Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/995

 DOG-KENNELS. 971 1717 imperial family passed in Moscow. The roof is covered with sheet iron. It was the invention of General Betancourt, who states that its principal merit, as a piece of con- struction, consists in the manner in which the king and queen posts and struts are joined to the principal rafter by iron shoes, by which the effect of compression on timber is avoided. The vai'ious details, together with an interesting account of the manner in which the strength of the rafters was proved before they were put up, will be found at length in Betancourt's Description de la Salle de Moscou, &c. It appears, by that work, that this is the largest building that has ever been covered by a single roof; the next largest is an exercising-house, built by the Emperor Paul at St. Petersburgh, which is 119 feet (French) broad, and 552 feet long. Beautiful as is the construction of the roof of the exercising-house at Moscow, its exterior architectural effect, as shown in Betancourt's perspective view, is completely spoiled by the walls being finished with half columns, with semicircular-headed windows, and fjir-projecting cornices over them in the intercolumniations. The utter destruction of simplicity by this arrangement is to us quite intolerable. It is lamentable to see an Architect throwing away so fine an opportunity of establishing his fame. There is nothing original in the construction of the roof, as any one may see in the works of Borgnis, Kraft, Rondelet, and other authors ; but there is the merit of greater dimensions than were ever before attempted. In the works of Rondelet and Kraft, and from them copied into the Carpentry of Mr. Tredgold, is a design for a roof of stiU larger dimensions than that of Betancourt, which is there said to have been executed at INIoscow ; but Betancourt informs us that that roof never had an existence except on paper. 1944. Riding-houses in the Country are often used as tennis courts for playing at bowls and other games ; and even for archery in wet weather during winter. When a riding- house is to be used as a tennis court, the floor must be laid with flagstones for the latter purpose, and the paving be covered with straw, sawdust, or sand, for the former. If, instead of flagstones, chumps of wood are substituted for paving, the floor will serve both purposes without any covering. Some hotels of extraordinary dimensions have lately been erected at Xew York and Boston (Holt's House and Tremont House, for example), and, as these cities increase in wealth and luxury, we have no doubt they will attempt riding-houses of this kind ; which, in a country where the ground is covered with snow for so many months in every year, and where the summers are so very hot, must be of gi-eat use as places for recreation, either in severe weather or during hot sunshine. Sect. III. Dog-hennels. 1945. The requisite Accommodations for Kennels for Sporting Dogs have been given by SeUra, § 1721 ; and we shall, therefore, here merely describe a dog-kennel which was erected from a Design of ours, at Garth, in 1811. The situation is on an eminence, con- siderably higher than that on which the dwelling-house stands ; and forming with it and the stables, described § 1937, three architectural groups on the side of a high, irregular, richly wooded hill. The view is most extensive, and in order that the dogs may see it from their yards, these should be surrounded by light open railings (and not by walls as in figs. 1719 and 1720), it being found, as Somerville and others have observed, that dogs are always quietest when the^ kennels command an extensive prospect ; on the same principle, perhaps, that the most high-spirited horses become perfectly tame when exercised on the sea beach. Fig. 1718 is the ground plan, in which a is the vestibule and show-room, with a stair in the centre, bchmd which is a stove ; the stair leading to