Part 4

The vignette is an elevation of two lead pipes designed for an Elizabethan building in the country.

_DESIGN No. 2._

A SMALL COTTAGE OR LODGE.

This small building forms the outer lodge to a country park. It is finished in all its parts so as

to correspond in style and details with the old family mansion, and being a prominent object, standing in a cheerful position, each side was made pleasing. It is

so placed that the sun during its daily course shines on all the exterior walls. Cottages should have no

dark corners, the sun should find entrance at all the windows whenever it is bright; the interior is then warm and cheerful. If the plan of a building is either

a square or a parallelogram, and it is placed on the ground so that one of its diagonal lines runs due north and south, the advantage of sunlight at all the openings is obtained, and this has been pointed out by several writers on the subject. The ground plan shows the general arrangement of the interior. The parlour and kitchen are both of the same size (14 feet by 11 feet); it has a small scullery, an open outside porch, and a place for coals; the larder with its window

is under the staircase. The latter is a cottage staircase, occupying only half the usual space. The plan of the upper floor shows two rooms of the same size as those on the lower floor, with the compact reduced form of the staircase. The plate gives the front and side elevations of the building; sections through its length and breadth, and through the two porches back and front, and the dry vault of closet, are given.

The water from the scullery sink is discharged into the dry vault. The staircase, of which a section is given, occupies exactly half the space of a staircase on the ordinary plan. The width is three feet, each step rising in two heights of 6 inches. It is necessary that such a contrivance should have plenty of light. These staircases were first used in France. Loudon, in his “Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture,” gives a representation of one, and remarks that the celebrated American, Jefferson, when

making a tour in that country, was so struck with the contrivance, that he noted it in his journal, which was published with his correspondence. A perspective view of one of these staircases is annexed.

A staircase of this description, if made four feet in width, might take up only one-third the usual space: it would be very applicable to offices and warehouses where room cannot be spared, and where staircases little better than ladders are used, but in such cases a baluster and hand-rail should be placed between each second step, to prevent persons falling.

The “Builder” of November, 1843, gave two views of an ingenious double spiral staircase then exhibiting at a manufactory in Berners Street, Commercial Road. It was described as extremely simple, the object being to provide for ascent and descent without chance of meeting or collision. It consisted of a deal or other board of suitable thickness 6 feet long and 12 inches wide, forming a double _tread_, and the _riser_ crossed, as it were from corner to corner, except as arranged to form a _newel_ in the centre, of about five inches in diameter. The staircase had twenty-two risers, and took one complete turn round.

_DESIGN No. 3._

A PICTURESQUE COTTAGE.

This design for a peasant’s cottage possesses no architectural feature beyond what could be given

to it by any common country village carpenter. It was made from the recollection of one at Blaise Hamlet,

near Blaise Castle, in Gloucestershire, the seat of John I. Harford, Esq., to whom the hamlet belonged. This was celebrated for having about a dozen of these small picturesque structures, apparently put up by the owner of the estate. Nearly the whole of them were provided with rustic seats under a projecting roof, as well as with a pigeon-house at the gable. This was called Vine Cottage; there were besides Sweet Briar Cottage, Rose Cottage, Diamond Cottage, Dial Cottage, Jessamine Cottage, Circular Cottage, and Oak Cottage. Views of all of them were first published at Bristol by Mr. Western.

There are numerous similar hamlets and villages in England, some having the cottages, schoolhouses, literary meeting room, and even the village pump, all in picturesque form, and generally architectural in character. The plan given here is probably not like that of the cottage at the hamlet. It illustrates one room, size 13 ft. by 12 ft., a scullery 12 ft. by 9 ft., and larder under the stairs. The latter are shown with the double-rise step. The upper plan shows one room of the same size as that below, and a closet. The scullery on the ground floor is large enough to form a sleeping room for boys, or to make a small living room. The height of the lower room is 9 feet 6 inches. The section shows the general form and fittings of the rooms. The plate below the plans gives an elevation of the front, showing the rustic seat and the side of the entrance porch, the gable of the cottage formed into a pigeon-house, together with the side front of the cottage and its entrance porch. The small window at the side is intended to light the first steps of the stairs; a small shed for wood or coals is placed at the back. Such a cottage could be built and finished complete at a cost of about one hundred and ten pounds.

_DESIGN No. 4._

A DOUBLE COTTAGE.

