Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/678

 1248 CySif COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLA ARCHITECTURE. and weights only occupy a space of seven inclies square, which I have enclosed as a trunk or case, so that the books can be removed without ever interfering with the working of the clock. Being an eight-day clock, it only requires the lines of the weights to be two feet ten inches long ; so that I have the whole of the lower part of the stand for drawers or whatever I choose. This lower part I have fitted up with a writing- desk in a drawer, with a slider b, for writing upon, which moves from c to d, and from which you have received many a letter. Under this writing-drawer I have two doors, which enclose three sliders or trays, like fig. 1248, which I use for keeping paper in When I am writing, I keep the doors open, as I find this more convenient for drawing out the sliders, and referring to the papers they contain." This piece of furniture, which we have taken the liberty of calling Saul's Bookcase and Writing-desk Clock, and for which, Mr. Saul being a cabinet-maker and joiner, we could wish he had 10,000 orders, is seven feet high, in three divisions. The lower division is two feet four inches high, by three feet wide, and two feet deep from front to back ; the middle or bookcase division, is two feet ten inches high by two feet wide, and the top is twenty-two inches high by twenty inches wide. The diameter of the large turned baluster is three inches in the widest part; and that of the small balusters is two inches in the widest part. The shelves are sufficient for containing a select agricultural library, and the writing-desk below, with slides for papers, must be amply sufficient for the correspondence and accounts of any ordinary farmer. 1376. The Introduction of Iron into the Furniture of Farm Houses would be attended with considerable economy, at least in the article of dining-tables, sideboards, bedsteads, and hall, lobby, or porch chairs. The sideboards may be formed of slabs of native marble in some districts, and slate in others, supported by enriched cast-iron feet, fig. 1249, or by brackets of various kinds, fig. 1250. Sideboards of this kind have a massive architectural efl[ect, very suitable for all houses whatever, and especially for houses in the country, where room is not an object. For our own part, we should even prefer slabs of finely polished stone, as sideboards, to wood of any kind; but cast iron maybe substituted; and, where neither metal nor stone is approved of, wood of some kind is always to be obtained, and may be worked and polished at pleasure. Fig. 1251 is a circular table, the top of which may be made of mahogany, or any other finely grained wood, and the supports of cast iron bronzed. The idea of having iron bedsteads will, we have no doubt, shock those who have been always accustomed to consider mahogany as essential for tliis piece 1250 of furniture : but we can assure them that they are to be found in the houses of people of wealth and fashion in London ; sometimes even for best beds. 1377. The Kitchen of the Farm House requires a good kitchen range or grate, which should always be accompanied by a boiler on one side, to afford a constant supply of hot water ; and an oven on the other, for baking, or keeping things hot. Both should be heated by the same fire. There are numerous cast-iron kitchen grates with a boiler on one side and at the back, and an oven on the other side; and we have already (§ 592) figured and described what we consider one of the simplest and best. For a farm house it should generally be on a larger scale than for a cottage ; and the most abundant choice may be obtained at the shops of the ironmongers in every part of Britain. In Derbyshire there are square cast-iron boxes, with iron or stone lids built in, at the sides of the kitchen fireplaces of farmeries; and Mr. Farey, in his elaborate, accurate, and most philosophical report of the county, informs us that they have been found great sources of usefulness and comfort, in supplying abundance of hot water at all times.