HOW TO ARRANGE I AND BUILD the: ^Sr— y— rrrr^ The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924089417376 =00 5 CD 100 |0 iCV id) !cn COTTAGES: HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. READY-TO-HAND GUIDES. COTTAGES : HOW TO ARRANGE AND BUILD THEM TO ENSURE COMFORT, ECONOMY, AND HEALTH, HINTS ON FITTINGS AND FURNITURE. BY A SANITARY REFORMER. ILLUSTRATED BY WOODCUTS AND PLATES. SECOND EDITION. LONDON : BEMROSE & SONS, 23, OLD BAILEY ; AND IRONGATE, DERBV. PREFACE. The following pages are designed to present a few hints on the leading points connected with the con- struction and arrangement of Cottages. It is not possible within the limits of our work, nor does it come within its scope, to give a full and exhaustive treatment of all the points of a subject so wide and comprehensive that a large volume could be devoted to its treatment. Nevertheless, the Author trusts that what it contains will comprise all the important points to be considered when healthy, and at the same time convenient and comfortable, structures are desired ; even if these be given only in the form of brief suggestions. This he states with the less hesitation, inasmuch as a portion of the work is devoted to giving the results of the experience and study of the most eminent authorities, who have devoted their time and attention to this not the least important of our Social Sciences. At the same time the Compiler has not hesitated to express frankly and freely his own opinions upon some points which he believes to have been greatly overlooked ; but which he is of opinion exercises, and will exercise — where the suggestions made and hints offered are carried out and acted upon — a most important influence on the healths of the occupiers of our PEEFACE. buildings. Not only so, but that they will ad J materially to their comfort, and to the economical way in which the domestic arrangements, common to all well regulated homes, can be carried out. Those decidedly-expressed opinions must be taken for what they are worth. And while Hkely, indeed certain in some cases to be controverted by practical men, this much at least may be said for them, that they are at all events the results and outcome of a fair amount of practical knowledge, and a somewhat close study of, the general details of the subject. To render his remarks the more pointed and useful, the compiler has given sundry pilans and elevations. Those again must be looked upon more as suggestions of what may be worked out into comparatively perfect plans, than as making any pretensions as they stand to -be correct. Many may, to use a familiar phrase, be considered as simply the skeleton outlines or general framework, the complete and perfect details of which are to be filled in by the labour and skill of other and wiser heads and readier hands. Hitherto the details of cottage building have been, as a rule, confined, when treated of in publications, or diseussed on the platforms of public bodies, to those connected with structures designed for the labouring or working classes. An important department certainly of Social Economics. And although they have been but only recently thought of as exereisiag a beneficial influence on the community at large, a considerable amount of good has been effected by the work done in connection with their discussion, and more is being daily done. It PKEFACE, V is, nevertheless, remarkable and suggestive of some serious considerations, that while this has formed a feature of recent social progress, little or no attention has been paid to the subject of cottages in general, comprising the various classes occupied by those who fill social positions above the class devoted to daily labour. It is difficult to understand why this should be. No doubt it may be said that there was not the same necessity for the close attention being devoted to the various grades of superior cottages, which was demanded in the case of those occupied by labourers, inasmuch as the same evils did not exist, or were presumed not to exist. It is open to doubt the accuracy of this opinion. The evils connected with superior cottages may not have been, and are not now, so glaring and offensive at once to sight and sense of propriety, as those connected with labourers' cottages. They may also be said to be of a difierent kind, if admitted by some to exist. Sanitary, for example only, not social or moral. But in these days of sanitary discussions and sanitary work, the suggestions of the one and the labours of the other should be considered just as necessary of appUcation to the cottages occupied by the better or more fortunate classes of society as to those in which the working classes reside. That a wide field for improvement, both in planning and in constructing exists in connection even with very superior cottages, anyone who knows aught practically of the subject is but too well aware. Facts and figures there are in abundance to prove this ; and the records of medical science alone, if explained and made public, would, we conjecture, afford something which would be rather startling to the community. The Compiler holding those views which he might istill more forcibly and painfully illustrate by facts which the space as well as the scope of this work forbids him giving, has deemed it right in the text to draw attention to some of the most important points, and has ventured upon the still more difficult and delicate task of at least suggesting, if not recommending, what he considers some improved arrangements and structural conveniences. In conclusion, he may be permitted to state that, in view of the difficulties of doing justice to a subject of such extent and importance to the country, he has had considerable delicacy in putting forward his views in connection with it. But strongly interested in it, and having had opportunities, diu-ing a long period, of devoting his attention to its details, he thinks it right to do what little he can in adding to the stock of facts already published, to help, assist, if even in but a small way, the progress of improvement. Such as it is, with all its faults of omission and commission, he ventures to claim for it the notice of readers interested in the subject, trusting they will find in its pages something which will be practically useful or at least suggestive of what may be made so, December, 1878. TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTEE I. PAGE Intkoductory Eemakks - 1 to 5 CHAPTEE n. Genbeal Considbhations connected with the Subject — Vaeious Classes op Cottages ■ 6 to 15 CHAPTEE III. The "Plan'' ok Internal Arrangements of the Cottage — Various kinds of Cottages, FROM the simplest EuRAL CoTTAGE TO THE Cottage Villa or Villa Cottage - 10 to 51 Section I. — Cottages fob Eueal Distbiots, 18; Section II. — Cottages fok Wobk- People in Town and Manufacttjeins Distbiots, 41 CHAPTEE IV. The Arrangements of Cottage Villas or Villa Cottages ,51 to 61 Enteetaining Rooms, Bed Rooms, 53 ; Plans op Villa Cottages, 54; Section I. — Single Stobied Detached Villa Cottages, 55 ; Section II. — Plans of Villa Cottages of Two oe moee Stoeies on Flooe, 61 Vlll CONTENTS. CHAPTEE V. PAGE Connected with the Site— Choice of Position — Aspect — Natuee op its Soil, and its Preparation for the Eeoeption op the Cottage or Villa Cottage — Prevention OP Damp 62 to 72 Site, Choice or, 63; Soil of ditto, 54; Dhain- AQE OF ditto, 64; "Rubbish" or Made- Sou, fob Site, 6d ; Position or LocaJjITT OF Site, 66 ; Aspect of Site, US ; Cellars TN Houses, Value of, 68; Dry Floors, 70; Damp Proof Walls, 71 CHAPTEE VI. Drainage — Water-Closets — Water Supply to Cottage Villas 73 to 78 Cesspools, 74; Laying of Drains, 76; Trapping of ditto, 77 ; Ventilation of ditto, 79 ; Smoky Chimneys, 81; Water Supply, 81; Water-Closets, 84 CHAPTEE Vn. Supply op Fresh Air to, and Withdrawal of Foul Air from, Rooms of Houses — Warming — LiaHTiNO- 89 to 94 Supply of Fresh Aik, 89; Withdrawal of Foul, 90 ; Warming Air, 92 ; Lighting, 93 CHAPTEE VIII. Op " Odds and Ends " connected with the Convenient Arrangement and Planning OP THE House — Space in Lobbies, Stair- cases, EooMS — Position and Fittings of Doors, Windows, &c., &o. 95 to 107 Space in Houses, Lobbies, Staircases, Porches, 96; Space in Rooms, 99; Win- dows OF Houses, 101 ; Doors of Houses, 11)5; Pantries, Store Closets of a House, 106. CONTENTS. 