Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 38.djvu/207

Rh ; and beyond that a second of smaller size, which has one window to the rising and another to the setting sun; this has likewise a prospect of the sea, out, being at a greater distance, is less incommoded by it. The angle which the projection of the hall forms with this drawing-room, retains and increases the warmth of the sun; and hither my family retreat in winter to perform their exercises: it is sheltered from all winds except those which are generally attended with clouds, so that nothing can render this place useless, but what, at the same time, destroys the fair weather.

"Contiguous to this is a room forming the segment of a circle, the windows of which are so placed as to receive the sun the whole day; in the walls are contrived a sort of cases, which contain a collection of those authors whose works can never be read too often. Thence you pass into a bedchamber through a passage which, being boarded and suspended, as it were, over a stove which runs underneath, tempers the heat which it receives and conveys to all parts of this room. The remainder of this side of the house is appropriated to the use of my slaves and freedmen; but most of the apartments are neat enough to receive any of my friends.

"In the opposite wing is a room ornamented in very elegant taste: next to which lies another room, which, though large for a parlor, makes but a moderate dining-room; it is exceedingly well warmed and enlightened, not only by the direct rays of the sun, but by their reflection from the sea. Beyond is a bedchamber, together with its anteroom, the height of which renders it cool in summer; as its being sheltered on all sides from the winds makes it warm in winter. To this apartment another of the same sort is joined by one common wall. Thence you enter into the grand and spacious cooling-room belonging to the bath, from the opposite walls of which two round basins project, sufficiently large to swim in. Contiguous to this is the perfuming-room, then the sweating-room, and next to that the furnace which conveys the heat to the baths; adjoining, are two other little bathing-rooms, fitted up in an elegant rather than costly manner; annexed to this is a warm bath of extraordinary workmanship, wherein one may swim and have a prospect, at the same time, of the sea.

"Not far hence stands the tennis court, which lies open to the warmth of the afternoon sun. Thence you ascend a sort of turret, containing two entire apartments below; and there are the same number above, besides a dining-room which commands a very extensive prospect of the sea, together with the beautiful villas that stand interspersed upon the coast. At the other end is a second turret, in which is a room that receives the rising and the setting sun. Behind this is a large repository, near to