XI. 



HOW TO BUILD lOE-HOUSlS. 



IJecember, 1846. 



THE ICE-HOUSE and the hot-hotjse, typMpf Lapland and tie 

 Tropics, are two 6ontriyances -wMeli civilization has invented for 

 the corSbrt or luxury of man. A.nativ-e of the Sandwich Islands, 

 who lives, as he conceives, in the most delicioiis climate iii(,the world, 

 and-deeps away the. bast part of his, life in that happy state which 

 the pleasurp'loving Italians caiSl " dolce far nimte" (sweet do no- 

 thing) — smiles and shudders when he hears of a region where his 

 familiar trees must be kept in glass houses, and the water turns, now 

 and then, into soU, cold crystal !\ 



Yet, if happi^ss, as some philosophers l^ave aflSrmed, consists 

 in a variety of sensations, we denizens of temperate latitudes have 

 greatl|^the advantage of him. What surprise and pleasure awaits 

 the Sandwich Islander, for example, like that we experience on en-; 

 tering a spacious hot-house, redolent of blossoms and of perfume, in 

 mid-winter, or on refreshing our exhausted frames with one of " Thoni- 

 son and Weller's " vanilla creams, or that agreeable compound of 

 the vintage of Xeres, pounded ice, etc., that bears the- humble name 

 of " sherry-Col)bler ;" but which, having been introduced lately from 

 this country into London, afong with our " American ice," has sent 

 into positive ecstasies all those of the great metropolis, who depencl 

 upon their throats for sensations. 



Our business- at Ih-e present momen]t, is with the ice-house,— -as a' 

 necessary and most useful appendage to a country residence. Abroad, 

 both- the ice-house and' the hot-house are, portions of the wealthy 