11 CHAPTEE IX. PAGE Some Hints on the Useful Fittings and FUENISHING OF CoTTAGES ShELTING Geates 108 to 130 Fittings at Fibe-Places, &c., Waedroises, &c., 108; Shelving, 114; Fittings of Kitchen and Soullebt, 115; Fittings of Fike-Plaoes, 115 ; Fibe-Gbates, 118 ; Kitchen Gbates and Ranges, their Fittings and Management, 119 CHAPTEE X. Home Hints on the Ornamental and Decoea- TivE Fittings of the Cottage 131 to 149 CHAPTEE XL Some Hints on Fuenishing Cottages Cheaply 150 to 156 LIST OF PLATES. Plate 1. — Plan of Single Storied Cottage. — Rectangular Out- line. Plate 2.— Plan or a Single Stobibb Cottage. — Rectangulak Out- line with Off-sets. Plate 3. — Plan of a Single Stoeied Cottage, with Bkk ks in Off-sets in Outline. Plate 4. — Plan of a Single Stobied Cottage, with Off-sets at Back and Fbont in Outline. Plate 5. — Plans of a Two SrouiED Cottage, with Bbeahs in Outline. Pig. 1 — Gbound Plan. Fig. 2 — Cellab ob Basement Plan (altebnative). Plate 6. — Plans of Two Stoeied Cottage. Pig. 1 — Chambeb ob Fiest Floob Plan. Fig. 2 — Cell.mi ok Easement Plan. Plate 7. — Ground Plan of a Pair op Cottage.s fsEMi-DETAcuEo). Plate 8. — Chamber Plan op the Cottages in Plate 7. Plate 9. — Suggestive Elevation fob Cottage in Plates 7 and 8. Plate 10. — Geoukd and Chambee Plans of Semi-detached Farm' Laboueee's Cottage. Plate 11. — Amended or Altered Plans of Cottages in Plate lu. Plate 12. — Semi-Detached Cottages. Fig. 1 — Paet (half) Gbound Plan. Fig. 2— Pabt (half) Chamber Plan. Xn PLATES. Plate 13. — Paid of Cottages. Pabt (half) Geotjnd Plan. Part (half) Chambee Plan. Plate 14. — Suggestive Elevation fob Cottages in Pl.ites 12 and 13. Plate 15.— Gbound Plan of Cottage with Thbee Booms on Floou. Plate 16. — Chambeb Plan of Cottage in Plate 15. Plate 17. — Cellae Plan op Cottages in Plates 15, 16. Alteenative Aerangembnt of back pabt of Cottages in Plates 15, 16. Plate 18. — Elevation Adapted to Cottage Plans in Plates 15, 16. Plate 19. — Geodnd Plan or Detached Cottage. Plate 20. — Chamber Plan of Cottage in Plate 19. Plate 21. — Cellar Plan of Cottage in Plates 19, 20. Plate 22. — Semi-Detached Cottages. — Ground Plan. Plate 23. — Half Bedeoom and Chamber Plan of Cottages in Plate 22. Half Cellar Plan Plate 24. — Front Elevation of Semi-detached Cottages in Plates 22 an. Plate 25. — Plans of Single Storied Cottage Villas. Plate 26.— Ground Plan of Single Stoeied Cottage Villa. Cellae Plvn Plate 27. — Plans op Single Storied Villa Cottage. Plate 28. Plate 29. — Semi-detached Single Stoeied Cottage Villa, adapted foe a Single Lady ob Gentleman. Plate 30.— Geound Plan of Cottage Villa, with Paddock for Cow. Plan of Gut-buildincs. PLATES. Xni PuTE 3T. — CHAirBER OB Front Floor Plan. Cellab Plan. Plate 32. — Front Elevation of Villa in Plates 80, 31. Plate 83. — Plans of a Cottage Villa. FiBST Floob or Ch.ambeb Pl.an. Cellar or Basement Plan. Plate 34. — Ground Plan of the Cottage Villa in Plate 33. Plate 35. — Ground Plan of Villa for a Suburban or Bubal District. Plate 36. — Bedroom or Chamber Plan of Villa in Plate 35. Plate 37. — Basement or Cellar Plan of Villa in Plates 35, 36. Plate 38. — Detached Cottage Villa— Ground Plan. Plate 39. — Chamber Plan of Villa Cottage in Plate 38. Plate 40. — Cellar Plan op Villa Cottage in Plate 38. Plate 41. — Front Elevation of Villa Cottage in Plate 39. COTTAGES: HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. CHAPTEE I. Intkoductoey. There is no subject which comes so closely within the range of a man's daily habits, thoughts, and feelings, none which affects so thoroughly his comfort, as that of his House. Around it cluster a thousand associations ; and whether, as one may do, he affects to be careless about it, and in an easy, off-hand way, professes to be indifferent about all its belongings, declaring that " he can live anywhere ;" or whether, as another does, and wisely, takes a vivid and lively interest in every point which concerns it, one is com- pelled to find that it affects his social position and his personal interests very closely indeed. Nor if he be a " family man," as the phrase goes, does the matter end here. Whether he be engaged in business or have time at his own will, he is often from home, either at the call of important engagements or mere trivial pleasure. But not so with his wife and daughters : those have their duties at home to fulfil, which demand that they should be much more within its domain than the "master of the house." And these duties comprise a much wider range of work, and demand from the "mistress of the house" or the house-keeper a more comprehensive list of harassing cares, than men are willing to admit as existing. The conveni- ences and inconveniences of a house come therefore much more closely home, so to say, to the ladies than to the gentlemen, affecting, as they necessarily do, the work which is to be done, and the comforts to be secured, so far as those can be so, by its internal arrangements. As a rule, the gentlemen take more interest in the externals : those 2 'i COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. points which are connected with the style, the surrotind. ings, and what is popularly described in the vague term, the "appearance of the place." The ladies, on the con- trary, while by no means quite indifferent to such things, take a more hvely interest in the internal arrangements, feeling and knowing, as they do, that what concerns their chief duties are influenced by these, and made either easy to be carried out, or the reverse. Nor is the case altered, but in truth made only all the more important, and its details the more necessary to be attended to, when the social position of the " lady mistress of the house and home " is such that this, no less than the requirements of society, demand that she shall give no personal attention and care to, nor exercise any control over, domestic cares ; but that all shall be left to servants, or, as they are termed in many districts of the North — as Lancashire to wit — "domestics" — although, in sober and somewhat sad seriousness, with the servant question as it is, there is marvellous little of the domestic habits and virtues of the " good old times " about them — good in this respect, surely, if not in aught else. In saying this, it will not appear 60 strange on a close, though it may do so upon a mere general, consideration, that the care which the mistress of a house — impelled thereto either by the necessities of her position, or, if that demands it not, by the liking she may have for it — takes in the management and supervision of it, and the interest which she feels in the economical car- rying out of its work, is vastly different from that which servants show, and, as a rule, adopt. Time was, when things were the the opposite of this ; when the mistress of the house, though even a "ladye of high degree," did not deem it beneath her dignity to descend to the kitchen or the " still room ,"* and, accompanied by her daughters, to direct and often to take part in the mysteries "So called, in abtreviated form, we apprehend, from the operations carried ou by our lady ancestors and her asyistants there, comprising the ilifitiUing of essences such as peppermint water, lavender water, and the various odds and ends necessitated hy a style of liviug, of cooking, and of the treatment of house ailments of a simple kind, very different from our own. Then each house depended on its own resources ; now \vc '* send out " for everything required. IMPOETANCE OP GOOD PLANNING IN COTTAGES. d of cooking, preparation and preservation of food, &c. ; and servants, on the other hand, took a pride in doing their best, and reckoned up by decades the period of their service in one house and their mistress' friends. Now all this is changed, and with the change has come, as we have said, the necessity for greater care than ever to be paid to