ARCHITECTURE. 



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.generally made level with the springing 

 of the arch ; or if the door has dressing's 

 which include a cornice, the top of the 

 cornice ought to be on the same level 

 with the springing- of the arch. With re- 

 gard to the situation of the principal en- 

 trance, it is evident that the door should 

 be in the middle, as it is not only more 

 symmetrical, but will communicate more 

 easily with all the parts of the building*. 

 In principal rooms, doors of communica- 

 tion should at least be two feet distant 

 from the walls, if possible, that furniture 

 may be placed close to the door-side of 

 the room. The most common method of 

 adorning doors is with an architrave sur- 

 rounding the sides of the aperture, or 

 with the architrave surmounted with a 

 cornice, forming an architrave cornice, or 

 with the architrave,frize and cornice form- 

 ing a complete entablature. Sometimes 

 the ends of the cornice are supported 

 with consoles, placed one on each side of 

 the architrave ; and each console is most 

 commonly attached to the head of a pi- 

 laster ; sometimes the surrounding archi- 

 trave is flanked with pilasters of the or- 

 ders, or of some other analogical form. 

 In this case, the projections of their bases 

 and capitals are always within that of the 

 architrave : the architrave over the capi- 

 tals of the pilasters is the same as that of 

 the head of the door, and the parts ex- 

 actly of the same height, and projections 

 profiling upon the sides of the surround- 

 ing architrave. Sometimes, either with 

 or without these dressings, the door is 

 also adorned with one of the five orders, 

 or with columns supporting a regular en- 

 tablature, frequently surmounted with a 

 pediment. Doors are also sometimes 

 adorned with rustics, which may either 

 be smooth, hatched, frosted, orvermicu- 

 lated ; but their outline must be sharp. 

 The rustics are disposed in contiguity with 

 each other, or are repeated by equal in- 

 tervals : as to the shafts of columns, the 

 rustic cinctures may either be cylindrical 

 or with rectangular faces. In doors with 

 rectangular apertures and rusticated 

 leads, the rustics are drawn from the 

 vertex of an equilateral triangle within 

 the aperture. The entrance doors of 

 grand houses are often adorned with por- 

 ticos, frequently in the manner of Grecian 

 temples; sometimes the plan of the por- 

 tico may be circular, which should never 

 have less than three intercolumniations, 

 as the entablature would appear to over- 

 hang its base, in such a degree as to of- 

 fend the eye of a beholder. 



A window is an aperture in 



a wall for the admission of light. The 

 size of windows depends on the climate,, 

 the aspect, the cubature, the proportion, 

 the desi nation and the thickness of the 

 walls of the place to be lighted; as also 

 on the number and distribution of win- 

 dows in that place. It is not very easy, 

 even with these data, to determine, with 

 mathematical exactness, the necessary 

 quantity of light ; but in private houses, 

 where beauty and proportion are requir- 

 ed, the width of the windows depends on 

 the height of the principal story ; other- 

 wise the apertures will be disproportion- 

 ate figures of themselves, and also to 

 the whole facade in which they are 

 placed. 



The apertures of windows should not 

 only be of shapely figures, and propor- 

 tioned to the building, but the piers also 

 should, in some measure, be regulated 

 by the breadth of the apertures; at least, 

 certain proportionable limits of this 

 breadth ought to be assigned to that of the 

 piers, so as not to ofifend the eye by their 

 being too clumsy or too small, and at the 

 same time permit a less or greater quan- 

 tity of light, fora greater or less depth 

 of rooms. As to the size of the piers, 

 considerable latitude may be taken ; but, 

 in general, they should not be of less 

 breadth than the apertures, nor more than 

 twice that breadth. In a small building, 

 with only three rooms and three windows 

 in the length, the piers will necessarily 

 be large. 



In buildings with a great number of 

 windows in the length, where there are 

 at least three windows in one or more 

 principal rooms, and where there are no 

 breaks, the breadths of the piers may be 

 from once the breadth of the window to 

 once and a half that breadth ; but if there 

 are columns, pilasters, or breaks, the 

 breadth of the pier may be from once to 

 twice that of the apertures, according an 

 the breadth of the pilasters or columns 

 may require, so as to leave a proper re- 

 pose of walls upon the sides. 



The sills of windows should be from 

 three feet to three feet six inches distant 

 from the level of the floor, forming a pa- 

 rapet for leaning upon : these limits are 

 the natural heights of the breasts of win- 

 dows ; but it is now common, even in or- 

 dinary buildings, to make them from two 

 feet to two feet six inches high only. In 

 noblemen's houses the sills are frequent- 

 ly upon the same level with the floor, and 

 sometimes rise a step or two higher. 

 These circumstances will alter the pro- 

 portion of the windows, and make them 



