Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/76

 52 COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLA ARCHITECTURE. mode of construction, undeserving of imitation. A peculiarity, which in respect to use is a great deformity, is introduced in the principal window, in the form of the head of a Gothic arch supporting the umllion. This Gothic arch crosses the window in such a manner as to intercept the most valuable portion of the light. Nevertheless, we have given this Design a place, from its being characteristic of the style which it affects to exhibit ; but we shall after- wards give other Designs in the same style not liable to the same objections. It is also proper to remark, that in new countries, where building materials and labour are scarce and dear, this would be exactly the sort of cottage that would be most suitable for a dwelling in the English cottage style ; and in temperate climates rather milder than Britain, such, for example, as many parts of Australia, there could be no objection to the chimneys being in the outside walls. Their effect there, rising boldly into the air, and contrasting with the sloping surfiice and horizontal line of the roof, is excellent. A low box hedge, with standards at the angles, cut into architectural shapes, would be in perfect harmony with this style of cottage, fig. 86. Design XI. — A Dwelling for a Man and his Wife, and One or Two Children, uilh a Cow-house and Pigsty. 113. Accommodation. This hermitage-looking dwelling contains a porch, o ; a work-room or parlour, 6 ; a bed-room communicating with it, c ; a kitchen, d ; and an outer kitchen or wash-house, with an oven, e ; communicating with a pantry and dairy,/. The wash-house has a back door, near which, in the lean-to, is a privy, g ; a. cow-house, /( ,- and a place for wood, or for a pig, i. In the section the floors are shown as laid over a bed of stones, and a gravelled terrace surrounds the whole building, on a level six inches lower than the floors of the rooms. In the bed of stones may be a flue connected with the oven placed in the angle of the back kitchen, e, as before described. 114. Construction. The walls are of stone, hewn at the coins (corners), and with the barge stones (a corruption of verge, and signifying the margin of any thing), also hewn. The roof is of a high pitch, in conformity with roofs in the Gothic style, and may be covered with pan (hollow) tiles, or plain tiles; it pro- 87 ^ jects a few inches at the eaves, so as to deliver ( the water into a gutter. The windows and the ' door are surrounded by plain architraves ; ) the principal windows have pointed tops, and are divided by muUions (fig. 87, k, to a scale of half an inch to the foot). The stack of ^ chimneys, fig. 88, may either be executed in free-stone, or what in Britain will cost much less and yet be sufficiently durable, cement. The door is formed of bead and batten with extei'ior hinges, similar to those in Design VI. The gable ends are surmounted by crosses, which may either be formed of stone or cement, and if a description of that article, used in forming stone ornaments by Austin, of the New Road, London, be employed, there can be no doubt of their durability. 115. Situation. It is evident that a building of this sort is erected chiefly with a view to its ornamental effect, and, therefore, wherever it is placed, it ought not to be obscured by trees. It may be considered as a sort of hermitage, and, in this point of view, it should be placed in a solitary situation. 116. General Estimate. Cubic contents, 1 1,700 feet, at 6rf., £292 : 10,?. ; at id., £195 ! and at 3^/., £l 16 : bs. 117. Expression. This being the first Design in which we have made a great departure from symmetry, that is, a correspondence of parts in the general form, it may be useful to offer a few remarks on ' the principle of irregularity in Architecture. It is evident that to introduce irregularity o. form in buildings, is an architectural refinement of the present age ; for, though in ancient buildings of every description, there is much more of irregularity than of symmetry, yet this irregularity has always been the result of accident ; of additions made from time tc time as they were required, or of subtractions or mutilations, according as certain parts might be done without, or as the ability to keep them in repair diminished. We find no ancient author on Architecture recommending irregularity ; and from this we may conclude tha' no ancient Architect ever designed a building of an irregular form when he could help it. The first in Britain who decidedly recommended irregularity in buildings, was Uvedale Price in the first edition of his admirable Essays on ^AePiciarM^uc, published in 1794; and he was