the details of planning of a house, so that every arrangement shall be such that no excuse be left to ser- vants to say that their work has been carelessly done or time and materials wasted in consequence of the absence of conveniences, or the best arrangement of those which are supplied by the architect or builder. It is, or ought now to be, in houses very much what is found necessary in factories ; arrangements and contrivances should exist to save labour, and also to economise time and material. This to many may appear a somewhat novel way of putting the case, but its main elements are founded upon the facts which now exist amongst us, in connection with our domestic arrangements, and will be at once recognised by those who have an intimate knowledge of what may be called the inner life of our houses. Familiar it will be in all aspects to those who have lived on the American continent, where the domestics or servants, in the high state of liberty there enjoyed, cannot brook the notions of servitude embraced in the latter designation — however little they may object to being considered as possessing the characteristics of the former — and therefore choose to be known as " helps." So, very much, however, on the principle of lucus a non lucendo, as being anything but helps in a house that the arrangements, conveniences, and appliances of such are so contrived that the maximum of work is got by these, with the minimum of labour on the part of the helps. To this complexion, long come to in the American continent, is it apparently fast coming amongst us in our " tight little island, the gem of the sea." All this, as hinted at above, has a close connection with the subjects in which we are more immediately interested, and upon which we have now to offer our remarks, namely, the working conveniences in house arrangement, as well as those points bearing on their healthy construction. 4 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. Taken together these form a wide subject, and to do any- thing hke full justice to it would demand a very much greater space than we have to spare. At the same time, it is to be remarked that the main purpose we have in view is to give rather a series of hints or suggestions on the leading points of the subject — outlines, so to say, which are designed to be filled up by the reader — rather than the exhaustive treatment which would come within the scope of a much larger work, wholly devoted to a subject in which there are so many divisions, each comprising a great number of details, technical and otherwise ; but which, for obvious reasons, do not come within that of a work like the present, the space of which is, as hinted at above, but limited at the best. CHAPTEE II. Generai, Considerations connected with the Subject. We' hear constant reference made to the " mania " for building, as some may and do call it. Certainly the re- markable desire which exists universally at the present time for the building of " houses which one can call one's own," as the phrase goes — is a desire which, viewed from almost any point, is at least a praiseworthy one. There- fore its extension amongst all classes need not be wondered at ; for, apart from the natural desire as named above, rents have lately got to such a point of extravagance, and landlords are said to be by no means a class given to make alterations which may be deemed advisable, or even to do repairs which are absolutely necessary ; that we shall, there- fore, see for some time an increase rather than an abate- ment of the desire, on the part of those who have money to spare, to build houses to meet their own views and minister to their own requirements, either of luxury, convenience, or comfort. This " building mania" is no new thing, however, in the history of this country ; indeed, it may be said to be a pecu- liarity of the English character. It is now some " fifties" of years since a writer, in the quaint style of his period, in refer- ring to this characteristic of his countrymen, remarked that being so "bent to (upon) buildinge," they had a " delect- able veine in spending of their goodes " in carrying that "bent" out. But, unhke many of the present day, who, when once they give their architect or builder the orders to " go on " with the house which has been designed for them, our ancestors did " dailie imagine new devices of their owne, to guide their workmen withall ; and those more curious and excellent than the former." Much as has been attempted to add to the conveniences and thereby to the comforts of our houses, one has only to read the latest expositions of our scientific men, the reports b COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. of boards of health, and the papers of the most advanced thinkers amongst our architects and builders, to become convinced that we are yet far behind the point at which our houses can be said to be constructed so as to secure, in a thoroughly efficient and economical manner, the health, and to minister to the comfort and convenience of their occupants. And it would be well if, when men "bent on buildinge," and having a "delectable veine in spending of their money " on the same — a veine delectable to the tradesmen if not to themselves ultimately — would, as in the days of old, if not devoting their own time, take so much practical interest in the houses which are being built for them as to see that others did not only " imagine" but " carry " out "new devices to guide their workmen withall" in adding to their comfort and convenience. If owners would thus show and take a real interest in this way, more real improvement would be made in house con- struction in a few years than has been effected during many generations past. For it is not that architects and builders do not know what is required, or are not capable to "imagine new devices " to make houses both healthy, convenient, and comfortable, that those are not practically carried out ; but because it is. in the large majority of mstances, that they are met either with a decided refusal on the part of their clients to carry out new and improved designs or appliances on the score of expense which they involve, or by a stolid indifference to their importance as bearing upon their health and comfort. In either case the result is the same ; and it is worth being borne in mind by those who are so ready to lay the blame of our houses being what they are, too often upon architects and builders, as not knowing what was wanted, or, if knowing, not having the ability to meet the want. In carrying out their " bent of buildinge," the ovTners of proposed houses, thinking more upon their having as im- posing a structure for their money as they can get, forget too often the aphorism of Bacon, "that a house is made to live in, not to look at." Not but what some architects and builders are to blame for forgetfulness of this also ; and for much of, if not quite, the same reason, the desire to make a striking elevation at the expense of tlie plan, which THE PLAN OF THE COTTAGE. 