GQC68. 
VOIi. XXXV. No. 22. ) 
WHOLE No. 1127. f 
NEW YORK CITY, JUNE 2, 1877. 
| PRICE SIX CENTS, 
t $2.50 PER YEAR. 
[Entered accordinir to Act of ConRiesB, in the year 1877, by the Rural Publisliin# Company, in the office of the Librarian of ComrrenH at Wasliinirton.] 
Hunt I ^rrtntfciitrc, 
RURAL COTTAGES, 
This week wo give an illustration of a cottage 
residence which combines coinfort, and conven¬ 
ience in its internal arrangement with a cheerful 
and picturesque external appearance. In cities, 
where every foot of ground on which buildings 
stand often costs more than the cntiro site or a 
country house, it is necessary, from economical 
motives, to erect structures of inconvenient, 
hight, hence the introduction of elevators in the 
best of these buildings to Obviate the labor and 
annoyance of ascending to the upper stories by 
many long flights of stairs. In the country, 
however, whoro one is not limited as to space, it 
is at once natural, convenient, and pleasing to 
extend the ground plan and have as few stories 
as possible. 
A tall house, necessarily detached in the coun¬ 
try from the neighborhood of others, is gawky in 
appearance, as well as insecure, unless the walls 
are of groat thickness, while its inmates suffer 
from choice, many annoyances which the inhab¬ 
itants of cities have to Hutimit to from necessity. 
A building two stories above the ground is there¬ 
fore the best for the cotta go style, and throe 
stories should, perhaps, never he exceeded in 
any other. Due attention lias been given to this 
requirement in tho building here represented. 
Its steep stylo of roof, too. is more practical 
and less expensive than tho Mansard, which has 
lately become popular, while amide verandas 
offer a pleasant lounging place and a convenient 
shelter from sun and rain, on every side of the 
house at all hours of the day. In this chmato, 
which alternates, within the compass of a year, 
between tropical heat and tho rigors of the frigid 
zones, verandas and piazzas not only add to tho 
cheerfulness and beauty of a oonntry home, hut 
are also conducive to tho health and happiness 
of its inmates by tempering the extremes of 
weather, and thus moderating then- evil inllu- 
Although an exact square is the form which 
includes the most ipaco with the least oxtout of 
wall, and is therefore generally considered tho 
most economical; still, there are several cousid 
orations that often load to a preference for ir¬ 
regularity of plan in rural dwellings. Al¬ 
though it would be unwise to sacrifice either 
comfort or soundness of construction to H 
picturesque effect, yet harmony with tho - 
surrounding scenery is always desirable, j _ 
aud in most cases this can be better secured 
if the buildings are picturesquely irregular 
rather than of a cubical form. It ofteu hap- r~ 
pons, too, that the first structure raised is ' 
intended only as a nucleus to subsequent p 
additions to he built as tire means and fam- = 
ily of the owner increase, and those supple- 
montary erections can always be more con- i g 
veniently aud gracefully added if the origi- * 
nal plan of the house is of the Irregular 
order. ^ 
gg 
Moreover, as the area within the walls of 
a square-built house has to bo subdivided 
into a number of separate apartments with ^ 
passages of communication between them, 
much of the space is sacrificed to these, 
whereas in houses planned irregularly their A(; 
number iH generally much less and tho cost ^ 
of their construction proportionately di¬ 
minished. 1-1 
Nor is this the only source of economy in 
houses of tho latter kind; for the con- ry- 
stnictiou of the roof may also he simplified, ^6 
and its timbers shortened and reduced in ( 
strength, while the various parts of the "3 
building may be carried up to different v 33 
bights, to suit the convenience or taste of 
its owner. Indeed, it has been found in 
England that wherever economy of space and 
money is to be exclusively studied, the best plan 
is invariably in the form of tho letter L, or soino 
other irregular combination by which an entrance 
can bo obtained at 
once into tho cen- y 
ter of tho house, Feu 
for by this means 
tho space occupied 
by passages a n d 
stairs is reduced to 
a minimum. 
Tho ground plan 
of the cottage here U 
illustrated, fully p— 
explains tho inter¬ 
nal arrangement 
and size of tho __Jj 
rooms on the first | up 
floor. Underneath Veranda doorii 
this Is a oellar, a r, , , , p 
part of which is |i ~]| 
taken up by a I II — 
laundry, which is 
under the kitchen Wf~ r—,1 — 
and entered by a ] 
door l ading to tli© Jl ‘ FAr^LOR ■ 
grounds at the 15x20 Lin 
rear. The rest of R H 
tho collar is occu- I H 7 
pied by a milk |l || 
room, furnace 
room, coal a n d 
vegetable rooms, VERANDA 
aud a largo store¬ 
room. In the sec- — 
oiul story there aro -— " 
three largo chain- ground plan 
hors and two small ones, a bath room and eight 
closets. Tho principal story of the house is olov- 
011 and a ha! f feet high and the second story ton 
feet a rather unusual bight, perhaps, for a 
small building; but this is a matter which each 
can arrange to suit his own taste and puree. The 
material is wood, tho roof slate, and tho base¬ 
ment brick whore showing above the ground, aud 
stone elsewhere. 
