ORNAMENTAL POULTRY-HOUSES. 227 



handsome stone columns, and four pilasters, supporting 

 likewise a cornice and a slate roof, under which, and 

 between the columns, is a beautiful mosaic iron gate. 

 On one side of this gate is a little parlour nicely fur- 

 nished, and at the other end of the colonnade a per- 

 fectly neat and well-ordered kitchen. This front is the 

 diameter or chord of a large semicircular court behind, 

 round which there is also a colonnade, and a great 

 variety of conveniences for the poultry. This court is 

 well paved, and has a pump and a circular pond in the 

 centre. The whole fronts towards a rich poultry pad- 

 dock, where the fowls range at liberty between meals. 

 At one o'clock a bell is rung, and the central iron gate 

 is thrown open. The poultry, at this well-known signal, 

 fly and run from all quarters, to share in the repast. 

 About six hundred fowls of different kinds rush through 

 the gate, eager to get the first share in the scramble. 



This poultry-place is built of brick, excepting the 

 pillars and cornices, and the lintels and jambs of the 

 doors and windows ; but the bricks are not seen, being 

 all covered with a fine kind of slate, closely jointed and 

 fastened with screw-nails on small spars fixed to the 

 brick ; they are afterwards painted, and fine white sand 

 thrown on while the paint is wet, which gives the whole 

 the appearance of free-stone. 



But it is not often that poultry meet with such 

 splendid accommodation as this. In fact, their ordi- 

 nary wants are scarcely attended to by many who pro- 

 fess to keep them. It is especially painful to witness 

 the attempt to keep them in the close precincts of a city 

 dwelling. Too often, in the dark and crowded streets 

 of London, a few miserable fowls may be seen on the 

 pavement or in the area below, their claws worn away 

 with scratching the hard stones, so that, not being able 

 properly to comb themselves, they are overrun with 

 vermin, and their feathers ruffled and dirty from neg- 

 lect. This is cruel treatment for these fine birds, whose 

 great delight it is to range in grassy meadows, searching 

 Q 2 



