Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/661

 DWELLINGS FOR FARM SERVANTS. 637 candidate, as to whether they had received parochial relief. Would that this spirit wera more generally diflFlised, and that it were cherished and fostered by the owners of land as it ought to be ! Of the plans I have sent you, fig. 1210, p. 653, has been executed ; but f]g. 1215, though a more pleasing elevation, was given up, as it involved a lead gutter between the roofs, which increased the expense i:'10; and, what was a far more serious objection in my mind, it incurred the risk of damage from snow in winter, as you could never rely on a labourer taking the precaution of throwing it off." A simple and eflfec- tual remedy for this evil has been pointed out to us by John Robison, Esq., Secretary to the Royal ' Society of Edinburgh ; who says, " A frequent cause of annoyance is the water which finds admittance in roofs when the valleys and gutters get obstructed by melted snow, on the occurrence of a sudden thaw. This is easily and effectually pre- vented by any contrivance by which a waterway can be preserved in the gutters, into which the snow cannot find access until it be melted : slates, or boards, supported so as to leave a hoUow under them ; ranges of tiles with their convex sides uppermost ; damaged slates, &c., may be applied in this way with perfect success. In towns, many roofs get injiu-ed by the persons sent up to throw the snow off them ; but if the above simple pre- caution be taken, the greatest accumulation of snow can do no harm, however rapid the thaw may be." Fig. 1216 shows a valley-gutter between two roofs, with a ridge-tile.