Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/925

 VILLAS IN VARIOUS STYLES. 901 improvement to the external design, would have had a degree of heaviness not very- consistent with the character of the place itself. On the upper floor there are but three windows ; for otherwise, as this portion of the elevation is quite flat, without any breaks or divisions, two series of windows, exactly the same in number and position, and differing in little more than their heights, would have had a formal, monotonous, and also crowded appearance, not very agreeable in itself, and certainly not befitting the particular style here aimed at. This, I am aware, will be reprobated by those who con- sider it unorthodox to place a solid in one floor, over an aperture in that below. Without appealing to actual examples, as authorities, I shall content myself with observing, that, if it be imperiously required, in the case of windows, to have a perfect corresponden-ce of opening over opening, and bearing upon bearing, the principle ought to hold good in all other instances ; yet, I have never seen or heard it remarked, as a solecism or defect, where a lofty and almost solid mass has been erected over a gateway. Neither is it considered any violation of this principle, to have either one or more doors, or other apertures, in the lower part of an otherwise blank side of a building, where there is solid brickwork carried up to the height of, perhaps, several stories above. At least, let us be consistent ; and, if the want of bearing under bearing is to be accounted a solecism even in a style where such licenses seem natural and characteristic, let us boldly say, that Sir Christopher Wren has been guilty of it to a most enormous extent, in the very finest of aU his works, our metropolitan cathedral, where he has carried up a second order of solid masonry over one pierced with large windows ; and, strange to say, although some critics have ventured to question the propriety of a second order at all above the first, not one seems to have noticed this circumstance. — The dormer windows of the attics, which seem to spring up from between the battlements, give character and variety to the upper part of the elevation, and possess sufficient embellishment in their gables, with crockets and finials (crockets are studded or curled ornaments, running up the upper edge of a gable wall or pinnacle, and terminating in a pointed ornament or finial), to be reckoned among the decorative features of the Design. The circumstances of the plan — which, as I have already observed, was predetermined for another design, rendered it rather difficult to give sufficient character to this side of the building ; and perhaps it would appear somewhat tame and insipid, were it not for the receding portion at the north end, which gives variety and support to the whole. This is treated inde- pendently of the rest, and kept somewhat subordinate to it ; almost all its decoration consisting merely in the bay window of the library, and the group of chimneys on the roof. 1837. The Dining-room, or East, Front is shown in the perspective view, fig. i586. and in the half-elevation, fig. 1589. Although there is much similarity, in many respects, between this front and that described, it is by no means a repetition of the latter. It is more irregular in itself, owing to the inequality of the ground, which, as already noticed, has a considerable descent on this side of the house, to the north-east angle ; in consequence of which, the building here seems to gain an additional story. As the bay of the dining-room produces a sufficient diversity between the upper and lower floor, five windows are here given to the former, for the sake of deviating from the arrangement observed in the west, or drawingroom, front. Another difference is, that the lower windows do not reach quite down to the floor of the rooms, there being an area beneath those df the breakfast-room, and the others being at some distance from the ground. The portion