480 



DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



departures. The front door opens into a hall, 38 

 feet long and 16 feet wide. At the centre of this 

 hall, a transept passage leads to a library on the 

 right, and private apartments, kitchen oflices, &c, 

 on the left. On one side of the hall, nearest the 

 front door, is the principal stairway, circular in 

 form, near which is a bath-room, with closets, 

 entered from a chamber and dressing-room be- 

 yond ; and on the other side of the hall is an of- 

 fice, or library cabinet, 12 by 17 feet. Adjacent 

 is the library 16 by 23 feet, fitted up with cases 

 the entire height, and filled with a choice collec- 

 tion of books. 



And now from the look-in front, we will pro- 

 ceed to the look-out front, shown in the engraving. 

 The great tower is 20 feet in diameter, and near 

 60 feet high. The arcaded vestibule is again 

 groin arched, and open as a portico, and serves as 

 a gallilee to the hall of entrance. The angle 

 nearest in the engraving, contains the drawing- 

 room, 17 by 25 feet, exclusive of the bay win- 

 dow, from which an extensive landscape view 

 across the valley of the James river, and the dis- 

 tant hills, — the river meandering in the midst, its 

 silver line lost in the distance. The bay windows 

 are richly bordered with stained glass of ruby and 

 gold, in vine-like forms, executed by Harring- 

 ton, of New- York, producing a rich and mellow 

 tone of light in the apartment, in admirable keep- 

 ing with its character ; and the several mantel- 

 pieces have wheat, maize, and tobacco, the staple 

 productions of the plantation, sculptured upon 

 their marble surfaces. The library and drawing- 

 room have windows opening into a portion of the 

 umbrage, intended as a conservatory for plants, 

 which will give these rooms an air of summer, 

 even in the depth of winter. This conservatory, 

 forming a part of the umbrage, may be entirely 

 removed in the summer, if it should be preferred 

 to have the whole open for promenade. The 

 dining-room has a china closet on the right of the 

 chimney breast, and a spacious butler's pantry on 

 the left. This dining-room is on the right of the 

 tower in the view, and has its bay, like the draw- 

 ing-room; and beyond are the offices, covered way 

 to kitchen, &c., the latter being nearly lost in the 

 forest on the west end of the site. The upper 

 part of the tower contains an observatory and 

 museum ; and the subordinate parts are occupied 

 by bedrooms, picture gallery, hall, and various 

 accommodation. The great hall, and through it 

 the whole house, is heated by a furnace in the 

 basement. A supply of water, forced up by the 

 hydraulic ram, from the foot of the hill, 400 yards 

 distant from the house, rises 160 feet above the 

 spring to a reservoir next the roof, delivering one 

 gallon per 1| minute, is conducted by pipes to 

 the bath-rooms, water closets, and the several 

 chambers. 



In the view here given, the artist has chosen a 

 position showing the east end and north front, as 

 seen from the river. The entrance front being on 

 the south side, has only the finial over its gable, 



visible beyond the sky-light on the roof. Although 

 the whole composition evinces great unity of feel- 

 ing, it has nevertheless more variety of feature 

 than we have ever before seen successfully intro- 

 duced into a villa. Of windows alone, there is- 

 almost every kind used at the period, or era, to 

 which the style belongs, — the triple lancet, the 

 arched, the square headed, the bay, the oriel, and 

 the triangular. There are three or four varieties 

 of gables, with buttresses and turrets, and an air 

 of originality and boldness is bestowed upon the 

 whole composition by the great tower, with tur- 

 retted angles, serving to give a pyramidal and 

 artistical form to the whole pile of building. 



This style of building, of which we have given 

 a specimen in the mansion of Belmead, most es- 

 pecially recommends itself in rural residences, and 

 their appendages. It admits of an agreeable 

 symmetrical irregularity, and great variety of out- 

 line, both in plan and elevation. It is suited to 

 uneven ground; and additions of rooms or offices 

 may be made in it from time to time, with an in- 

 crease of picturesque beauty, while it possesses 

 many advantages for convenience, and the essen- 

 tial recommendation of being within the limits of 

 economy in the execution. High roofs and chim- 

 ney tops, which are inadmissible in the Grecian 

 style, here contribute to picturesque character. 

 Another circumstance that tends greatly to re- 

 commend this style for domestic buildings, upon a 

 moderate scale, is that it allows the windows to 

 be of very different dimensions and proportions, 

 and plainer or more ornamented, on the same 

 floor, as either internal convenience or the exter- 

 nal elevation shall require. Neither is it one of its 

 least favorable peculiarities, that such frequent 

 and extensive application may be made of the 

 projecting, or bay window, which admits of great 

 diversity in the plan, proportions, elevation, and 

 embellishment. While features of this descrip- 

 tion are almost sure to tell externally, and to 

 possess a pictorial, if not invariably a strictly ar- 

 chitectural value, — among other reasons, because 

 when they rise from the ground by advancing be- 

 yond the general mass, they give an appearance 

 of great solidity to its base; so do they come 

 greatly to the aid of the architect in the interior, 

 he being thus enabled to enlarge any particular 

 room, without similarly increasing the one above 

 it, or extending the general plan. They also 

 materially conduce to beauty and cheerfulness 

 within, inasmuch as they lead to variety of form, 

 in the plan and disposition of the rooms them- 

 selves, and because, by projecting, they admit 

 gleams of sunshine into an apartment both earlier 

 and later than other windows having the same 

 aspect. Even when a window of this kind has 

 no lateral lights, and forms but a shallow recess, 

 it conveys the idea of solidity in the walls, by 

 seeming to be a deep embrasure cut out of their 

 thickness; and as it generally enables us to dis- 

 pense with other windows, at least on the same 

 side of the floor, greater space may be obtained 



