Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/920

 896 COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLA ARCHITECTURE. 1583 inches ; the stancliions, or muntings, are six inches wido ; each light is fourteen inches wide, and three feet high. The width of the front of the porch is nine feet eight inches ; the width of the two pillars in front is two feet four inches ; the height of the pillars is five feet three inches, and that of the cornice above them seven inches and a half. The height of the front arch, which is semicircular, is nine feet from the floor. The height of the frieze above the imposts on the piers is two feet four inches, and the cornice above is seven inches and a half. These dimensions are given for the benefit of the curious follower of precedents. 1831. Remarks. For this Design we are indebted to our invaluable correspondent, Selim^the author of the description of the Beau Ideal of an English Villa, § 1675 to § 1735. He observes of the Design before us, that the front is nearly that of the old house at Berwick St. Leonard, of which there is an engraving after Backler in Hoare's Modern Wiltshire. The plan is adapted to this front by our correspondent. He says, " I am not altogether satisfied with the plan that I have composed for the interior. The hall, dining-room, and drawingroom are much as they were in the old house ; but I think they are too square, and I do not like the kitchen being below stairs. All the offices appear to have been below in the original ; but, in the present state of the ruins, it is impossible to trace the plan of any part except the front, the remainder being converted into a barn and farm offices. The stairs appear to have been in the centre of the house. The house was evidently one of some consequence, though not large. In- deed, the Howes, who, I suppose, built it, were an old family of rank in this county. It stands in a most extraordinary situation for such a house ; being let into a bank, and the front is within twenty yards of a dry ditch, which receives the water from several springs in winter. On the back front, the earth is up to the first floor windows. How strange that they did not build it on the top of the bank ! It is so let into a hole, that, although not above forty yards from the public road, it can scarcely be discovered by strangers. As such a house would be expensive to build, I have made the plan suited to a person of fortune ; but it wants a fourth room, as the gentleman's room for trans- acting business." The jjlan, notwithstanding what the author says against it, has, we think, much merit ; and the elevation is characteristic. The hall door is a fine speci- men of the carpentry of the time of Henry VIII. or Elizabeth, The same kind of