Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/98

 n COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLA ARCHITECTURE. interior accommodation and comfort. Tlie veranda may be constructed of wrought iron sash 126 127 bars, of which fig. 120 is a section full size, cut to the proper length, the upper end let into the wall, and made secure by cement, and the lower ends notched into a cast-iron gutter, fig. 127. The veranda may have an apron in front, formed of cast- iron ornaments, fig. 128, screwed to the under side of the gutter, or to the upper part of the iron props which support it, fig. 129. No simpler or more durable form of veranda can well be constructed ; its roof may be glazed with panes of crown glass, from five inches to ten inches wide, according as the country is more or less subject to violent hail storms. In those countries where there is no duty on glass, the bars may be placed a foot or more apart, and plate glass may be employed ; the panes, in that case, being from a foot to eighteen inches in breadth. Where light is not an object, and blue slate 128 abounds, it may be used in plates of any con- ^ zz^zz::^:^^^^::^^::^^^:^::^^:^.:^^^:::!^:: venient size, stucco, or Roman cement, being )J employed instead of putty. Sheets of copper, " zinc, tinned plates, or rolled iron, may be fixed in the same manner as the glass, or even tar- pauling well painted, or oil-cloth, may also be fixed between the bars. The lightness of ap- pearance may be increased, by bending the bars so as to g've a concave form to the upper 129 surface of the roof, fig. 130; con- cave surfaces, whether of ground or of roofs, reflecting more light, and therefore being always lighter, or moi-e varied to the eye, than plain or convex ones. In this, and in various other cases of a like nature, where the width of the veranda is not more than four feet, it may be supported with cast-iron brackets of elegant architectural design, firmly built into the wall. 130 Design XVIII. — A Dwelling for a Man and his Wife, without Children. 157. Accommodatio7i, The man, in this case, is supposed to be a working mechanic, a shoemaker or weaver, who works at heme in one room, a, while the business of the house is carried on by his wife in the other, b. There are two small rooms, c and d, one of which may be used as a bed-room, and the other as a store-room. In the kitchen, b, is an oven, which will contribute materially to warm the whole house, when baking is going forward during winter ; and in summer, during the same operation, the apartment may be kept cool by opening both the windows. There is a good closet in the work-room, a, and also in the kitchen, b, so that, on the whole, there seems something like comfort in this dwelling, pro- vided the man and his wife continue without children. In a small yard, which may be seen at e, in the plan exhibiting the garden, are contained a privy, pigsty, a place for fowls, a long narrow open shed for fuel, a manure tank and pump, and other conveniences. 158. Construction. The great art in building an economical cottage, is to employ the kind of materials and labour which are cheapest in the given locality. In almost every part of the world the cheapest article of which the walls can be made, will be found to be the earth on which the cottage stands, and to make good walls from this earth is the principal art of the rustic or primitive builder. Soils, with reference to building, may be divided into two classes : clays, loams, and all such soils as can neither be called gravels nor sands ; and sands and gravels. The former, whether they are stiffor free, rich or poor, mixed with stones, or free from stones, may be formed into walls in one of the three modes already mentioned, viz., in the pise manner, by lumps moulded in boxes, and by compressed blocks. Sandy and gravelly soils may always be made into excellent walls, by forming a frame of boards, leaving a space between the boards of the intended thickness of the wall, and filling this with gravel mixed with lime mortar ; or, if this cannot be got, with mortar made of clay and straw. In