These cottages were intended to be attached to some ornamental grounds which were very carefully attended to; and as the building formed a

prominent object, it was rendered architectural and pleasing in character. In plan the cottages are large

and roomy, and they are of the cheapest kind. If constructed in plain brickwork, without the ornamental gable on the porch, the pair could not have cost more than 250_l._, and at that sum they have been estimated for by a London builder. Each cottage has one living-room on the ground floor, _f f_, of the size of 14 feet by 10 feet, with a scullery, _g g_, attached, size 10 feet by 6 feet 6 inches, and a small larder and staircase.

The latter, with ten risers, leads to the upper floor, in which are one large and one small room. The plate gives the ground plan, and the plan of the upper floor. The closets are in the yard attached to the cottages, but not shown in the plan.

The plate gives an elevation of one of the fronts, and a section, taken through the living-room and scullery: a portion of the ornamental gable is illustrated in the previous page.

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The vignette represents an ornamental escutcheon and handle, in brass, for an inner entrance-hall door. The drawing is one-third of the full size.

_DESIGN No. 5._

A DOUBLE COTTAGE AND VILLAGE SUNDAY SCHOOL.

This building was intended to be placed in a village of one of the midland counties, nearly all the buildings in the village being of picturesque character. It was the property of a gentleman who was erecting a large Elizabethan mansion in the neighbourhood; the design is for a double cottage and Sunday school; the latter being under the direction of the clergyman of the parish.

The porch was decorated to give it importance, and form a shelter for the clergyman in passing from one school to the other. One part was intended for boys and the other for girls. The chimneys of the building were grouped together in the centre so as to form a prominent object; they were copied from a very fine ancient example, then existing at a farm-house near Ashford, in Kent.

The illustration gives a view of the front, and the plans. Each of the two principal rooms was 16 feet 6 inches by 13 feet 6 inches, with a scullery on the side 10 feet square, and having a good oven; the larder was under the stairs. The rooms above were

of the same size as those below. One of the cottages had the centre room below as well as that above arranged so that one had four rooms and the other two; but this could be changed at any time, to provide each cottage with three living rooms each. A section through the length of the building and the chimney stack is given in the previous page, and an elevation of the front is given above.

The building was to be constructed with sound stock bricks, and red brick rusticated facing round the upper windows; the finishing of the gables with their small pediments was of cut red bricks. Small compo finials crowned the whole.

The porch had trunks of trees for columns, the entablature and pediment were formed of cut bricks and compo facing; the pilasters on each side of the lower windows were of cut squared flint, peculiar to the county, the whole resting on a plinth of rough country stone. A wooden balustrade of simple pattern surmounted the porch, extending on each side of the columns. These latter resting on a stone slab. The chimney stack is shown, and its plan, on the previous page.

The old stack from Ashford, with the plan at its base, and capping, is also illustrated.

These representations of the two chimney stacks, ancient and modern, are drawn to the same scale, so that the difference between the present and old mode of treatment may be seen. The large flues of the old example permitted the then mode of sweeping, by discharging a culverin up the flue. The occupants of the dwelling could not then have cared much for return smoke in their rooms; which in these large flues, with coal as fuel, must have been considerable, and could only be obviated or prevented by the numerous cold draughts of air permitted to pass through the interior of the building.

The plan of this building was adapted from a very favourite one of the late Sir John Soane. He erected it at Wimpole, in Cambridgeshire, for the Earl of Hardwicke, in 1794. It had a very plain exterior, and the roof was covered with thatch, a very common mode with architects at that time, but now objected to from the serious evil of its harbouring numerous insects--indeed at times they render the building almost untenantable. The walls of the cottages at Wimpole were built in Pisé, or with clay and fine gravel, properly prepared and beaten down in a mould. Each wall was three feet in thickness, the fireplaces and chimneys were of brick. Every opening was covered with strong wood lintels, the whole width of the walls, and two feet longer than their respective openings.

The walls stood on brick foundations two feet above the ground. The cost of the construction was about 450_l._ Design No. 5 could not now be constructed for less than 630_l._

It may be here remarked that nothing certain can be advanced about the cost of a building until the situation and local circumstances are fully known and considered. In the absence of these no estimates can be given with that accuracy which every gentleman wishes for, and ought to be possessed of, before he begins building.

