Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/928

 904. COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLA ARCHITECTURE. spacious landing or vestibule on this floor, where it would have been rather out of character, and would have seemed too much a positive loss of room, a dressing-room lighted by a sky- light has been made out of this void above the vestibule, by which means two perfectly distinct corridors are formed, one on the east, the other on the west side ; whereby not only some degree of intricacy is given to the plan, but the entrances to the rooms are less exposed. There are also two other chambers on this floor, next to the back staircase ; one over the library, which might be used as a nursery, or as a doul)le-bedded room for children ; the other the housekeeper's sleeping-room, with a light closet attached to it. In the space between the former of these rooms and the principal staircase, which should have double doors, the outer one being made to appear like the rest of the wall, the most valuable part of the plate might constantly be kept, it being at 8o short a distance from the butler's pantry and dining-room, whil6 the place itself is such as almost to secure it from the possibility of robbery ; for the housekeeper's bed-room is close by ; and that of the butler, on the floor beneath. By means of a little contrivance, this closet might be rendered a place of still greater security, such as to render robbery, unless by some extraordinary conspiracy among all the servants themselves, hardly possible. Instead of making a single closet, it should be formed into two by a strong partition ; and in this partition there should be, not a door, but a panel that would slide up, and which would be well secured by locks ; the keyholes to these locks being them- selvcs concealed by a smaller panel or metal plate, removed by touching a secret sjiring. After whatever was wanted to be deposited there had been put into this inner closet, and all properly secured, a frame of shelves made so as readily to fix on, wi)uld be put up against the partition, and articles of inferior value set upon them : thus no one coidd have any idea that there was another closet beyond the first. To render ' assurance doubly sure,' there might be a wire communicating with an alarm bell on the roof of the house to hook on to the outermost of the two doors to the first closet, so that, should only that be forced open, the robbers would think it time to decamp ; or, should that not have the desired effect, but they actually obtained admission, a few handsome-looking plated articles in the first closet would be seized upon without suspicion. 1841. The Plan of the Attics will be sufficiently understood from that of the chamber floor, and from the elevations. On either side there are three rooms, two of which are sufficiently large to admit of being double-bedded ; and the passage leading to them is carried over the corridor below, turning off either to the right or left, till it comes over the northernmost of the lobbies on that side, where a door is made through the wall, con- tinuing the passage over the other lobby ; which variation of the plan is occasioned by the necessity for leads, and open space, on each side the skylight of the dressing-room in the centre of the chamber floor. 1842. Detailed Examination. The reader will now be able to form an adequate idea of the whole house, and the accommodation it affords ; and, consequently, will be prepared for a more minute examination of such parts as stand in need of further description, or call for critical remark. We will therefore commence with the porch. 1843. The Porch, Vestibule, and Screen to the Staircase. In the porch are stone seats for the accommodation of servants, who may be waiting with visiters' carriages. Instead of the whole of the vestibule, and the doors of the several ajmrtments, being entirely exposed to view immediately on entering, only the perforated screen on the opposite side, and the upper part cf the staii'case bej'ond it, are shown. It is per- haps, rather a favourable circumstance than otherwise, that, in order to obtain sufficient room for the stairs, it was necessary to place arch the opening into the staircase al one angle ; since the staircase is now less exposed than if that arch had been in the centre ; and, while a sufficient degree of symmetry is kept up, upon the 1593 whole, this species of irregularity is by no means disagreeable. Owing to this, too, the screen, fig. 1593 (which is a section on the line C D), is perha])s more decidedly expressed as such to the eye, at the very first glance on entering, or as viewed through the glazed door of the porch, than it woild have been had the opening into the staircase been facing the entrance. While the utility of, or rather the ne- cessity for, this screen is obvious, both because a perforated partition is re- quired here, since the vestibule receives its chief light from the staircase ; and