COTTAGE DWELLINGS IN VARIOUS STYLES. 47 The balcony is entered from a glass door on the landing of the staircase ; and in countries subject to snow and rain, is valuable for the protection which it gives to the windows and the boarded walls ; as a place in which children and invalids may take exercise ; to hang up corn seeds, herbs, tobacco, and various articles from the eaves ; and more especially, to dry clothes on lines during wet weather. 103. Construction. The foundations, as high as about two feet above the platform, and the two interior walls containing the flues and the chimney stacks, are of brick or stone. All the rest of the building is of wood, being framed work, covered with boards, outside and in. In Switzerland, the native country of such buildings, these boards are seldom painted, though those on the outside are sometimes tarred, in order to preserve them from the weather. The roofs in that country are generally covered with shingles (wooden tiles), usually of larch or oak, as being the most durable, six or eight inches broad, and a foot or eighteen inches long ; but in a country where slates or earthen tiles can be got, they are far preferable, not only on account of their durability, but because the shingles are very apt to be blown off by high winds. The bal- conies are supported by the continuation of the flooring joists, as appears by the cross section, fig. 80 ; under which are the further supports of brackets (fig. 81, to a scale of half an inch to a foot) The projecting part of the roof at the sides is supported by the continuation of the rafters, as may be observed in fig. 80 ; and the ends are supported by solid brackets (fig. 82, to a scale of half an inch to a foot). The railing is generally simple, and characterized by perpendi- 83 cular lines ; the ornaments may be notched with the axe and chisel, fig. 83. The chimney has a coping of tivo broad flat stones or tiles, to exclude the rain ; and the openings for the escape of the smoke are consequently lateral. The windows may be sashes hung in the English manner ; or they may be hinged, opening inwards, according to the Italian and French taste, and as they most commonly are in Switzerland, fflfilfilDlW
