SOUTHERN OR PLANTATION HOUSE. 



Miscellaneous. — It may strike the reader that the house just described has a lavish 

 appropriation of veranda, and a needless side-front, which latter may detract from the 

 precise architectural keeping that a dwelling of this pretension should maintain. In re- 

 gard to the first, it may be remarked, that no feature of the house in a southern climate, 

 can be more expressive of easy, comfortable enjoyment, than a spacious veranda. The 

 habits of southern life demand it as a place of exercise in wet weather, and the cooler 

 seasons of the year, as well as a place of recreation and social intercourse during the fer- 

 vid heats of summer. Indeed, manj' southern people almost live under the shade of their 

 verandas. It is a delightful place to take their meals, to receive their visitors and friends; 

 and the veranda gives to a dwelling the very expression of hospitality, so far as an)^ one 

 feature of a dwelling can do it. No equal amount of accommodation can be provided for 

 the same cost. It adds infinitely to the room of the house itself, and is, in fact, indispen- 

 sable to the full enjoyment of a southern house. 



The side front in this design is simply a matter of convenience to the owner and occu- 

 pant of the estate, who has usually much office business in its management; and in the 

 almost daily use of his library, where such business maj' be done, a side door and front is 

 both appropriate and convenient. The chief front entrance belongs to his family and 

 guests, and should be devoted to their exclusive use; and as a light fence may be thrown 

 off" from the extreme end of the side porch, separating the front lawn from the rear ap- 

 proach to the house, the veranda on that side may be reached from its rear end, for busi- 

 ness purposes, without intruding upon the lawn at all. So we would arrange it. 



Objections may be made to the sameness of plan, in the arrangement of the lower rooms 

 of the several designs which we have submitted, such as having the nursery or family 

 sleeping room on the main floor of the house, and the uniformity, in location, of the others; 

 and that there are no netv and striking features in them. The answer to these may be, 

 that the room appropriated for the nursery or bedroom, maj' be used for other purposes 

 equally as well; that when a mode of accommodation is already convenient as may be, it is 

 poorly worth while to make it less convenient, merely for the sake of variety; and that 

 utility and convenience are the main objects to be attained in any well-ordered dwelling. 

 These two requisites, utility and convenience, attained, the third and principal one — com- 

 fort — is secured. Cellar kitchens — the most abominable nuisances that ever crept into a 

 country dwelling — might have been adopted, no doubt, to the especial delight of some who 

 know nothing of the experimental duties of housekeeping; but the recommendation of 

 these is an offence which we have no stomach to answer for hereafter. Steep, winding, 

 and complicated staircases might have given a new feature to one or another of the designs; 

 dark closets, intricate passages, imique cubby-holes, and all sorts of inside gimcrackery 

 might have amused our pencil; but we have avoided them, as well as everything which 

 would stand in the way of the simplest, cheapest, and most direct mode of reaching the 

 object in view: a convenient, comfortably-arranged dwelling within, having a respectable, 

 dignified appearance without — and such, we trust, have been thus far presented in our de- 

 signs. 



Lawn and Park Surroundings. — The trees and shrubbery which ornament the ap- 

 proach to this house, should be rather of the graceful varieties, than otherwise. The 

 weeping willow, the horse chestnut, the mountain ash, if suitable to the climate; or the 

 china-tree of the south, or the linden, the weeping-elm, and the silver-maple, with itslong 

 slender branches, and hanging leaves, would add most to the beauty, and comport more 

 closely with the character of this establishment, than the more upright, stifi", and unbend 

 ing trees of our American forests. The Lombardy-poplar — albeit, an object of fashiona- 



