Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/755

 MODEL DESIGNS FOR COUNTRY SCHOOLS. 731 SL-hool is formed into one class. We shall first notice wliat is common to both systems, and afterwards describe each system separately. 151^9. The Systems of Bell and Lancaster agree in what is necessary for all schools; viz., in being placed in a dry, airy, light, warm, cheerful, and respectable situation. They agree also in requiring ample school-rooms, and a general form, nearer a square than a narrow parallelogram, for the more ready inspection of the whole school by the master or mistress : in most other particulars they differ. 1530. By the Madras System, the children are taught in classes forming squares ; and as these squares may be increased or diminished at the pleasure of the teacher, almost any form of room will suffice for carrying on either this mode of teaching, or the very superior variation of it by Stoat, denominated the circulating system. On the supposition that the squares are nine feet on the sides, this will give, at eighteen inches in length of form for each individual, eighty-one feet for twenty-four scholars, or about four superficial feet for each, deducting the space of one scholar for the room occupied by the monitor. It may be remarked, both of the original system of Bell and of the improvement on it by Stoat, that no author who has written on either has ever given or described one plan or form for a school, as preferable to another ; a clear proof that no particular form is necessary. 1531. 27(6 School on the Madras System, in Baldwin's Gardens, is shown in the ground plan, fig. 1377. It is divided into nine squares, six of which are shown with the forms, a a a, on three sides ; the fom'th being occupied by the teacher. In each square there is a box for books, &c., h ; c c are cast-iron columns which support the roof. Three of the nine squares which compose this school are shown vacant, merely because at the time we took the plan (Nov. 1832), there happened not to be a sufficient number of scholars to fill the school. Against the four exterior walls there is a continued writing-desk, d^ with a form before it, e. There is a cupboard for books and papers in one corner,/; and an entrance-door at another, g. Adjoining this school is one for girls, of exactly the same plan and dimensions ; and on examination days, and times of public display, the two 1377 r ^= ^ f z 1 -I u 1 1 n 1 — n J_ a m a m s i 10 -. . . . r ' fig e n a □ ^

a c (1 a ii schools are united by opening the sliding doors at h, and the children of both arj arranged along the open space, i, down the middle. To admit of this, the desks which are placed against the door. A, are movable ; but all the others are fixed. There is a plaj'-ground beneath each school, of the same size as the apartment over it. and a small yard, with the usual conveniences. The space from the floor to the roof of these schools is open, as indicated by the cross section, fig. 1378 ; in which there are windows for light