TIte Housing nf the Ayrifidtural Lahourer. 20 



iainates in drawing the bolts and opening the door bears ample 

 witness to this fact. The arrangement of the staircase rising 

 from inside the front door serves no useful purpose, for it is 

 very rarely required to bring the casual visitor upstaii'S, 

 whereas by planning it to rise from^ inside the back door 

 greater facilitj' is given for sweeping and cleaning, and direct 

 access would be obtained from outside to the bedroom floor 

 without passing through the living room, whicli, bearing in 

 mind what has been said with regard to the uncleanliness of 

 the labourer's occupation, would appear to be a distinct 

 advantage. A more iniportant point is that the usual arrange- 

 ment entails the carrying of bedroom slops through the 

 living-room and scullery to the back door, and a little con- 

 sideration of the ordinary sanitary accommodation of the rural 

 labourer will show^ how very objectionable this is, more 

 especially at times when there is illness in the house, or when 

 any of the occupants are aged or infirm. 



The going of the stairs should be as easy as practicable, and 

 space should admit of oi-dinary bedroom furniture and a coffin 

 being carried up and down. It is not desirable that the total 

 widthi over the strings should be less than three feet, except 

 in the case of an entirely straight staircase, which, perhaps, it 

 is permissible to make rather narrower provided there is ample 

 turning space at the top. 



Detached cottages and pairs can often be conveniently 

 planned with only one outer door, placed at the side, and if 

 this gives separate entrance to the two rooms and the staircase, 

 and allows of privacy of access to the yard or outbuildings, 

 it is better than having two doors, as the second one takes up 

 valuable wall and floor space, and tends to make the house 

 draughty. This arrangement will generally involve a rather 

 longer passage or lobby than is usually provided inside the 

 front door, in order to obtain separate entrance to the rooms, 

 and at first sight this may appear an unwarranted waste of 

 space. But it should be remembered that when two doors are 

 provided, quite apart from the loss of working space involved 

 by the kitchen and scullery being passage rooms, an area of at 

 least nine square feet is wasted at each door to enable it to be 

 opened, and the same area given to one lobby, say, six or eight 

 feet long and three feet wide, will be a valuable asset in a 

 cottage, as a bicycle or perambulator, and various other articles 

 for which no definite place is often assigned, can be kept in it. 

 This passage should, therefore, have a tiled or cement-paved 

 floor, so that it may easily be washed. 



Privacy of access to the yard and E.G. is rather difficult to 

 arrange, but if the outbuildings, where such are required, be 

 so contrived that their rooi can be extended to form a covered 