7 is that embracing the conveniences and comforts of the house, those not being at all influenced by the peculiarities of external style or work. Importance op the Plan. — To the " plan," therefore, the first attention thould be paid ; and not to play upon words merely, we should say it must be attention of the first kind — that is, of the highest order — otherwise nothing but after disappointment will follow. It is not everyone who understands a " plan " — and although very few indeed, if any, will be met with who do not understand an elevation as giving, although in a peculiar technical way, a general idea of how the building wUl look when finished — the relation of the plan to the elevation may, and indeed wUl almost certainly, not be understood by many. We should therefore strongly recommend the architect to have his client thoroughly acquainted with what the plan shows, that is, how many rooms there are to be in the house — of which it may be called the chart, — their relation to one another, their sizes or dimensions, &c., &c. This is not often done, but the doing of it saves frequently very un- pleasant after discussions, and remarks sometimes not very complimentary to the architect. As, for example, in an instance where a client, on going through his house for the first time after it was finished, offered to his accom- panying friend the neat remark, " That he did not think Mr. Blank" — this standing for the architect, who shall be nameless here — " was such a fool. Did he fancy he ever wanted such a house as this ? I won't live in it, that's flat ! " And he did not, costly as his obstinacy was to him. But apart from the possibility of such extreme and un- pleasant cases being likely to arise in actual experience, a great deal of practical good may result from the architect fully explaining what the plan is. Clients may not and do not often like to ask to have the plans explained to them, from a delicacy, mistaken though courteous, in appearing to interfere with a department that is purely professional ; but they like to see them nevertheless. And since it is possible that they may not understand them for all that, and will not of course care to say so, the architect, as already hinted at, should be at some pains to explain. Dimensions 8 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. or floor space surfaces are what few clients generally understand, and this is a point which a word or two of familiar explanation from the architect would set right. The more fully a client knows what his house is to be, the better, we venture to say, will the after results be for both parties. But there is another view to be taken of this point. The chent may happen to know a good deal of planning ; at all events he may have some notions of his own as to this, the arrangement of certain apartments, &c.,&c. ; or he may have some "hobby" which it will be just as well that he has gratified as not, and it may be so without much, if any, additional expense. Nor are some of the cloth, if the term may be applied to architects, so thoroughly up to planning — with all due consideration, if not reverence, be it here put down on record — but what they may be, nay will be, in some cases at least, if not much the better certainly none the worse, of getting a hint or two from a client. In considering the "plan" of the proposed house, the value of "feminine counsel" should not be overlooked — as was by a writer on the subject well suggested. From the mistress of the house down to the domestics a vast deal may be learned, as with them rests the practical working of the house. They have often, indeed it may be said generally, a very much better knowledge of planning than they get credit for. Nor need this be wondered at when we consider that if they are not called upon either by necessity or from choice to do the daily work of the house, they know what that work is, and how it ought to be done by the servants ; and knowing this, they have a keen appreciation for any felicity or a " happy thought " in planning, by which that work is facilitated in the doing. Very well planned indeed must a house be, in some part of which ladies cannot point out some alteration which would greatly amend it so far as regards the convenience of working, as well as the healthy arrangement of the various parts of the house. The " hint " here given may seem a trifling one, but it carries with it very important results nevertheless. VAKIOUS CLASSES OP COTTAGES. 9 The Cottage and its Various Classes. — If there be a word peculiarly English, or one which conveys so many ideas, sentiments, or associations which are so English in character as may almost be said to be confined exclusively to England, it is perhaps that of " Cottage." Taking it in its rural acceptation, apart from its connectioii with towns and suburban districts to which in more modern times it has become attached, there is perhaps no word which when uttered, whether at home or abroad, on the plains of India, the wilds of Africa, the settlements of Austraha or America, calls up in the minds of thousands of the best and the hardiest of our people associations of the most endearing kind, of the most lasting and favourable impressions. The very name brings up with its repetition the recollection to the sun-burnt veteran or the hardy colonist, the sweetest thoughts of days long gone by, when at "mother's knees were lisped childhood's prayer ; " and is redolent, so to say, with the scent of the honeysuckle and the jessamine ; and resounds with the hum of the household bee, or throws back the bark of the once familiar dog, or the equally noisy but not less loved denizens of the poultry yard. In brief, around the name are entwined an infinity of associations at once the most tender and endearing, and at the same time those con- nected with the roughest sports and the most enduring of hardships of youth and of early manhood. From the " cottage homes " of England have been received the best and the bravest of her sailors and soldiers, and the har- diest and most successfnl of her colonists. The theme is as wide and tempting in its objects as any which can well engross our attention ; and if our powers were but equal to our desires, we could render it one pecu- liarly attractive to our readers from a purely literary point of view ; but fortunately for us as for them, it so happens that our duties are concerned more with the practical than the poetical : with what cottages may be, rather than with what they have been or are. Our remarks will be prosaic, not poetical ; but we trust that although so, they will be by no means devoid of interest ; to make them useful will be our best endeavour. But although what we shall give will be essentially 10 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. "practical," that term, so far as we are at present con- cerned, must be rightly understood, or tlie reader may — indeed, likely will — be led astray on sundry points which we deem of considerable importance. Thus, for example, a person engaged in the actual construction of cottages — to put it more practically, a builder — would at once associate with the term, if not a fuU and comprehensive treatise, stUl at least a fairly general statement of the various points connected with construction which come under the name of " technical." And many general readers would very likely have the same idea. It is scarcely necessary to say that our work will not be tech- nical in this strict sense of the term, and therefore not practical according to the views of some. But we take leave to make a distinction in the term, or rather to state that there is such a division of the various subjects coming under it, that there are sundry points which are not technical, yet thoroughly practical, and therefore inte- resting and useful even to those engaged in the actual business of cottage construction ; and, on the other hand, many which, while they may be called technical, yet con- vey much that is generally or popularly practical, that they will be interesting even to the reader not so actually engaged in the direct business. It is thus, therefore, that we hope to make our remarks doubly interesting, or rather that they will be useful to two great classes — first, the general reader, and, secondly, the technical one ; for the latter must by no means run away with the idea that a point connected with cottages which is popularly inte- resting is not practical. Many a man engaged in the purely technical work is widely far indeed of the mark on more than one point — which we might name here were it not that they will come up for statement and due con- sideration in their proper place — connected with the arrangement of cottages. Many a cottage there is now standing in, we may say, every district of the kingdom, which is thoroughly well buUt, that is, all technical points have been fairly considered and carried out ; but yet in few senses — indeed, barely in any sense — a comfortable one, that is, one in which the " great business of living " can be carried on with the greatest ease, the highest TECHNICAL AND PRACTICAL POINTS IN PLANNING. 