Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/834

 810 COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLA ARCHITECTURE. but not an expensive one. His object should be, to produce abundant crops by a judi- cious but not a costly mode of husbandry ; to adapt his production to his consumption ; and to have little to do with buying and selling ; because in this he is at the mercy of salesmen and dealers, and would generally purchase at the highest and sell at the lowest price. To turn the park to account, he would probably be a breeder of cattle and horses for his own supply, as well as a grazier and arable farmer. He miglit keep a large stock both of slieep and cattle, as he would have an excellent summer run for them in the park, which I would stock hard, as it is termed, both to enliven the scene, and to keep a close turf ; long rough grass being of all things most unsightly about a gentleman's place ; indeed, the use of the park, as a place of recreation, in our moist climate, would depend upon the closeness of the turf. 1727. The Farm Buildings should be placed at an easy distance from the house, either within the boundary of the park, or contiguous to some part of it near a parish road. The farm itself would, of course, be around the buildings ; and a dry gravel-walk, among the tiees in the park, should be formed between it and the house. The buildings would comprise all the requisite conveniences of a complete farmery, built round a yard, having on one side of it a very pretty comfortable residence and garden for the bailiff, whose wife would superintend the dairy and poultry. 1728. The Dairy. As the ladies would probably take an interest in the dairy and poultry-yard, I would have both complete and ornamental. The plan you have given for a dairy, § 729, is, I am aware, the best that can be adopted ; but in the present case I would, in some degree, sacrifice utility to ornamental effect, and not have the dairy entirely under ground. Let us suppose it to be a pretty cottage, sunk 3 feet into the ground, with a projecting thatched roof. At the principal entrance might be a pretty rustic porch, over the steps which descend to the passage ; in which a door on the right would admit you to the dairy ; the floor being paved with black and white marble in diamonds, or a mosaic pavement that would admit of being washed and occasionally flooded in hot weather, I once saw a dairy in which a spring rose into a marble basin in the centre, where the pats of butter were cooled. Round the room marble slabs might be supported on low arclies ; the slabs being below the level of the outer surface, on which the white milk-pans would be placed. The china cream-pots would stand in the two arched recesses at one end. From the slabs to the cornice of the coved ceiling the wall might be covered with Dutch tiles, coloured or white. A good deal of china might be intro- duced in the dairy, both for use and ornament ; and a lady of taste might make the dairy a pretty little bijou to show to her visiters. A second door might open to a place where the cheese was made and pressed, or to a passage connected with the bailiff's house, in which any airy garret would do for a cheese-room. I need not add that the dairy scullery should be abundantly supplied with water, and that the whole should be properly drained; having a sink connected with the wash-vat for the waste milk and whey, and every thing as convenient for the dairy-maid as possible. It should be in a shady place, say in an open grove of trees, and might be built of flints or any rude masonry, with the roof thatched ; the porch should be of unbarked trunks and boughs of trees ; the door might be made to correspond with the porch, by covering it with the thick stems of ivy, in a pattern, which I have seen done with a very pretty effect. 1729. The Farmery. After your description of one, it will be needless to give an account of the various agricultural buildings ; but one thing is indispensable in a gentle- man's farm yard, and that is, a clean path around it, paved perhaps, or dry and clean at any rate, so that even ladies may inspect the whole, and look at the cattle without being over shoes in dung and dirt. Farm yards are too frequently offensively dirty places, without being necessarily so ; and cleanliness should prevail in every thing connected with a gentleman's residence, even in the pigsty. 1730. Farm- Labourers' Lodge. As labourers expect, and perhaps justly, rather more attention to their comforts from a gentleman than from a renting farmer, I would add to the ordinary farm-buildings a small-sized room, with a fireplace, and a few benches and a table, over which I would have a bed-room, containing say two plain but comfortable beds. When labourers work at a distance from home, they usually bring their dinner with them, which they eat, in a comfortless way, in the barn, or sometimes in the stable. Had they such a room as I have described, they might light a wood fire, and warm their provisions, and thus take their meals in some sort of comfort. At haytime and harvest, and at other seasons, many labourers go a great distance for work, and are often some weeks from home. During their absence they are frequently obliged to sleep in barns, and have scarcely as many comforts as the cattle in the yard : but, in the building I have mentioned, they would have a comfortable sitting-room and bed-room, which the dairy-maid might keep clean ; it might also be part of her duty to dress their provisions, and thus they would have most of the ordinary conveniences which they find at home. Where the under carters or ploughboys sleep at the farm, as they do in some countries