supplement. SCIENCE AND ART OF AGRICULTURE. 1329 



this description, and a building in the Grecian or Roman style, upon so small a scale as a cottage, raiiit 

 be plain and formal, and deficient in picturesque effect, unless it be an elegant and costly edifice. There 

 remains, therefore, only what is called the old English style, which is, 1 think, the proper stylo of archi- 

 tecture for an ornamental cottage. It admits of great irregularity and variety of form ; and is suited to 

 houses of all dimensions. Its ornaments may be adapted to the smallest dwellings ; the irregularity it 

 allows in the exterior, may he made conducive to internal convenience ; and it has this peculiar advan- 

 tage, that we have many beautiful models of old English cottages in all parts of the kingdom. It has. 

 also, this additional recommendation, that it is not an expensive style, and may be executed in almost any 

 kind of material. A cottage in this manner may be built of stone, brick, flint and chalk, or even of 

 wood and plaster ; and the building may be so formed, and the materials so disposed, as to give a pic- 

 turesque and decorated effect, without the use of any expensive ornaments. The desired effect will be given 

 by the tall chimneys ; by the high pointed gables, with, perhaps, small pinnacles at the angles ; by the 

 mullioned windows and the labels over them ; by a projecting porch of one or two stories ; and by the 

 stringcourses round the building. In this style much of the ornamental work might be of wood. For 

 instance, the whole of the upper story might be formed of a wooden framework, filled in with brick or 

 plaster. This wooden framework would project beyond the wall which supported it, and produce a pleas- 

 ing effect of light and shade, and a variety of ornament might be given by the form of the frame itself 

 which shows on the outside, and by the arrangement of the bricks, or by the patterns impressed upoi 

 the plaster, with which the interstices of the frame are filled up. In these half timber houses might bf 

 introduced a kind of wooden oriel window, which is one of the most striking ornaments in many old 

 cottages. The gables over such a building might have handsome barge boards with carved pinnacles 

 at the points. These pinnacles, if small and in good proportion, would be in keeping with a mode o( 

 building which admits of a great variety of embellishment, and is well suited to a district where stone 

 and other substantial materials are scarce and expensive. As it possesses these recommendations, we will 

 adopt the old English style for our present purpose, and suppose the cottage erected on a dry, airy site, 

 well protected from tne prevailing winds, and surrounded by its garden, orchard, and out-buildings. It 

 would, of course, present one regular front. This we will suppose divided into two equal parts bv a 

 porch of two stories in the centre : in the ground story of the porch might be an arched entrance ; in that 

 above, a neat mullioned window of two lights, with its proper label ; and over this a low gable terminating 

 in a simple ornament. On each side of the porch might be a mullioned window of three lights, placed 

 immediately under the stringcourse, which divides the house into two stories ; the low wall above these 

 windows would be plain, as the windows of the rooms in the chamber floor would be most conveniently 

 placed in the gables at the ends of the house. In the centre of the roof, behind the porch, would be the 

 stack of chimneys, which should be tall, and rather the handsomest member of the building. It is the 

 most conspicuous part of it, and the general effect of the whole would depend materially upon the form 

 of the stack of chimneys. This front would afford an example of what I understand by picturesque 

 simplicity. There would be a certain symmetry and unity about it ; it would present no superfluous 

 ornaments, nor any unmeaning irregularity. But still it might be made a highly ornamental cottage, and 

 might contain many internal conveniences which are not always found in buildings of more pretension ; 

 and it would possess enough of the picturesque character to make it harmonise with the surrounding 

 scenery. 