11 degree of economy of time and materials, and the largest amount of personal comfort, and, therefore not one in which practical points are shown. Many a housewife there is who could give hints of the highest value to builders — nay, with all due reverence be the words written — to architects of no small fame in the artistic world ; hints which would therefore in one way clearly deserve to be called practical — nay, even technical — although the said housewife might be ignorant even of what the latter word meant. Capital hints enough as to house arrangement and convenience lie now floating, so to say, in the minds of many who are as much concerned with house building, technically considered, as they are with statesmanship — that is, concerned with neither — and which, if made known would be of vast service to those who are con- cerned with building. Not a few of those, or such as those, it has been our good fortune to have had communi- cated to us, and these we shall present to our readers in due time and place. Others there are which have come to us as hints in a very indirect way, and often from most unlikely quarters, while engaged in professional pursuits ; and many more which, being the outcome of practical knowledge of, or experience in, the designing of cot- tages, &c., carry with them much that may be of some value. All these, when put together, will, we trust, form a series of remarks on a subject which, without in any way desiring to perpetrate a pun, we may say comes home to all of us, or at least, we should be inclined to say, nine- tenths of our readers. These wiU now be enabled to see what are to be the leading features of the work, and how it came about that it was necessary to draw attention to the way in which they would be practical, but only so in a certain sense, and which we trust we have clearly explained. Without further preface, then, we begin with the immediate subjects before us, giving, however, as preliminary or intro- ductory to those, a few remarks upon a point of some interest connected with it. The word or term " Cottage " has of late years acquired a certain vague and indefinite meaning, which has made it difficult in many, if not in the majority of, instances to determine in what class the structure to which it is 12 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. applied should be placed. The well-to-do citizen speaks with smiling approval and a slight suspicion of mock modesty of his " snug Uttle cottage in the suburbs," which has its luxurious fittings and its well-appointed and trinily- kept gardens ; while the artisan talks of his cottage, which is in the too often close and confined streets ; the farm- labourer of his, in neither of which are to be met with any of the comforts arising from either abundance of even the necessary accommodation, or the convenient arrange- ment of that accommodation, such as it is. Another point also has arisen to make a distinction between the different classes of structure classed under the now com- prehensive style of " cottage,'' and that is, the cottage designed for country, suburban, and street or town dis- tricts. The term, as generally and vaguely used, is apt to convey, as it in fact does convey as a rule, the idea that there is no distinction between these different classes — that a cottage designed for one locality will equally well suit another ; while, in point of fact, the opposite is the case, each particular locality carrying with it its own particular requirements, which must be attended to and strictly car- ried out if the whole necessities of each case are required to be attended to. It is obvious, on even a slight consideration of the sub- ject, that the peculiarities of a street or town locahty are essentially different from those of a purely rural one. In the town, space is limited from the mere fact that its cost is much greater than in the country ; and the conditions of life of the respective occupants are so different in their various aspects, that conveniences demanded by the one are not required by the other, and would, if given, be given at a cost whicli would simply be equivalent to money thrown away. Further, whUe an essential difference is thus created by the peculiar circumstances in which each class of cottage is built, there are reasons which operate, and powerfully, m making a difference between the style and extent of convenience afforded by one class of cottages as compared with those of another even in the same locality. In many, the number of the family, and too often, irrespective of this, the lack of means, force, so to sa.y, many an artisan to take possession of a cottage in COTTAGES WITH VAEYING ACCOMMODATION. 13 ■which there is only the jninimum of conveniences and accommodation ; while another, more happily placed, either through the receipt of higher wages, or from the exercise of habits of prudent carefulness and sobriety, or from the mere necessities of a large family, is enabled or obUged to take a cottage of larger accommodation and provided with a higher class of conveniences. Although the same reasons exist for similar modes of pi-oceeding, it is certainly re- markable to find that in purely rural districts they do not operate to the same extent, and in many cases do not operate at aU. Perhaps the more correct way to put the matter would be, that they are not allowed to operate. For in place of cottages of varying degrees of accommoda- tion being built to meet the requirements of families of varying numbers, the rule too often is that they are all built in the same style and with the same amount of accommo- dation. We shall at a future part of our remarks point out how this anomalous and unfortunate condition — un- fortunate, as it has greatly retarded the increase of good cottage accommodation in rural districts — has arisen ; we deem it necessary only here to allude to it in connection with the fact that the style, extent of accommodation, and kind of conveniences are modified by the peculiarities of different localities. In quite another direction, but on precisely the same principle, the kinds of cottages built for the better classes, possessed of greater means and with higher and finer cultivated tastes, vary in style, extent, variety, and kind of accommodation and conveniences. Locality operates pow- erfully, but obviously unequally, in determining those peculiarities ; and so also, as in the case of artisans and labourers, does the question of ways and means, which affects all classes alike, although in essentially different degrees and ways. Hence, in the better class of cottages we find a wide range of structures, from the plain, unpre- tending, but neat structure, which relies upon its sur- roundings of natural accessories of creeping plants or flowers and shrubs for its claims to any notice, if notice such a structure can be said to seek, to the highly orna- mented, ambitious, and in many instances too plainly pretentious "ornamental cottage," or the more substantial and expensive "villa cottage " or " cottage viUa." 14 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. Although more could be said upon this subject, and some curious and interesting speculation thrown out as to the reasons why the term " cottage " — from its original and at one time universal application to a class of structure which comprised only one example, and that generally of a very humble character, and almost always invariably connected with rural localities and associations — has been so extended as to embrace a number so wide and possessed of such varied characteristics of accommodation, style, and cost ; we have said enough to indicate that, as now ac- cepted, the term includes many classes of buildings. It has been deemed advisable, therefore, so to arrange the matter of this volume that the plans will be divided into sections, one taking up, for example, cottages designed for rural districts for the labouring classes ; another embracing the cottages of artisans in town districts ; while other sec- tions will be devoted to the cottages designed for the better classes, these again being characterised by the extent and style of their