On architectural, rural, domestic, and other Improvements. 307 



advantages could have been so much as aimed at or taken into ac- 

 count; and what is perhaps, somewhat more surprising, when a site 

 has once been chosen and occupied, the most painful experience of 

 its evils, the loss of health and of life itself, seldom causes it to be 

 abandoned. 



These observations might be illustrated by reference to insulated 

 houses, and to villages and even cities. The public mind is not im- 

 pressed with the considerations which ought to be had in view in the 

 location of habitations ; and in numberless cases, individuals blindly 

 follow bad examples, or are determined by some whim, or some cir- 

 cumstance foreign to the real and permanent benefits to secure which 

 ought to be their object. Each one, especially in the country and 

 new setdements, builds his house when, how and where he pleases, 

 as though his successors and the public had no concern with the mat- 

 ter, and as though the erection of a shelter for his family in a posi- 

 tion and by a process which should least interfere with his present 

 convenience and employments, were all that behoved him to take 

 into account. 



Hence it is common to observe houses placed where they should 

 not be, though in the immediate vicinity of eligible sites, while the 

 barns and out-buildings are so near to them and to each other, as to 

 be objectionable on many accounts besides being all liable to be de- 

 stroyed by fire in case of the burning of either of them. 



Houses are likewise frequently built in low and damp situations 

 where draining is impracticable, while the barns pertaining to them 

 are placed, where the dwellings should be, on dry and advantageous 

 locations. In numerous instances likewise, houses are to be observ- 

 ed not only on the borders of ponds and marshes, but on the side of 

 them which is opposite to that whence the prevailing wind proceeds. 



It were easy to multiply references of this kind ; but the subject 

 demands more particular and thorough investigation, and it is of such 

 general concernment that I should suppose the association besides ex- 

 tending its field of enquiry, might well enlarge its plan in another 

 respect so as to procure corresponding members, or associations, in 

 different parts of the country and of the world, to co-operate with 

 the primary body, and to publish in your excellent Journal and in 

 the form of occasional tracts or otherwise, with drawings or cuts, the 

 facts, principles and advices, which such a combination of means 

 would furnish, and which are so universally needed. 



