DECEMBER. 551 



The external appearance and architectural style, to many 

 persons, are more captivating than any property in a dwelling 

 connected with habitableness. One person is an admirer of 

 the Gothic, withont considering that nnless the number of 

 windows in such a house is greater than in a building in the 

 Roman or Italian style, the rooms will be badly lighted, on 

 account of the thickness of the mullions and the smallness 

 of the frames, and, on account of the defective manner in 

 which Gothic windows are generally opened, not well venti- 

 lated. Some prefer a cottage with latticed windows, and sur- 

 rounded by creepers, not considering that the rooms in such 

 buildings are frequently low, dark, and ill ventilated ; the 

 floors subject to the dry rot, and the walls to damp; for, not- 

 withstanding the beauty of flowering creepers, there is not a 

 single kind of creeping plant, except the ivy, that will grow 

 against the walls of a house without making them damp. 

 Some prefer a house with a verandah all round it ; and such 

 an appendage undoubtedly keeps the house warmer in winter 

 and cooler in summer, and affords a dry walk during rain, 

 yet it often admits insufficient light to the rooms on the 

 ground floor. 



The kind of country house least liable to inconvenience is 

 one that stands high, dry, and free ; that is compact in its 

 general form ; that has the diagonal line of its general plan 

 south and north, so as to obtain the sun on every window on 

 some part of every sunny day throughout the year; or, in 

 other words, that has no front or side pointing directly either 

 east or west, or north or south ; that has the rooms, and 

 especially the kitchen story, lofty, well lighted and ventilated ; 

 that has few creepers on the walls, and that is not choked up 

 with trees and bushes. These conditions being complied 

 witli, the architectural style of the building may be left to the 

 taste of the occupant. 



As the cubic form is known to enclose more space with the 

 same quantity of walling and roof than any other, so it is an 

 established rule that a house square in the plan is preferable 

 in all that regards comfort, habitableness, and economy of 

 heating, keeping clean and in repair, to one which is irregular 