accommodation to meet the requirements of different occupiers ; thus taking in the well-appointed villa cottage of the rich, and the less pretentious structure suitable for the citizen of smaller means or less ambitious views. But while thus divided into classes, or sections, it is obvious that this principle of arrangement cannot be very sharply defined, the requirements of one class running very much into the lines, so to say, of those of another, the difference between them arising more in the extent than in the character of the accommodation. This will be found to apply with greater force in the case of the cot- tages designed to meet the necessities of the better classes of society, the lines of demarcation being in those of the classes below them much more sharply and clearly defined. These circumstances will influence that precise and definite classification which might otherwise be secured with considerable accuracy, and will materially modify any attempt to carry it out in its entirety. Apjain, while cottages may be classed under groups or sections, the exigencies of modern life demand modifica- tion, which bring about what may be called sub-classes. Thus, cottages may be built in straight-lined rows, as ter- VARIOUS CLASSES OF COTTAGES. 15 races, or in curved lines, as crescents ; or they may be buiit in groups of four or six cottages, or more ; or in pairs, these known as "semi-detached" or "pairs;" or singly, designated as " detached." These different sub- classes indicate their relative position in the scale of value or importance, the last-named embracing the best kinds of cottages, occupied by "well-to-do folks," those in rows being as a rule confined to the humbler classes of society. 16 CHAPTEE III. The " Plan " or Inibknal Aeeangements op the Cottage — Various kinds op Cottages, from the simplest KuRAL Cottage to the Cottage Villa ok Villa Cottage. Classipioation or Systematic Arrangement of Dipperent Plans. — In the treatment of a technical or a scientific sub- ject, the value of a systematic arrangement or classification of its various details or departments is so obvious that it is almost universally adopted. If no other advantage was obtained from this principle of treatment than the ready facility with which each department can be referred to, and, when comparisons are necessary, the ease with which they may be made, it is worthy of adoption, and when not adopted its value is perhaps all the more clearly seen, from the fact that tbese facilities which it ofCers are wanting and are sorely missed. But valuable as this principle of treatment is, and applicable to the great majority of sub- jects as it can be made, there are, nevertheless, some which cannot well be brought under it. This may arise in many ways, but the difficulty owes its existence chiefly to the fact that the different details are subject to such an endless variety of influences, few or none of which can be brought or placed under any specific rule or law, being dependent often upon mere personal caprice, prejudice, or opinion, that no systematic arrangement or classification can be adopted, as there is no guiding principle which runs through and binds the siibjects treated of or illustrated together, save that arising from notions of convenience or those others already alluded to. The planning of domestic structures is a subject pre-eminently marked by those pe- cuharities of character, and its treatment in anything like a systematic way is specially difficult. Notwithstanding CLASSIFICATION OF COTTAGES. 17 this, the attempt at ranging its various developments under certain classes has been more than once tried, but where so, the trial has almost invariably resulted in failure. Nor need this be wondered at if we consider the subject from the point of view we have drawn attention to, the difBculties being so great that the attempt to simplify its treatment by a system of strict classiiication has made matters only all the worse, confusion more confounded. Holding these views, then, the reader must not look to us to give the plans we have selected to illustrate our work ranged under regular systems, as if they were subject to unvarying natural laws. All we shall attempt is, that while commencing with the simplest and most limited of plans, and going gradually up to the point at which we have — or, rather, the subject has — placed for us, we shall try to arrange them under some kind of system, as far as they are capable of being so arranged or classified. Some writers, in illustrating the subject of building plans, content themselves with simply limiting their classi- fication to the following, which we have already indicated : First, single houses, or detached, each house standing by itself, isolated from all others, although others may not be far distant, indeed closely contiguous, the extent of dis- tance not being involved in the term ; second, houses built in pairs, or semi-detached ; third, rows of houses from three, but usually commencing with four, up to any num- ber, according as the row or street is long or short. These three classes may belong either to the class of single- storied or two-storied ; or, as has been for a long time the case of towns ia the northern part of the kingdom, and is now becoming extended to the southern portion, the stories may amount to many in number, this plan or system of building being known as the '' flat." There is all the advan- tage of simplicity in this classification, and in truth it is diffi- cult to see how it can be amended, unless in the attempt to give a specific name to the mere form or outline, which may be the result of certain modes of arranging the rooms, an attempt which we have already shown only ends in adding confusion to an otherwise simple system. 18 cottages: how to plan and build. Section I. — Cottages adapted chiefly fob Ageichltueal OE BUKAL DiSTEIOTS. Glass 1. — The simplest {or worst) arranrjement of Cottage.— The one or simjle-roomeil. The simplest form or arrangement of cottage is the single-roomed one, ■which as has been not inaptly remarked in a work on the subject, as Old Matthews used to say of the cobbler's stall, " serves for parlour, kitchen, bedroom, and everything." Now, this "everything" constitutes the difficulty or evil connected with the single room, and renders it an arrangement fitted only for the few — and those ought to be very few — exceptional cases which are to be met with. Still defective as it is, and possessing only as its limited capacity forbids it to possess, more than one or two of the provisions deemed now necessary in dwelling- places even for the very poor, nevertheless it is quite a pos- sible thing to make a single-roomed cottage comfortable, on the principle that there is nothing so bad but what might be worse; and it is at all events worth trying to see whether the "worse" cannot in some measure be avoided. If one- roomed cottages are to be built, as built they will yet be despite all that is spoken and written about and against them, it is but right that they should be built in the best way. Of course it is to be understood that we in no way advocate the building of such places, or even the perpetua- tion of them in places where they are already so. All we say is, that where or when to be buUt — whether singly or in rows, or in forming integral parts of larger structures — the most should be made of them. Take, for example the case of the cottage illustrated in fig. 1, without the addition of the off-set h. In this it is scarcely conceivable of the ordinary comforts, to say nothing of the decencies, of life being capable of being maintained in it, where a child is, and worse where there are children, in the family ; and yet, to the disgrace of the civilization of which we boast so much, we knoiv that there are dozens — would we be wrong in saying hundreds ? — of cottages in which father and mother, children and lodgers, all herd together in a close contiguity which is revolting to think of, and which would THE ONE-ROOMED COTTAGE. DEFECTS. 