Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/882

 858 COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLA ARCHITECTURE. 1778. Abridged Specification. The walls are supposed to be of rubble building, 2 feet thick, above the level of the cellar floor, having droved base courses, 21 inches deep, and droved string-courses at the eaves, and coins at all angles. The windows to have dioved facings round them, with jutted (projecting) sills and blocks, and projecting slabs, where shown. The chimney-stalks to be droved, having moulded plinths and cornices. The walls above the level of the base course to be rough-cast ; and below that level to be of hammer-dressed coursed rubble ; which will form a contrast, and give the effect of a level basement to the main part of the building. All apartments and passages, &c., in the ground or cellar floor to be laid with droved pavement, 3 inches thick, closely jointed, and well bedded in sand. The kitchen, staircase, entrance lobby, and porch, to be laid with polished (rubbed) pavement. The stair to the cellars, and the outside stair, to be droved ; the steps to be checked down on (notched into) each other, and having sufficient overlap. The stair to the bed-room iloor to be polished with moulded nosings. The staircase, as well as all the apartments where paved, to have stone skirting 7 inches deep. All the remaining floors to be laid with 6-incli battens, grooved and tongued l^^-inch thick, resting on strong joisting. The roof to be formed of rafters 7 inches by 2^ inches ; ties, 7 inclies by ^^ inches ; and baulks, 6 inches by 2 inches ; and to be covered with |-inch sarking, closely jointed ; having proper ridge and piend battens. The soffit of the projecting part of the roof to be lined with |-inch deal, 6 inches broad, grooved and tongued. The blocks to be boxed up with |-inch deal, 4 inches broad on the face. All the stone walls, except those in the cellar floor, to be bat- tened, lathed, and plastered. The internal partitions, where not of stone, to be formed of brick on bed. All the walls and ceilings to be covered with three-coat plaster ; and all the apartments to have neat plain cornices, except the cellar floor, which may have only two-coat plaster, and no cornices The windows to have 1^-inch frames and l|-incli sashes, with centre stiles, as shown m the figures, hinged to open ; and to have bound shutters and linings, and 6i-inch moulded facings. Doors to be framed, moulded, and sunk-paneled, with 6-inch moulded facings. The door from the porch to the lobby to be glazed in the upper part, and to be in two halves. The milk-house windows to have Louvre (luffer) boarding, as shown, with wirecloth inside ; and the walls to be fitted up with ]U-oper shelving. All the doors, window linings, and shutters, in this floor, to be of planed deal. The dining and drawing rooms and study to have 10-inch moulded foot base, and marble chimney-pieces, valued each at ^12. The other apart- ments to have plane skirting, 7 inches deep ; with" wood chimney-pieces, having pilasters, and friezed and moulded shelf. The roofs to be covered with slates, having lead ridges, piends, and valleys. 1779. General Estimate. In the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, a villa such as this could be executed for about ^£"650; which, as it contains 51,300 cubic feet, is about M. per foot. 1780. Remarks. For this Design we are indebted to David Cousin, Esq., Architect, Edinburgh. The plan exliibits comfortable accommodation ; and though this is obtained at a considerable expense of foundations, yet it must be recollected that the Design is adapted to a sloping surface, and for a country where building stone is abundant, and obtained for little more than the trouble of working it. The elevation, being in no particular style, can only claim attention as an assemblage of architectural lines and forms; and, examined in this point of view, there is nothing of any marked character about it ; notliing to find fault with, but, at the same time, nothing to raise emotion. This, however, is no fault of the Architect, who bad a different object in view. Plain designs of this kind, when contrasted with designs in particular styles ; such, for example, as that for an old Scottish manor-house (Design XV.), by the same Architect, or Smallwood's cottage villa (Design VI.), are well calculated to show the great difference to the cultivated eye between style and no style ; or, perhaps, we should rather say, between a marked or decided style and a plain style. A person who had never cultivated a taste for Archi- tecture would perhaps be just as well satisfied to live in Mr. Cousin's cottage as in that of Mr. Smallwood, provided they were equally comfortable within ; but very different would be the feelings of a man of cultivated architectural taste, as to which he would prefer. On the other band, a man who had not cultivated a taste for Architecture, more than a taste for painting, sculpture, or landscape-gardening, and who had little feeling for any of the arts, from either an original deficiency of imagination, or from not having cultivated it, would, in all probability, prefer a plain cottage like that before us ; because he wouXA not be able to conceive a sufficient reason for going to the additional expense requisite to raise plainness into style. It is not uncommon, indeed, for persons of this description, talking of a plain house, regularly pierced with windows, and without a single external mark either of style or of elegant enjoyment, to designate it as genteel or gentlemanlike ; and perhaps there may be some truth in the remark, if it has refer- ence to the commonplace manners of a man who has the tone of good society, but who