Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/248

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

2^4. COTTAGE, FARM, AND VILLA ARCHITECTURE. and very small gable windows are frequently introduced, partly to give character, but chiefly for ventilation ; and these also may be considerably varied. It is remarkable that houses in this style, which is evidently one attended with considerable expense in stone-cutting, are seldom found with a porch ; though this appendage, in a climate like that of Scotland, would be of the most essential service in point of comfort : a porch in Scotland, however, is seldom seen to any building under the rank of a villa. The Design before us is given more as a specimen of the Scotch style, than as a model ; though it is certainly commodious, and convenient in its arrangement. It would be much improved by a string course under the chamber-floor windows, and by squared stones at the corners. A better effect would have been produced in the elevation, as well as more heat in the interior, by having the fireplaces of the two living-rooms, e and /, against the partitions which separate them from the stair. These alterations made, and a porch added, the result would be fig. 387, which may be described as a specimen of the improved Scotch style ot tradesmen's houses. In this figure, the vertical and horizontal bond, both in regularly hewn stone, and the panels filled up with rubble-work on the cementitious principle, will be distinctly observed. Expression is by these means given to a mere wall, as such, without reference to what it has to support or enclose. The young architectural reader ought constantly to bear in mind, not only that every building ought to have its appro- priate expression obvious at first glance, but that every separate part of a building ought to have its separate expression. The student ought, therefore, to exercise himself in endeavouring to analyse every edifice that comes before him, so as to be able to feel the force of every effect, and to refer it to its cause. Two of the windows of the ori- ginal Design, p. 216, are false; which, in buildings of this class, is to us an abomination. Design LXXIII. — A Dioelling, Three Stories high, with Four Rooms, aiid various Conveniences. 456. Accommodation. From a porch, a, the door enters into a lobby, h ; whence there is a closet, c, under the staircase ; there are a kitchen, d ; back kitchen, e ; pantry, /; parlour, g ; closet cupboard, h ; root-cellar, i ; place for fuel, k; dusthole, I; and privy, m. The chamber floor contains two good bed-rooms, w and o ; with a closet, p ; and a landing to the stairs, q. The garret, which is entered by a trapdoor from this landing, is in one large room, lighted by a dormer window. 457. Construction and Remarks. The walls may be of rammed earth, of mud, or of rubble-stone ; with the exception of the partitions, and the walls to i, k, I, and m, which may be of clay nogging. Near London, and in other situations where labour is high, walls of brick on edge, hollow, in Dearn's manner, § 336, would be equally cheap, and preferable on account of their neatness and dura- bility. The roof is shown thatched, and without guttering, which, however, may be added ; in which case it should be of wood or of cast iron, with an exterior moulding, as in fig. 388. In