_DESIGN No. 6._

A HUNTSMAN’S LODGE OR COTTAGE.

This edifice was erected in the neighbourhood of some thick plantations in a sporting district. It was constructed of brick, with a wooden porch; the facing bricks of the walls being of a light-yellow colour, with red bricks round the windows; and the whole of the cornices and the four chimneys were of cut red brick. The building seen from among the trees looks

very pleasing. The ground plan shows a front room 13 feet square, with a small scullery behind; the larder is under the stairs, which have the double riser, and a window is placed both at the bottom as well as at the upper part of the staircase, to give plenty of light. The upper plan shows three bed-rooms, each about 10 feet by 6, and a small bed closet for children, the closet having a ventilator in the chimney at the angle. These chimneys, instead of being grouped together in the centre of the structure, occupy the four corners--an expensive form of erection, but one that gives more room in the interior. The elevation of the front is given in the plate, and the section by its side; the small figure below shows the different courses of cut bricks forming the pediment and cornice.

These were carefully executed, and had a good effect. The first figure likewise illustrates the oak finial on the top of the roof. A chimney-piece in one of the upper rooms had a quaint carving in the centre of a fox’s head, a subject appropriate to the pursuits of the occupant of the cottage.

The chimney-piece, and the fox’s head on a larger scale, are here represented. The gateway seen at the side of the building in the view was formed by the workmen out of various old fragments; it leads to a yard in which are various sheds and out-buildings.

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This vignette affords a specimen of ornamental iron railing intended for exterior work, and suitable for any situation in which such may be required, in consequence of the neatness of its pattern.

THE CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION FOR BUILDING COTTAGES.

Considerable pains have been taken for the last fifty years to discover the best and cheapest method of building cottages; bricks, stones, wood, mud, plaster, and lately straw and bitumen, have all been selected. Sound bricks and good building stones, well incorporated with mortar of a good and binding quality, will last for centuries; while those of mud, clay, plaster or concrete are continually becoming out of repair, and therefore ought never to be introduced where sound construction is desired, and better materials can be procured. In our moist climate, unless great pains are taken in compounding such materials as clay or concrete, in constructing walls, and in protecting these against the effects of the weather, they will soon decay. Mud walls, however, made perfectly in the common manner, of clay well tempered and mixed with sharp sand, will last very many years.

The preceding view represents Rose Hill Villa, near Stockbridge, Hampshire. It is probably the largest and most important specimen of such a construction in England, and comprises dining and drawing-rooms, each 20 feet by 18 feet, morning-room, housekeeper’s-room, kitchen, back kitchen, pantry, excellent cellars and all requisite offices; five very superior bedrooms, two dressing rooms, a water-closet on the landing and ground floor, and five servants’ bedrooms. It has a double coach-house, harness-room, and stabling for four or six horses, and in the outhouses a four-roomed cottage for the coachman.

This villa was formerly in the occupation of Fothergill Cooke, Esq.,[A] the inventor of the Electric Telegraph, and is now the residence of Sir Augustus Webster, Bart.

The building is constructed of chalk concrete, and has stood the test of forty years’ exposure without any signs of decay. Mr. James Flitcroft sent in 1843 a view of the villa to the “Builder,” and thus described the construction of such houses in the locality:--The walls are carried above the ground two and sometimes three feet to prevent the damp from rising to the mud, which if wetted would scale off by the action of frost. The kind of earth used is fine chalk, dug from the surface; if timely notice of any building will permit, it is best dug in winter, that the frost may act upon it. Buildings formed of this material can be erected only in dry warm weather. The workmen in preparing this chalk for use put about a cartload of it together, throw water over it, and tread it with their feet, turn it over, again tread and turn it, until it begins to bind something like loamy clay; then let it soak a little while, when it is ready for use. The waller is able to put on a layer of about fifteen inches; he begins at one corner and goes round the building, putting one layer on another, taking care that the lower one is sufficiently dry to bear the upper. In buildings of two stories high, the walls are generally eighteen inches thick. When the walls are got up five or six feet, and pretty dry, the quoins are plumbed, and the walls dressed down a little, in order that the waller may see what he is about. A small short spade is the best tool for this purpose, with short handle and rather bent. The work is then proceeded with as before, until it is raised up to the square of the building, when the

walls get their general dressing, ready to receive their coating.