8222. Interior accommodation. Such, then, would be the exterior of the cottage : what are the 

 accommodations it should contain within ? A comfortable labourer's dwelling should, in my opinion, 

 consist of an entrance porch, kitchen, washhouse, pantry, and small cellar, a parlour or spare sitting- 

 room, and at least three bedchambers. These apartments are all necessary for the comfortable accom- 

 modation of a family, even in humble life ; and, as we are attempting to describe the beau ideal of a 

 cottage, we must suppose it to contain all these conveniences, which we proceed to describe in their 

 order. A porch, besides being an important ornamental appendage to a cottage, is necessary for the 

 comfort of the inhabitants, to which it contributes by sheltering the entrance from wind and rain, and 

 thus assisting to warm the interior. A cottage porch should be of small dimensions, the floor on a level 

 with the rooms within, and raised a step or two above the surrounding surface. It should be paved and 

 ceiled ; and if it had a seat on each side, it would form a kind of summer-house, where the females would 

 often sit at work in fine weather. Over the seats might be shelves, on which small tools might be put 

 away, and seeds, onions, &c. placed to dry. There should, of course, be a scraper at the steps, and a 

 mat within the entrance. 



8223. Kitchen. From the porch you should pass through a small lobby to the kitchen, or common 

 sitting-room of the family, which should be a sufficiently spacious, light, and airy apartment. The object 

 of the lobby is, that there may be two doors between the living-room and the outer air, which will assist 

 in keeping the room warm with a less expense of fuel. There are some defects, usually found in the 

 interior of old cottages, which ought to be avoided when new ones are erected. I allude to thelowness 

 of the rooms and doorways, damp floors, and smoky chimneys. If we were to judge of the people by the 

 houses they inhabited, we might suppose the former generations of our " bold peasantry, their country's 

 pride," to have been absolutely a race of dwarfs. For, if you would avoid a broken head, you must 

 actually creep through the doorways of ordinary cottages ; and, after escaping the perils of the doorway, 

 a man of good stature can seldom stand upright in the house without being in danger of knocking his 

 head against the bare rafters of the floor above, or against the bacon-rack, the scythe-blade, the reaping- 

 hooks, and twenty other things commonlv suspended from the ceiling. Now these low rooms and door- 

 ways must be a continual source of annoyance to the inhabitants ; and, therefore, I would lay it down as a 

 general rule, that no cottage kitchen should be lower than eight feet, and every cottage doorway above 

 six feet. Another common defect in cottages, is the dampness of the ground-floor. In the case of old 

 cottages, the ground-floor is usually much below the level of the surrounding surface, and you generally 

 descend into the house ; and. even in modern cottages, the floors of the lower apartments are seldom 

 sufficiently elevated. The consequence is, that, in many situations, the cottages are damp and uncomfort- 

 able for five or six months in the year ; indeed, I know several cottages in which springs of water regu- 

 larly break through the kitchen floors during the winter season. To avoid this inconvenience, I would 

 propose, as another general rule, that the ground-floor of every dwelling of this description should be 

 eighteen inches or more above the surface, and that the earth on the outside should be the same distance 

 Delow the level of the floor. Under every brick or stone floor there should be a substratum of broken 

 stone or flints, varying in thickness according to the nature of the soil and situation. On a damp site. It 

 may be necessary to have this substratum two or three feet deep, with drains and air passages trough 

 it ; and the earth should have a good slope from the walls on every side, so that the water from the roof 

 may escape rapidly, and not sink into the foundation. Another prevailing misery in cottages is, a smoky 

 chimmey. This is a proverbial nuisance to everyone ; but it is especially so to a cottager, because, oyer 

 and above the dirt and discomfort occasioned by the smoke, half the fuel is wasted in a fireplace w hi, h 

 has not a proper draught. This nuisance in cottages generally arises from the large size and straigntness 

 of the flue, and from the lowness of the chimney on the outside, or from the currents of air occasioned 

 by the bad positions of the doors and windows, which seldom fit close. From whatever cause >t arises, a 

 smoky chimney is a prevailing misery in labourers' dwellings, which a judicious builder may generally 

 contrive to avoid ; and I refer the reader to some sensible observations upon this subject in the Ency- 

 clopedia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture. After this digression, let us return to the couage 

 kitchen. As this is the common sitting-room of the family, in which most of the household operations 

 are to be performed, it should be a light warm apartment, of a good size. We will suppose It Bixteen or 

 seventeen feet square, and eight feet high, hai ing a » in, low in the east and one in the west side. It »>a.ld 



4 Q. 