19 not be, and is not in many -well-conducted farms, tolerated ill the case even of tlie pigs, those Ishmaelites of farm stock. But although to those who push their philanthropic notions to the verge of a mania the idea may seem very wrong, still we believe that for an old married couple, or for a single woman or man, a one-roomed cottage is all that is sufficient. The truth is, that we, being apt to judge of this great ques- tion too much according to our own standard, fancy that there is something wretchedly bad in being condemned to keep to one room in perpetuity ; whereas, in the vast ma- jority of cases, so thoroughly do the working classes like the one room that they keep using it, even where they may have another room, or even other rooms, at command. We must take facts as we find them ; and much as we may deplore the habits and feelings which dictate or bring about such a state of matters, it will be long before they are altered to suit the higher and purer standard of hving which the classes better off think to be essential. No doubt there is much force and truth in the argument that it is the duty of the landlord to give such accommodation as will enable this higher standard to be followed up, leaving the responsibility of doing so, or not doing so, to 20 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BtTELD. rest with those who inhabit the cottages ; for it is obvious that if good accommodation is not within their reach, they cannot use it — a somewhat absurd way of putting a plain truth which, however, is too often lost sight of. Be aU this as it may— and assuredly the cottage question is one of the most vexed of the many vexed questions engaging our attention at present — we proceed without further dis- cussing, what seems to bring about a discussion that is endless, to the consideration of the case we have supposed as illustrated in fig. 1 ; and which, presenting as it does the lowest stage of house accommodation and household conveniences, forces the question upon us, can not this even be improved ? Those who are accustomed to deal much with and go much amongst the very poor, know too well that one thing which adds such a hopeless dreariness to their dwelling-places is not so much the lack of accom- modation as the confusion which reigns everywhere ; the utter want of order, which is always the characteristic of a better and higher social status. The household articles which are not in use should not be mixed up vpith those which are in use. " A place for everything, and every- thing in its place '' — an excellent rule truly ; but the question forces itself upon one La the case of a cottage such as in tig. 1, " How can this be enforced under such cir- cumstances ? " In some minds the love of order seems to be so natural that they cannot bear to see things out of place, and they make astounding efforts under the most discouraging of circumstances to see them and have them in place. What can be done, with the most limited of space to do it in, in this direction, is nowhere better illustrated than on board ship, and we have frequently thought that the best lessons for housemaids as to order and regularity would be the spending of some time in the steward's department of a ship or steamer. But still, with cottage people, their training, as a rule, when young, has been altogether in the opposite way, and they can live amongst a confusion, and in dirt and disorder, with no thought apparently that it is either wrong to have it or uncomfortable to be amongst it. Still there are many who would gladly have things otherwise ; and to our mind there is nothing more touching than to come across cases CONVENIENCES FOB THE ONE-EOOMED COTTAGE. 21 — as we have now and then done so in onr various outlooks, of, or rather inlooks, into, the "huts where poor men he " — where the cottager is seen to be struggling with circum- stances against which the struggle was vain. To such people how much some means, however trifling, of being able to have things "decent and in order" would be valued. One of the first things, therefore, which should be provided for in a cottage, and the smaller the cottage the greater the necessity for its being attended to, is cup- board or pantry accommodation. In the single room, the only way in which this can be given is either by boxing off a part of the room, as shown by the dotted lines at a a, or by having a small offset at the back, as at b. And if these plans be deemed not eligible, or the expense of car- rying them out be grudged, shelves, — of which cottages as a rule are miserably deficient — might be provided, as at e, and part of the length of these be shut in by folding doors, as at c^. As the fire-place {d, fig. 1) in a brick- built cottage will have projecting jambs, thus making two recesses, one at eaeh side, as e and /, one may be provided with a cupboard having folding doors at the lower part, the top of this being a good but small " sideboard " or " chiffonier top " — save the mark I such names in such a place — with a range of shelves above this, the lower shelf of the range being of course at some height above the top of the cupboard. The other recess may be shelved up to a certain height, and above that the recess closed in with folding doors, thus making a convenient wardrobe in which dresses may be hung. And to well-ordered minds, as there are many such amongst the veriest poor even, it affords great gratification to have places to put things away into, to " make the place look a bit tidy, you know, sir j " and so far as their poor clothing is concerned, it is made all the poorer, and the quicker too, if allowed to lie about exposed to smoke, dust, and dirt. In the chapter on Fittings the reader will find the contrivances or conveni- ences we have hinted at above fully illustrated. While places for putting things away into, out of sight — • which is good as far as the various odds and ends of a cottage is concerned, but out of dust and too often smoke, which is better — the one-roomed cottage may be still more 22 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. improved by giving to it conveniences in which things may be placed at meal and washing-up times. A very simply - arranged but useful form is the " fall-down table " de- scribed in the chapter on fittings. A great deal has been said, and said truly, as to the evil influence which a crowded disorderly house exerts upon the males of the family, in driving them away from its manifold discomforts to the greater attraction, and unfor- t^mately sore and evil temptation, of the public-house. And it is a somewhat saddening reflection to make, that, in a larger proportion of cases, the only place where the labourer finds anything like comfort is that in which he finds what in time drags him down, low as he is, to a lower depth ; and puts it out of his power, if he ever had the wiU, to raise up counter-attractions by either im- proving his home, or, by saving the money which he spends in drink, be able to move to a better house, where something like the quiet comfort and pleasant attraction of a home could be obtained. If the wife does not know how to make the home of her husband attractive, the pub- Hcan does ; and in the cheery fire and pleasant gas-light of his bar-parlour, the labourer finds a contrast to his home, in which none of these things are to be found, which he is not able, or not very willing to withstand. But if there be one time more than another in which the pleasant adjuncts of the public-house or the beer-shop exercise their greatest force, it is that at which washing is carried on at home. Why, it is hard, or perhaps it may be very easy, to say, but the truth is clear enough, that to man or men there is something peculiarly unpleasant and repul- sive in washing operations. Indeed, if report lieth not, they have an evil influence upon gentle woman also, making her anything but so, but rather of the waspish, sour disposition, more disposed to sting or scold than to sing or smile : and if this be true, it adds but another to the "reasons why" men flee from washing as from the plague. A cottage cannot be expected to have a wash- house, but it ought to have a place where much of the washing can be done, and all the ordinary cleaning and washing-up of dishes at least be performed, if not out of the hearing, at least out of the sight of the husband and CONVENIENCES IN THE ONE-ROOMED COTTAGE. 