S64 Mr. Langton on Artificial Climates. 



description of houses ; for it must be borne in mind that a con- 

 siderable sum must be annually expended in maintaining the 

 required temperature : in addition therefore to the occasional 

 suspension of rent, common to all building speculations, the 

 proprietor would here have his quota of the general expendi- 

 ture thrown upon him, aud at a time when he is least able to 

 afford it. The society must be preserved select, not so much 

 by heavy expenses as by well regulated by-laws, to which all 

 the proprietors and inmates of the establishment must be sub- 

 ject, and without which it would be absolutely impossible for 

 a community so circumstanced to exist. To obtain the above 

 object without interfering with the strength or simplicity of 

 the construction, it would be expedient that only two sizes of 

 houses should be adopted, and that two of the smaller should, 

 with their party wall, only equal the internal size of one of 

 the larger; the larger being placed about the middle of each 

 side of the square, as the most enviable site, and the smaller 

 houses being situated towards the angles. This very great 

 disproportion in size would fix about thirty-two feet, exclu- 

 sive of strong party walls, as the most desirable length of 

 front for each large house; a longer front would seem to occa- 

 sion their being unnecessarily large, a shorter would too much 

 contract the fronts of the smaller houses. The external an- 

 gles of the square might be either wholly cut off from all com- 

 munication with the interior, or they might be hotels or sets 

 of chambers communicating with it only by passages, and 

 subject to special restrictions. The external sides of the 

 square would form streets, affording access for carriages to 

 every house, that a carriage access to the interior of the 

 square might be exclusively confined to its inhabitants ; the 

 public being either wholly shut out from the interior, or ad- 

 mitted on such terms, and under such regulations, as a due 

 regard to the comforts and interests of its inhabitants should 

 dictate. 



As to construction, the houses should be firmly built, that 

 the lateral pressure occasioned by the action of a strong wind 

 on the vast extent of the interior roof should not disturb their 

 stability ; they should be also fire-proof, that the whole esta- 

 blishment may be secure from the annoyance and danger 

 which the destruction of a single house would otherwise occa- 

 sion ; and as it is proposed that the interior should be filled 

 with the choicest collection of foreign fruit-trees and other 

 exotics, it is obvious that a violent heat might destroy plants 

 in a single hour, which it had been the work of even centu- 

 ries to bring to maturity. 



The method thus proposed of heightening the interest of 



the 



