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Cottages for Agricultural Labourers. 



The author conceives it to be objectionable to make the entrance- 

 door fronting the road, not only on account of its publicity, but 

 because an indolent tenant is in the habit of throwing the ashes 

 and other refuse matters into a heap immediately before the 

 doorway, owing to its remoteness from the rear of the house. In 

 the plan it will be seen that a receptacle has been provided 

 within an easy distance of the door, to render such a practice 

 unnecessary and inexcusable. 



Interior Ai'rangements. — As the surest preventative of the house 

 becoming a residence for two families, and as being more con- 

 sonant with the wants and means of the labourer, one living room 

 only is provided, which is approached by a small porch for the 

 sake of privacy and warmth. The fireplace is recessed in the 

 wall, and leaves an available space for household purposes of 1 3 

 feet by 11 feet in the clear (being equivalent to 13 feet by 12 

 feet 6 inches where the chimney- breast and cupboard project 

 into the room). The window is designed with a small recess on 

 each side to receive fall-back shutters. The only door (except 

 the outer one) in the living room communicates immediately with 

 the staircase, scullery, pantry, and coal-place. The scullery is 8 

 feet 6 inches by 7 feet in the clear, and is fitted up with a boiling- 

 copper and stone sink. Another external, or " back door," and 

 a second fireplace in the scullery are purposely omitted for the 

 reasons before mentioned. If it is deemed advisable to have 

 either one or the other, the former may be placed between the 

 pantry and coalplace, and the latter beside the copper in the 

 scullery. Neither of these alterations are recommended ; another 

 door would make the living room much colder, and, under any 

 circumstances, the cooking required for a labourer's family is 

 never of such magnitude as to require two fireplaces, or to render 

 the living room even in summer (when the fire is seldom used 

 except morning and evening) so hot as to be unhealthy. Imme- 

 diately contiguous to, but apart from the living room and scullery 

 is a convenient pantry, the floor of which is intended to be 16 

 inches below the level of the others, leaving sufficient height 

 for suspending bacon and other provisions from the joists above, 

 and permitting a bench to be placed at the end nearest the porch 

 to receive milk and other articles requiring a cool temperature. 

 In addition to a sufficiency of shelves, a cupboard is proposed to 

 b efixed at a height of three feet above the bench for the safe 

 custody of such articles as are usually deposited in a similar con- 

 venience beside the fireplace in living rooms of cottages. The 

 upper story is divided into three separate bed-rooms, and from 

 the mode of construction adopted, a larger amount of space is 

 secured to these rooms than low walls and high pitched roofs 



