no reflections, in this or in any other case, on the Architect, who must necessarily conform to the customs of liis locality ; but we conceive it to be the duty of an author, who is under no local influence, to express his opinion freely on this, as on every other subject that comes within the range of his work. M'e may add, that the chief point in which the farmeries of Northumberland excel those of Scotland, is in the subdivision of the fold-yards into smaller yards ; which, instead of being mere manufactories for manure, serve as enclosures for the growth, improvement, or fattening of cattle. Weak and young cattle always suffer much when many are placed together in the same yard ; and this, more especially, when the animals are brought from mountainous or partially enclosed districts ; or even districts where the enclosures are very large. Cattle fed loose in small enlosures or hammels of this kind have their hair sleek and unbroken, and their feet are never so tender as to prevent their travelling some distance to market. Nine tenths of the beeves or young cattle of Northumberland, we are informed by one of the most intelligent farmers in the county, are fed in small fold-yards, such as are represented in the ten preceding Designs, to the number of from three to six, or even morp, together, accordingly as they are found to agree. In the rich flat pastures of Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, and other counties of England, the larger breed of cattle, from their constitutional tamcness and docility, will 3 w