Book IV. 



FARM-COTTAGES. 



421 



Either of these modes suit very well for cottages of one story, and if well plastered 

 inside the house, they will be warmer and dryer than solid walls even of fourteen inches 

 thickness. Hollow walls of any height may be built by laying the bricks flat ways, and 

 joining the outer and inner four inch, or single brick walls, by cross bricks at moderate 

 distances. 



2732. ^n economical mode of forming staircases to cottages, is de- 

 scribed by Beatson, and has been adopted in a few places. Its merit 

 consists in occupying exactly half the room which is required for 

 stairs on the ordinary plan. This is effected by dividing every step into 

 two parts (fig. 365 a and b], and making one part double the height 

 of another. In ascending such a stair the left foot is set on the left 

 step (a), and the right foot on the right step (b,) alternately to the top 

 of the stair. It is therefore clear, that as the steps for the right and for 

 the left foot are in the same line, and although neither foot rises each 

 time higher than seven inches and a half above the other, yet every time 

 that one foot is moved, it rises fifteen inches higher than it was before. 

 Suppose in a stair of this kind, that each tread or breadth for the foot 

 is nine inches, and that each rise of the one foof above the other is seven 

 inches and a half, consequently as each foot rises the height of two stepsj or fifteen 

 inches, every time it is moved, it is plain that six steps of this kind will rise as high as 

 twelve in the common way, and will require only one half the size of a hatch or opening 

 in the floor above, that would be required for those twelve steps as usually constructed. 

 This will be of considerable advantage, where much is required to be made of little 

 room, and will of course give more space to the chambers above ; but it has the disad- 

 vantage of being disagreeable, and even dangerous to descend, especially for pregnant 

 women and young children. 



2733. Mud walls, built in the French manner, or en pise, are recommended by 

 Beatson, Crocker, and others, and also ** walls composed of soft mire and straw," but 

 these we consider, with Wood, as the reverse of economical in the end, and totally unfit 

 for our climate and degree of civilization. 



2734. Of what are called ornamental cottages for laborers, we shall say little. Utility 

 is a beauty of itself, but there are higher degrees of that sentiment excited by the appear- 

 ance of convenience and abundance ; by the evidence of design or intelligence in the 

 contriver as displayed in the elevation and general effect, and by classical imitative or 

 picturesque forms in the masses and details. The great evil, however, is that these 

 ornamental cottages, as generally constructed, are felt by the occupiers to be very uncom- 

 fortable habitations, every thing being sacrificed by the designer to external appearance. 

 This is in the very worst taste, and has, in most parts of the country, brought ornamental 

 cottages into ridicule. Utility, therefore, is the main consideration, and nothing ought to 

 be considered as ornamental that is at all at variance with this property. 



2735. As an example of a cottage orna- 

 mented in the least degree (Jig. 366. ) we sub- 

 mit a specimen in the gothic style, by Hol- 

 land. It contains an entrance lobby, and 

 stair (a), kitchen (h), small parlour and store- 

 room (c), cow-house (rf), pig-stye (e), poul- 

 try (/), and water closet (g). Over the 

 kitchen is a bed-room with a fire place, and 

 another communicating with it over the cow-house. 



2736. A cottage ornamented in the second degree (Jig. 367.), contains an entrance and 

 __ lobby (fl), kitchen (6), stair (c), parlor, 



367 I "^ ^ or store-room (d), back kitchen (e), cow- 



house (/), and water closet [g), with 

 two good bed rooms over the centre of 

 the building, and two garrets over the 

 wings. 

 fl 2737. A double ornamental cottage, 

 erected by Lord Penryhn, in Wales 



(Jig. 368. ), contains a porch, lobby, and 



stair (a), kitchen and living room (b), parlor (c), with cellars and pantry under, and to 

 each house two bed-rooms over. It must be confessed, however, that this cottage is more 

 ornamental than convenient. \ ^ -i ti 



2738. A double ornamental cottage, with latticed windows (Jig. 369.), built in Hert- 

 fordshire, on a very dry soil, contains, on the ground floor, the kitchen and hving room (a), 

 pantry (6), and small light closets (c), with a stair up to two good bed-rooms above and 

 down to a dairy, cellar, fuel-room, and other conveniences beneath. It is placed m a 



Ee 3 



366 



m 



d 





^ 



a 



