THE FARMER A.T HOME. 213 



' n the early settlement of the country, a necessity existed for the 

 rection of some kind of a shelter, without regard to beauty or even 

 3r comfort, save to obtain protection from the inclemency of the 

 veather. There was a general want of mechanical skill, of the 

 equisite materials, and in most cases of the pecuniary ability, to pay 

 egard to ornament, or the principles of architecture. This style of 

 louses, or rather want of all style in them, originally the result of 

 lecessity, almost as a matter of course, with the masses of our yeo- 

 manry, has been perpetuated, in no small degree, after the necessity 

 ceased to exist. Within the last few years there has been a praise- 

 worthy manifestation of desire to correct the evil ; and we are now 

 beginning, in transient localities, to observe the rising of the neat 

 cottage, the commodious farm-house, and the expensive villa. This, 

 as it becomes more general, will add much to the attractions and 

 pleasure of rural life. 



The English and Scotch cottages differ in their external appear- 

 ance and management. The best English cottages of recent con- 

 struction are built of brick and covered with slate. The use of these 

 materials has changed the character of this class of dwellings. In 

 many cottages the chimney stack forms the principal bearing of the 

 floors and roof. The Scotch cottage has not only a different appear- 

 ance when compared with the English, but, from its being so much 

 wider, it admits of two apartments being formed on the ground floor. 

 This is also a matter of necessity, as they are seldom raised more than 

 one story. The material for the walls is most commonly stone ; the 

 roof is large and heavy in appearance, and has but a small projection 

 beyond the walls ; the gable walls also run up frequently above the 

 roof, forming a parapet, which is sometimes notched so as to resemble 

 steps, or has a battlement appearance. 



As the French and Italians of the middle classes do not generally 

 live in separate houses like the English, but on floors containing a 

 series of rooms, it follows that the arrangement of their houses differs 

 from that of the English The staircase, as in public chambers, is 

 common to each floor. The rooms communicate with each other, and 

 generally with a passage or balcony on one side ; chimneys are rare, 

 stoves being most commonly used to heat the rooms. French and 

 Italian houses are mostly built of rough stone stuccoed ; the floors are 

 seldom boarded, being paved with glazed tiles or unglazed bricks. 

 The Spanish houses are very spacious ; they have large courts in the 

 interior, and are formed with galleries round the inside of the quad- 

 rangular courts, families occupying the separate floors. The houses 

 in many parts of Germany, approach nearer to the English in their 

 arrangement, than the French and Italian houses. In many places 

 the houses are a frame work of wood, and the interstices are filled 

 with unbaked bricks, and are plastered with clay. The city archi- 

 tecture of Russian houses, both in its effect and arrangement, resembles 



