Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/686

 662 COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLA ARCHITECTURE. the dust may subside; and, returning after breakfast, gives one single movement to the handle of the riddle, merely to shake off the dust which may have settled on its rim. She then takes out the riddle, and empties it into a cinder-box or scuttle for use. Trifling as all this may appear to some, it is yet of great importance ; because, how can a servant be expected to be cleanly in her person or her work, if the very first operation which she has to perform in the morning covers her with dust ? We have shown al)ove, § 1373, how the dirty and disagreeable operation of cleaning grates in a room may be avoided, and we have now, we trust, pointed out a mode of sifting ashes, whether on a large or small scale, so as to avoid the disagreeable consequences of covering the operator with dust. We may add, also, that the operation is more likely to be well performed by this contrivance, and fewer cinders lost among the ashes. 1386. The Finisldng of the Surface or Floor cf Kitchen-courts and their offices should always be sloped, so as to lead all the water which falls on them to a trap over a drain at one point. This will greatly facilitate the process of cleaning, whether with a scrubbing-brush or broom : and it also promotes the rapidity of the drying process, by natural evaporation, which must necessarily contribute materially to the purity of the air, and the healthiness of all houses where there are a number of apartments or offices on the ground floor. SuBSECT. 2. Of the Finishing, Fixtures, Fittings-tip, and Furniture of Farmeries. 1 387. The External Finishing of Farm Buildings ought to be simple and durable. All the woodwork exposed to the open air ought to be well covered with paint, of which, the anti-corrosive kind before mentioned, § 546, is the best. When the roofs are covered with tiles, painting them with tar during the hottest weather in summer adds to their durability, as well as harmonises their colour with that of the surrounding ob- jects. The walls, when not of a very durable material, may be roughcast, or white- washed ; but the last should never be resorted to under the pretence of adding to their beauty, by those whose standard for that quality rises higher than mere glare and smartness. As it is extremely probable that steam will soon be very generally employed for impelling threshing-machines; and as nothing disfigures the country more than red brick chimney-shafts, like those common in the manufacturing towns of Lancashire, we would strongly recommend some attention to elegance of form in these very conspicuous parts of a modern farmery. We have already referred to the chimney built by Mr. Capper, at Birmingham, as a model of excellence in this respect ; and a correspondent having cited " Glasgow as a good example, both for the remarkable elegance of the shafts or obelisks, and the happy terminations by which ornament is given, and yet so as to be conducive to utility," we have applied to our architectural correspondent there, Mr. Reid, for sketches of soine of them ; and he has sent us a view of the three which happened to be nearest to his residence. In this sketch, fig. 1267, a is 130 feet high, five feet in diameter at the top, nine feet in diameter about ten feet from the ground, and circular throughout ; b is eighty feet high, square throughout, and four feet on the side at the top ; c is 150 feet high, five feet six inches in diameter at the top, and ten feet in diameter at the height of ten feet from the ground. Fig. 1268 is the cliiumey built by Mr. Capper at the Union rolling-mills, near Baskerville House, Birmingham : it is 1 62 feet high, the pedestal being thirty-one feet high ; the diameter at the top is four feet six inches, of the plinth at the bottom of the circular shaft fourteen feet, and of the octagon dado of the pedestal fourteen feet ; it contains 200,000 bricks ; and cost, in building, j^420. Of the Glasgow steam-engine chimney shafts, Mr. Reid observes that till lately they were made square in the plan, and built from scaffolding placed on the outside ; but that now they are generally built circular, from the inside. All the scaffolding employed is a continued central post, in the centre of the flue, from which cross pieces, at intervals of a foot or eigliteen inches, are fixed with their ends in the brickwork, to serve as a stair by which the workmen, in building, may ascend and descend ; the materials being liauled up outside with tackle. Formerly winding staircases were built outside these chimney- shafts ; but Mr. Reid says they have a bad effect, and, therefore, he has paid no atten- tion to them in his sketch. Could a few such shafts as those of Mr. Capper be introduced into the farmeries of Scotland and Northumberland, the effect in the land- scape would be excellent. It is only necessary to imagine them, as the traveller moves along the public road, rising into view one after another, on the prominences of the plains, and on the cultivated sides of the hills, backed by the mountains, which appear in the distance in every part of that beautiful and picturesque portion of Britain. Perhaps the time may come, when, from almost every large farmer being the proprietor of the land he occupies, there will be a competition among them as to who shall erect the hand- somest shafts, similar to what there was in former ages among the Catholic clergy as to the building of spires to their churches and monasteries. Like the spires and towers of churches, the column and the obelisk are forms that, though without variety in them-