Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/827

 BEAU IDEAL OF AN ENGLISH VILLA. 803 females. The rooms for the under servants might contain two beds each, with curtains of woollen stuff. The ftirniture should include every thing necessary for cleanliness and comfort, of a plain and stout kind. The upper servants should have each a separate l)L'd-room, neatly and comfortably furnished ; and there should be a sufficient number of similar rooms for the servants of visiters, the males and females apart. The bed-rooms of the upper servants should be near those of the inferiors. I should choose to have plaster floors, such as are common in the north of England; and woollen bed-curtains in all the servants' rooms, to prevent accidents from fire. These floors, when kept clean, and wliitened with pipeclay, have a very neat and comfortable appearance ; more so, in- deed, than the coarse wooden floors usual in servants' rooms. 1 694. The Housemaid's Closet is a necessary convenience in the upper part of a gen- tleman's house : in this closet are kept the pails, brooms, dusters, &c., used in cleaning the house. It should be a light roomy closet, with a plaster floor, containing an inner closet for the bed-room night lamps, or rushlight cases, &c., with drawers under for cloths and dusters. There should be pegs and shelves, on which to put any thing out of the way. As warm water is much used by the housemaids, their closet, in a large house, should contain a small copper for heating water ; and, if possiljle, it should be supplied with water by a leaden pipe, say from a cistern of rain-water upon the roof; a sink-stone, communicating with a drain, would also be a great convenience in this closet. In large establishments, the labour of carrying up and down the clean and dirty water is very great ; so that a pipe supplying soft water, and a sink for the slops, is necessary in a place of this kind, which should also contain a large box, in one corner, for a supply of coals to be used in the upper part of the house. Another closet, apart from the housemaid's closet, would be also useful to contain spare bedding, blankets, and other things of the kind, when not in use. 1695. A Bath-room is s cheap and useful luxury, which would be considere4 by many persons an indispensable requisite in a perfect villa. A room of moderate size would contain the warm and shower baths ; the cold bath would be in the park, in an ornamental building on the side of the stream. I would place the bath-room in such a situation that it could be supplied with hot water from the offices, by means of a pipe connected with the boiler, say in the kitchen or scullery. There should also be a supply of cold water by another pipe, and a drain to convey away the waste water. Where the house is supplied with watei- from a spring in some of the high ground adjacent, as is often the case, the bath-room and housemaid's closet might easily be furnished with an abundance of water. The bath-room would be most conveniently placed near the family sleeping-rooms. 1696. Servants' Offices. Having now, I believe, noticed what requires attention in the upper floors, let us descend, by the back stairs, to the servants' offices ; of which, the first to be described is the housekeeper's room, with its appin-tenances ; viz., the still-room, store, and china closets. 1697. The Housekeeper's Boom should be a spacious comfortable apartment, furnished as a respectable parlour ; and so situated that the other offices may be easily overlooked by the housekeeper. The furniture should comprise aU that is necessary for use and comfort, in rather a plain way. The walls might be stencilled, or covered -n-ith a chea]^ paper, and ornamented with a few prints. There might be plain window-curtains, a carpet covering part of the floor, some mahogany chairs, a dining-table that could be enlarged at pleasure, a Pembroke table, and a good-sized side-table. There should be a small looking-glass against the wall ; the chimney-piece plain ; the grate black, with large hobs. A bureau, in which to keep account-books, &c., with drawers under, and a small bookcase above, containing some instructive books, would be a very useful piece of furniture here. On one side of the room should be a row of neat lock-up closets painted ; one of which should be a wardrobe for the house-linen ; another for cakes and such things ; and one for the tea-china and dessert-service in use, and other things of the kind. Here would also be the butler's writing-desk, and place for his accounts. Inkstands, and other usefiil small articles, would help to furnish out the I'oom. 1698. The Still-room. A door in the housekeeper's room should open into the still- room, in which the housekeeper, assisted by the still-room maid, would make preserves, cakes, &c. ; it would also be the common sitting-room of the under female servants. It should be furnished as a better kind of kitchen, containing a fireplace, with boiler, a small oven, a range of charcoal-stoves, with a cover ; a small shut-up sink, with a water- pipe for a supply of water. A range of small closets for the maids, to keep their tea- things, and tea and sugar, and things used at the housekeeper's table ; a large table, with drawers, in the centre of the room, and a smaller round table for work ; and a dresser against the wall, to let down when not in use, would be convenient : shelves would also be useful for the pans, &c., used by the housekeeper. There should be also a roller foi" A round towel, and a basin in the sink for washing hands ; a small looking-glass might