Mr. Flitcroft describes Rose Hill Villa as coated with stone, lime-coloured and drawn. The columns of the villa are of brick. He states that there are several other buildings of this kind at Stockbridge, Winchester, and other places in the neighbourhood. He describes a better method of constructing such walls by the use of a moveable trough or box about 12 feet in length by 18 inches in depth. This trough rests on bearers put across the wall, with a mortice at each end wide enough apart to receive the sides, and the thickness of the wall; in these are inserted uprights to prevent the sides giving way, with others to go across the top. This mode of construction is however very ancient, and when done on a large scale the primitive method is still pursued.

This method is shown in the preceding engraving, which gives an elevation and section of a wall in process of construction, with the posts, _b b_, the moveable planking, _c c_, and cross pieces, _d_. It will be seen that three courses of bricks are put about every five feet in height. The figures here given are copied from a very old French work on Architecture and Building; they also show the manner in which roof construction was attempted with slabs of the same material, as shown in figs. 1 and 2: the building is supposed to be square, as shown by the dotted lines _a_, _b_, _c_, _d_.

The plan, elevation, and section given below represent a small tomb wholly formed of concrete slabs, the door alone being excepted. This little building forms really a solid concrete monolithic edifice.

A very common method of forming partitions, and even roofs in some of the agricultural districts in Hampshire, is first to put them up with strong wattle hurdles. They are double the size of the common hurdle, and made of a thicker material. When in their place, they are plastered over with concrete, and made about four inches in thickness; they very often require repair. It is said that concrete walls are subject to contraction and expansion, and speedily show vertical cracks at intervals, which in our damp climate would soon permit the wet to enter. There can be no question as to its strength as a building material, as some experiments conducted by the Institute of British Architects gave the following results--viz., “Concrete composed of two parts of lime, thirty-six parts of sand, and five parts of cement, can resist a crushing weight of four tons to the square inch, being twice the strength of Portland stone, eight times the strength of Bath stone, and sixteen times the strength of brickwork.”

In constructing cottages with concrete everything depends upon the goodness of the cement and the care with which it is used. The occupiers of these cottages are frequently their own operators; the work is generally too speedily performed, and the consequence is that the fruits of their labour are in most instances of but short duration.

For obvious reasons it is necessary that the greatest economy should be observed in the construction of peasants’ cottages, and for these reasons the apartments should always be on the ground floor, which will render it unnecessary to build them more than eight or nine feet high. Where mud walls are introduced, the lower they are made the better, in which case they should be made to batir on the outside so as to resist the pressure of the roof, the covering of which should project as much as possible, to throw off the wet and protect the walls. The chimney flues in these clay and concrete walls are formed of drain-pipes, which answer admirably. These humble dwellings should be paved with brick-on-edge paving laid on sand, which is much warmer, and more conducive to health than any sort of rough flagging, plaster, mud, or concrete floor. The latter, although much cheaper, can never be made to look clean. Foundations of clay or concrete walls should be of brick a few courses above the surface, and the walls when dry should be covered with a thick coat of plaster consisting of lime and sand, or what is still better, a coating of good Portland cement. This ought constantly to be kept perfect, as everything depends upon the goodness of the work. Concrete improperly mixed is not so strong as brickwork, but is mere rubbish; but when perfectly done it hardens with age, becoming like stone, impervious both to wet and frost.

Materials can be found in every locality. One of the principal constructors using such, Mr. Tall, who works with an excellently contrived apparatus, thus describes them:--“Clay, which may be burnt into ballast easily and cheaply, and is a most superior material for concrete; gravel, stone, crushed slag from furnaces, smith’s clinkers, oyster-shells, broken glass, crockery, or any hard and durable substance. Where sandstone or any flat stone is to be found, walls can be built even cheaper than of gravel concrete, as a labourer can break the stone.” He gives the proportions of materials used in houses then being constructed at Gravesend, as follows:

£ _s._ _d._ 7 yards of burrs from brickfield, at 5s. 1 15 0 7 yards of gravel stone, at 3s. 1 1 0 1 yard of Portland cement, 16 bushels to the cubic yard, at 2s. 1 12 0 Labour, at 2s. per cube yard 1 10 0 --------- Total £5 18 0 ---------

Three cubic yards of concrete will build 60 yards of 9-inch work, at a fraction under 1_s._ 11_d._ per yard.