In all houses thorough ventilation is essential 
to health. In apartments occupied by human [ 
beings, especially where tho consuming and de¬ 
teriorating agoncies of fires and artificial light 
GROUND CLAN OK COTTAGE 
are at work, the whole air should be changed 
ovory half hour. During tho mild days of sum¬ 
mer, this is effectually dono by opening doors or 
windows ; but the bleak weather in winter ren- 
, 11 _derft this impvacti- 
cable, although at 
t h a t. season tho 
"n ENTRY & I necessity for an 
J stores | abundance of 
f r 0 s h air is in- 
K1TCHEN I creased by tho 
\4xi5 I presence of tiros 
Jveranoa in the rooms. 
nl Ventilation by a 
ran «| 7 f.G proper line should 
t ! 1 — ’ I therefore ho nro- 
g BUTLERSH -11 . 
PANTRY H vidon wherever 
— I j 0 practicable; but 
w* feisn iii tho absence of 
| this, a hole should 
y^|-l I 8 bo broken into the 
DINING R m || chimney dose to 
_| i5>cis the ceiling, and 
1 P J fitted with a cov- 
9 oring of oiled silk 
[ ~ —| | or a metallic von* 
* tiiator. 
-ft- I !'■■■' Nfe * 
j5- J As the air in the 
(ill | ( room becomes 
=“ 20 LIBRARY 1 1L expands, 
p 15 !i» ■ and oonsoqnontly 
■■j || becomes light and 
Ih. li rises to tho top, 
A? /.Jk whence it will 
HmI*- ■ - ■" readily escape 
j || seat j through this opeu- 
— * ing ; and as no or- 
ok cottage. diuary chamber is 
air-tight, its place will bo supplied by fresh air 
penetrating through numerous chinks and crev¬ 
ices often too small to attract notice. 
The durability of any building is greatly in¬ 
creased by means of a good foundation. When¬ 
ever a house is built on soft ground there is 
much danger, unless proper precautions are 
taken, that some part of it may, in the course of 
time, sottlo down, to tho serious injury of tho 
edifice. To prevent such an accident, boards or 
planks are frequently laid on tho ground beneath 
the foundation wall. This is, however, a very 
unwise practice, as such a situation is extremely 
A! tRURAIi COTTAGE. 
favorable to their rapid decay, consequently they 
soon lose their WUiity and allow tho superstruct¬ 
ure to settle. Tn soils of this kind, one of the 
best ways to prepare a foundation is to excavate 
tho dirt a few inches lower than tho lloor of the 
cellar for a width of three or four feet, stamp 
tho earth thoroughly with a rammer, and lay 
thick flagging stones at the bottom, resting on a 
bed of cement. 
■- 
OLD ENGLISH HOMESTEADS. 
Very quaint, old-fashioned, many-gabled are 
somo of tho English rustic houses. Erected at a 
time wbon superficiality scarce existed, and when 
stability rather than ostentation held sway, they 
still present themselves a silent reproach to their 
more flimsy, modern compeers Decade after 
decade —aud porhapB century after century- have 
passed around thorn leaving Time’s signal traces 
upon their rionoa yet not materially impairing 
either their otlicacy or good looks. I >eeado after 
decade shall still gather and expend its storms 
above their portals, but who can therefore pro¬ 
phesy when they shall cease to be ? Within them 
aud without them, on all sides, in the construc¬ 
tion of tho outbuildings, the granaries, the 
r.tables, tho omv-byres, of everything indeed 
which shelters an animal from the storms of 
whiter or tho heat of summer, the peculiar marks 
of Bempiternity are manifest. Everything is 
pervaded with one all prevailing propensity, and 
that propensity is duration and strength. Mon¬ 
strous horses, clad in harnesses of prodigious 
size, with tho clauk of iron couplings ever in 
their ears, munch lazily their corn out of gigantic 
oaken nuingors, or quench their thirst from a 
receptacle whoso petrified weight resists oven 
their titantic efforts to romovo. Thu ancestral 
rook, returning from his dally explorations, caws 
slowly as lie careers above tho homestead to 
alight in trees of immemorial age and vast diam¬ 
eter where, from times obsouro, bis progenitors 
have built their nests, have told their loves, have 
roared their young, have mourned their dead, 
and finally entered into rest only to bequeath 
their habitations, perpetual heirlooms to suc¬ 
ceeding generations. 
Strange ideas would tho builders of these old 
houses have entertained of our modern rules of 
convenience and hygiene. Often damp aud un¬ 
healthy, encircled by impenetrable foliage and 
with tho ground floor fully a foot below tho 
S surface of UlO earth, they become, in lloody 
times, receptacles of superfluous water, ne- 
cessltatitig the incessant application of mop 
and bucket to obviate a partial and unploas- 
gO ant deluge. Then too, they aro open to ob¬ 
jection on the score of incommodiousuoss. 
1 They may not be indeed they undoubtedly 
, are not—comfortably replete with tho little 
'* appliances called pantries, ho essential to 
modern housekeepers, yet an architect 
y might remedy the deficiency, without in any 
: ; way curtailing the room already at their in- 
mates' disposal, by excavating from the 
solid masonry which divides the chambers, 
'* an amplo sufficiency of storage-room. Some 
,Y of their venerable, spacious eidmnoys, dis¬ 
mally suggestive of secret chambers with 
> moldy, ghostly occupants, might bo cut 
down to the requirements of a six-inch iluo, 
aud what a godsend could not tho room thuB 
gained be converted into! Even tho stone, 
exterior walls might be out away from tho 
Vf* inside and their portly thickness of about 
jjjH four feet reduced to a third of its present 
™ extent, woro tho spirit of Vandalism to bo 
sufficiently aroused. 
It is painful to conjecture tho wavo of 
I j uncertainty and doubt that shall, iu coining 
J ages, becloud the brain of the explorer or 
antiquarian who, while searching among 
theso mementoes of tho past, Bhall in his 
wanderings, pause to survey the hogs of 
