Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/81

 COTTAGE DWELLINGS IN VARIOUS STYLES. 57 walls are of brick nogging. The entrance door is ledged ; and the bed-room windows, which are broad rather tlian high, show two perpendicular and fixed bars or mullions ; the casements being hinged to open inwards. The small windows in the lean-to are round- headed, with Gothic labels over them, fig. 90. The chimney shafts may be executed in cement, in a decorated style, (fig. 91, to a scale of the fourth of an inch to a foot), such as is sometimes found in the better description of old cottages and farm-houses. 123. Situation. This dwelling being intended as an orna- mental object, should not be crowded with trees ; at the same time it is not calculated for a very exposed siti^ation. 124. General Estimate. Cubic contents, 14,904 feet, at 6d. per foot, £372 : 12*. ; at Ad., £248 : 8*. ; and at 3d., £SG:6s. 125. Expression. The style aimed at here is some- thing of what is called the old English manner. Whatever interest may be excited by associations connected with this style, the specimen here represented, has evidently very little merit, taken by itself as a system of building. When a cottage is throughout in one system or style, all the parts of which it is composed, will seem to be the result of the mode of its construction ; and to follow each other so obviously, that the eye and the mind are naturally led from one to the other throughout the whole super- structure. This is Wood's doctrine ; and, tried by it, the Design before us will certainly be found wanting. There may be historical or accidental associations between the form of the door and that of the window over it ; that is, it may have been usual to have such doors and windows in the same building in some old English cottages ; but certainly the form of the one does not naturally arise out of the form of the other. Neither can it be said that the projection of part of the bed-room floor, as shown over the door-way, has any- thing to do with the mode of construction ; on the contrary, to the eye of reason, it appears an inferior method ; while, as a projection, it not only has not the merit of real utility, but the pretension which it might have had of forming a shelter to the entrance door, is destroyed, by that door having a small roof of its own ; a superfluity which ought to have been avoided, since the walls of the porch evidently do not stand out beyond the line of the projection ot the bed-room story. The small wing, or lean-to, shown below this last-mentioned window, seems to be in a different style from the rest of the building ; both as regards the projection of its roof, and the labels to its two small windows. On the whole, though we acknowledge the ensemble of this Design to present a picturesque appearance, yet as a piece of Archi- tecture, we consider it a deformity. Where the form of any one part of a building, says Wood, does not seem to depend upon that below it, but might as well be substituted by something different, the principle of arrangement is wanting. In looking at any building we endeavour to trace some simple principle of arrangement, the want of which can never be made up by good parts forced into service, or by superfluity of ornament. Profusion of parts, or of ornaments, without obvious connexion and propriety, produce confusion and absurdity. (Letters of an Architect SfC. vol. i. p. 6). We have presented this Design for the purpose of showing how easy it is to captivate the eye in matters of this kind, without in any one point completely satisfying the judgment. Design XIII. — A Dwelling for a Man and his Wife, with Two or more Children. 126. Accommodation. Here we have a colonnade which serves as a porch ; a vestibule, a ; a parlour, b ; a kitchen, with a stair to two bed-rooms in the roof, c ,• a bed-room on the ground-floor, rf ; a pantry, e ; two closets, f, g ; and water-closet or pantry, h. The two bed-rooms over c and d may be lighted by dormer windows (windows made in the roof) and by the small opening seen in the upper part of the gable end. 127. Construction. The platform on which this dwelling is built, is sustained by masonry ; which, on three sides, supports the columns of the veranda or colonnade. These columns may either be of stone, of brick stuccoed, or of timber ; in either case, set on stone plinths, and with stone caps. The roof should be slated, with barge courses at the gable ends, terminating in pinnacles. The chimney tops (fig. 92, on a scale of three eighths of an inch to a foot), are plain, like the columns.