Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/55

 COTTAGE DWELLINGS IN VARIOUS STYLES. 31 which, ill rude huts, formed the sides and covers to openings, fig. 28), the building would then lay claim to be called a cottage in the Grecian style ; but being without these, it has httle or no expression of style, but simply an expression of the subject, or purpose, for which it was built ; that is, to serve as a cot- tage, or human dwelling of the humblest kind. The glass windows, the door for security, and the chimney top, clearly show this edifice to be a human dwelling ; and its size, as decidedly determines it to be one of the humblest description, or what is called a cottage. Re- move the windows and the chimney top, leaving the entrance opening without a door, fig. 29, and it might be taken for a cattle- shed and yard. Remove the roof, and replace the door, fig. 30, and it might pass for a place of burial. Restore the glass windows, in- crease the height of the principal one, and replace the roof with a little alteration, adding on its summit a turret and bell, fig. 31, and this structure might be mistaken for a chapel. We state these things simply for the purpose of showing what is meant by expression of the subject, in contradistinction to what is meant by expression of architectural style. Design V. — A Dwelling for a Man and his Wife with Two or more Children, with a Cow-house and Pigsty. 61. Accommodation. This is a simple, economical, and comfortable dwelling, without pretensions either to ornament or style. It contains an entrance lobby, a ; kitchen, b; back kitchen, c; children's bed-room, d ; bed-room for the father and mother, and the infant chil- dren, e ; tool house,/; pantry, g; place for fuel, A ; privy,?; cow-house, A- ; and dairy, /• There is a yard behind the house containing a pigsty and the manure well. This yard is entered from the back kitchen, c ; and also by doors in its boundary fence, m, 62. Construction. The walls may be of stone, brick, or earth ; the two former materials will not only be found more suitable in reality, but more satisfactory to the eye ; for walls of earth, when not whitewashed, have always a mean appearance, from the inferiority of the material ; and when whitewashed, this meanness, though concealed, is still known to exist ; for no building was ever whitewashed, but for the purpose of concealing something, and every one must feel, with Wood, that the grandeur or the beauty of any building is never heightened by this operation. " The world in general," says this philosophical artist, " is exceedingly unwilling to acknowledge beauty of form when the material is bad ; and, on the other hand, where the materials are good, it is ready to praise the form also ; the one is a much more obvious and indisputable merit than the other." {Letters, ^c. Vol. II. p. 96.) Where white- washing or lime-washing a building, with any colour, contributes to the preservation of the wall, it is justifiable ; but no genuine lover of truth will ever admit that this operation can add to the beauty or character of a building. The idea which it conveys of the neatness and cleanliness of the inhabitant is its principal recommendation ; and yet it is a fact, that where lime-washing is most employed, as in Wales and Scotland, the interiors of the cottages are less orderly and clean, than in the unwhitened mud and rough stone cottages of England. 63. The Cow-house in this Design is placed under the same roof with the dwelling apart- ments, but with its floor a few inches lower, so as to be on a level with the platform. That part of the platform on which the cow-house opens ought always to be connected with an enclosed yard ; and instead of sloping down to the general surface level at an angle of 45° or 50°, it ought to slope, as shown in the Section on the line A B, at an angle not exceeding 15°. The whole of the enclosed yard ought either to be paved, macadamized, or gravelled ; and the surface ought to be so inclined as to carry all the water which falls on it, to the manure pit and well. The floor of the cow-house ought to be perfectly level and smooth, so as that it may never be necessary to employ litter. The gutter ought to be formed about a foot broad, and four inches deep, and exactly behind the cow's heels. This will be from seven to eight feet from the feeding-trough at her head, according to the size of the cow ; but the details on this subject will be found in our second Book. 64. The Roof is shown of a low pitch, and covered with slates. The chimney tops are quite plain; and, in our opinion, they, and most of the other chimney tops in the Designs