Feuars^ Cottages^ Servants' Cottages. 259 



made large, and their sash-frames contrived to open, either 

 by having hinges, or by being suspended and balanced by 

 weights. The floors should not only be raised, but on all 

 moist soils the material used in raising them should be loose 

 stones, rendered level at top by smaller stones and gravel, 

 and finished either by pavement, or a composition of lime, 

 smithy ashes, and clean sharp sand. Where fuel is very 

 scarce and dear, flues might be formed in these floors, and 

 these might be heated occasionally in winter by fires of brush- 

 wood. The feued cottages in the village of Catrine, in Ayr- 

 shire, are exceptions to most others which we have seen in 

 the west of Scotland, in dryness, light, ventilation, and, in 

 short, in all other respects. 



The radical cure for these evils is to be found in the scien- 

 tific education of the rising generation at the parochial schools. 

 Once render men fully aware how essential pure air is to the 

 human frame, and how much dryness contributes to warmth, 

 and they will take care not voluntarily to live in dwellings 

 deficient in these important particulars. In the mean time, 

 something may be done towards opening the eyes of the read- 

 ing part of the adults, by cheap tracts, and by essays on the 

 subject in the newspapers and magazines. 



2. Cottages built by Landed Proprietors for their Serva^its. — 

 The principal fault which we have to find with this class of 

 dwellings is, that the taste which they affect to display is too 

 often at variance with the principles of utility and convenience ; 

 and yet nothing can be more certain than that utility is the 

 fundamental principle of all permanent beauty. 



The beauty of wliich cottages are susceptible is of three 

 kinds; and must result either from their actual fitness for 

 being human dwellings, from their being outwardly expressive 

 of that fitness, or from their style of architecture. The first 

 of these beauties is technically called the expression of design, 

 or fitness ; the second, the expression of purpose ; and the last, 

 the expression of style. Every cottage whatever ought to 

 display the two former qualities ; and what are called orna- 

 mental cottages, or such as gentlemen who possess parks or 

 pleasure-grounds generally erect in them as entrance lodges, 

 or as dwellings for their servants, ought to display the latter. 

 Gothic cottages belong to the ornamental class; but if they 

 are examined with reference to the principles of fitness, or of 

 expression of purpose, they will commonly be found wanting. 

 For example, their windows are low, and do not reach to the 

 ceilings of the rooms, which must always render the venti- 

 lation of the apartments imperfect. Their window frames are 

 filled in with lattice-work ; and these frames shutting against 



