Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/763

 MODEL DESIGNS FOR COUNTRY SCHOOLS. JSQ upon the building, and this security would become more and more valuable in proportion to the decease of the subscribers. There must, of course, be a limitation as to the age of the person subscribing. 1569. Expense of fitting-up a School for 120 Bo!/s. £ s. d. 12 desks and forms, 12 feet long, with legs complete 12: 0: O Sleepers in the floor, for them to rest upon, and to be ftistened to 1:0:0 100 lesson-boards, at 4d. each 1 : 13 : 4 Master's desk 1:0:0 4 windows, 3 feet by 4 feet, glazing and framing 4 : : O Total £ : 13 : 4 1570. The Annual Ex- 1384 pense of Schools upon the Lancasterian Plan will consist principally of the following items : rent, master's salary, lessons, slates, &c. (which will cost about i^l5 per annum for a school of 400 or 500 chil- dren), rewards, fuel, &c. 1571. The Expense of educating a Child is from 4s. 6d. to 12s., according to the size of the school ; for, as the salary of the teacher is the principal expense, and as one only is required in any case, the larger the number of children the smaller the charge will be per head. One set of lessons, &c., will, if carefully used, be sufficient for the use of schools of from 100 to 500 children, for several years. (^Manual oj the British Si/stem, &c. p. 79.) 1572. A Country School, whether for infants or other children, but more especially in the latter case, ought always to be accompanied by a certain extent of garden ground ; in order that all childi-en may be taught experimentally something of botany, and of the universal arts of gardening and agriculture. A girls' school should, in our opinion, always be accompanied by a kitchen completely fitted up with a stewing-hearth, roasting or baking oven, &c., in order that they may be taught experimentally the most useful part of cookery, the art of making the most of human food. Besides a garden, we would have a large apartment, in which should be placed various descriptions of tools and benches, to teach the boys the more common mechanical exercises, particularly those Oi carpentry and masonry. Adjoining the girls' kitchen there should be a washhouse and laundry, in which the arts practised in these places should be taught them ; and in the general schoolroom they might be taught all the different kinds of sewing and making clothes, and every other description of housewifery. 1573. The Extent of Garden Grou7id which ought be attached to a country school will vary according to circumstances ; but, to contain a tolerable collection of useful plants, and to afford space for displaying different kinds of culture, it should, in the very smallest schools, never be less than half an acre. The children may be taught the names of the plants, their natural history, and the different operations of culture, with the scientific reasons on which these operations are founded. Pursuits of this kind are so congenial to man, that very little instruction would be sufficient; and it might generally be given rather as a reward for good conduct than as a task. Believing, as we do, that the happiest state of society is that in which the majority, whether em- ployed in agriculture, manufactures, or commerce, shall possess each a house, and a small portion of land, either adjoining it or detached fi-om it ; and believing, also, that the progress of things is approaching to this state even in Britain, we attach considerable importance to the instructing of the rising generation in these pursuits ; not only as tending to create in them a desire for this state of things, but to fit them for the enjoy- ment of it when obtained. In Wirtemberg and Bavaria, where the system of parochial schools is far in advance of those in any part of Britain, land is attached to every school-