Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/753

 MODEL DESIGNS FOR COUNTRY SCHOOLS. 7^29 1522. Another Model Design, fig. 1375, is given by the same author, and is preferred by him, because in it the children may be so arranged in the circumference of a circle, as that their eyes, necessarily, and without effort, are directed to the rostrum. All the children 1.375 / 1 1 i m 1 1 are here equidistant from the acting monitors or superintendents. From the position of the scholars, also, the necessity for a raised gallery is removed. The more advanced, whose examinations will principally take place in the class room, wUl be seated along the straight wall, i. Those next in progress will occupy the inner circle of seats, k ; and the smaller children will take their seats on the benches, /, attached to the circular wall. The roof of this place should be so constructed as not to reverberate the sound, for which purpose it should be without a ceiling. There are two class rooms, m m, to this Design, and a yard embracing it on three sides, as in the preceding one. 1523. The Form of the School-room, according to IMr. Wilderspin and Mr. Brown, ought to be rectangular ; and fifty feet long by twenty-five feet wide will, they say, contain as many infants as the most laborious master and mistress can conveniently manage. The middle of the room is kept quite clear of fixed seats, and the height, to the roofs, should be fifteen or twenty feet, without any intervening ceiling, as that is found to pro- duce echo. In addition to a room of fifty feet by twenty-five feet, there should be at one end a gallery fourteen feet wide and fifteen feet deep, and a class-room ten feet wide and fourteen feet deep. The gallery is fitted up with steps rising above each other, for the purpose of instructing the children with greater facility in particular branches. The first bench or seat in this gallery should be seven inches high, and seventeen inches in depth ; the second should be seven inches and a half high, and the same in depth ; and so on, increasing in height half an inch in every seat, tUl the ten seats which the space affords are completed. The class-room, which is placed alongside of the stage or gallery, is fourteen feet by ten feet, on the plan, allowing one foot for a partition between them. At the end of this class-room a stage of two or three seats is erected for the larger children. The large room is fitted up with seats round its sides, from six inches and a half to nine inches and a half in height, and eight inches wide, with a small bead or fillet nailed on the floor, about a foot from the seat, as a line of demarcation for the chUdren's feet. The wall is covered with boarding to the height of four or five feet, terminating in a row of hat pins. The portion of sitting-room allowed by Mr. Wilderspin for each child is twelve inches in length ; so that a school fifty feet long, and twenty-five feet wide, with a bench along three sides, and two doors into the gallery and class-room at one end, will contain from 125 to 150 infants. 1524. A Play-ground and other Conveniences should be connected with each school; and Mr. Wilderspin is of opinion that this play-ground should not be less than 150 or 200 fett long, and 50 feet wide, for a school of the size above-mentioned ; Mr. Brown, when speaking of London Infant Schools, says, fifty feet by twenty-five feet will be large enough for a play-ground for 1 50 children. INIuch will depend on the age of the infants. 4 o