23 the sons. This place — call it wash-house, or scullery, or what you will — can be given even to a single-roomed cot- tageat no great cost. A cottage can also be greatly improved by giving to it a porch, that being the cheapest form of this in which it is placed in the interior, as at a in fig. 2. Where this is placed at the end of the room, it affords a good chance of giving a small scullery, and, by a little contrivance in planning, a small lock-up pantry also. This we illustrate in fig. 2, in which a is the porch, h the scullery, c the closet or pantry. Now this might be con- verted into a coal and wood or " chip " and timber place, and in which the garden tools might be placed away, in Fig. 2. " due order "' hung upon nails or placed upon shelves ; in this case the entrance should be outside, to keep the dust, &c., from the room. These conveniences will, we believe, approve themselves to the minds of most of our readers, as changing the wretched, comfortless, one-roomed cottage in fig. 1, into a place possessing some of the features of a comfortable home : one in which a newly-married couple may begin life, and an old couple end it, with not a few of those things which make life better worth living for than that dragged out in hovels which more — nay, which scarcely — befit the lower animals to herd in. As every cottage in rural districts has, or should have, its " bit of garden," however small that bit may be, we suppose that in this is 24 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. placed the building which is euphoniously and delicately called a " convenience." How life is lived without this — as lived it is by thousands of our fellow-countrymen, and to the disgrace of our country — passes our comprehension. As a writer on sanitary matters well remarks, the absence of such conveniences in or near the dwellings of man is the best proof that they have lost to a large extent those finer shades of feeling which separate them from the lower animals. It is not necessary here to say much on this subject, as it is fully discussed in a suc- ceeding section ; but its importance, and the absolute ne- cessity which there is for its being supplied to all cottages, however humble or however small, demands that we could not say less ; indeed, it is impossible to dismiss it without saying a word or two more : and these will refer, in terms of the strongest denunciation, to the plan of giving one convenience to perhaps half-a-dozen or even a dozen cot- tages, supposing these to be buUt in a row. Each cottage should have its own distinct and separate convenience, and that placed in as isolated a position as possible, so that it be not overlooked, or overlook. We judge very much of the mind of a landlord by the way in which he gives and disposes of, or withholds these essentials to civilization. However cosy and comfortable a single-roomed cottage may be made, as we hope we have shown it can be made by the addition of sundry and certain conveniences and arrangements, the case is obviously altered where there is a family to be housed. Here a single room is, or at all events ought to be, quite out of the question. It should be a rule in cottage arrangements that whenever a third in- dividual at all up in years is to be housed, an additional bed-room ought to be provided ; and as the family increases in numbers and in years, then more ought to be secured. As perhaps the best way to throw out such suggestions as we may have to offer as regards the present department of cottage accommodation, we may suppose a series of cases in which badly arranged cottages are proposed to be im- proved, gradually by this plan working our way up to the highest class of cottages, in which the maximum of accom- naodation is given, and forming what might be called "model cottages." Taking, then, the illustration in fig. 1 CONVENIENCES IN THE ONE-EOOMED COTTAGE. 25 as an example of the lowest stage of cottage accommoda- tion, of how things " ought not to be," we presume that to the conveniences we have just described an additional bed- room is required. In fig. 3 we give a suggestive sketch, showing how this can be obtained by throwing out an off- set at the back, a a being part of the living room, b bed- room or closet, according to its dimensions, we need scarcely say the larger the healthier. If a bed-room and a bed-closet be required, the latter for a young child, the arrangement in fig. 4 wUl show how the addition to the " type " cottage in fig. 1 may be given, in which a a is part of the original room, b b the bed-room, c c the chil- dren's bed-closet, d d pantry, or store, or scullery ; e e coal and wood house, entered from back at/, or, if preferred — although this arrangement tends to make the room a a dusty — by a door, g g, from the living room ; the dotted lines in this drawing show how these additions may be put under a lean-to roof. In fig. 4 a another arrangement is shown, a a being part of the original room or cottage, as in fig. 1 ; b, the porch, with shelving round it ; c, inner door to living room a a; d, 3, passage giving access to the bed-room e and bed-closet / ; the scullery is at the back at g, h being a store closet. In fig. 5, by having an offset at the back of the original room a a, two fair-sized bedrooms. 26 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. CONVENIENCES IN THE ONE-EOOMED COTTAOE. 27 j, c, may be given ; while, by another offset at the end, a scullery d, coal place e, pantry /, and porch g, maj be secured ; or the arrangement in fig. 6 may be adopted, in which the living room a a is to the back, the scullery 6, pantry c, and coal place d, is at the end, while entrance is obtained at the front by the door e, passage and inner door / /, and two bed-rooms, g h, entering right and left from this. Tv'e have thus shown how, by certain additions, the com- fortless single-roomed cottage given in fig. 1, with its "no accommodation and no convenient arrangements " can be changed into one more or less comfortable by a gradual rise in the scale of additions tiU, as in figs. 6 and 6, a cottage really comfortable and commodious is secured. It would be eaey to " ring the changes," so to say, and give 28 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. a wide variety of plans, for to " plans there is no end," but what we have given will be sufficient to illustrate the general principle at the foundation of all. The " roof" question, one of the most important in construction, bearing, as it does, so strongly upon the expense, may be got over by making it of the cheapest kind, the " lean-to " being as a rule adopted ; and boarding and felt coverings being used. But as will be easily understood on con- sideration, the cheapest way is to get as much accommo- dation under one roof as possible, and this can only be Fia. 6. done by adopting the two-storied plan of building. This, in addition, gives a healthier arrangement, placing, as it does, all the bed-rooms on the second floor ; as well also the closets for storing up clothing, liaen, and such objects as should for health's sake and that of economy be kept dry. Before requesting the attention of the reader to this class of house, we shall give a plan or two of the one-storied cottage, in addition to those already illustrated, only that these will be designed to be built de novo, not " altered and amended," as in the illustrations as yet presented to his notice. TWO-KOOMED COTTAGE. 29 Class 2. — Single-Storied Detached Cottage with One Bed-room in addition to the Living Room. Those writers on the subject who have attempted a sys- tematic classification of cottages, have, as already hinted at, taken the form or outline as the guiding principle or feature, commencing with the square house as the starting type, so to call it. We should rather say, the rectangular house, as the square is but seldom recommended, although that by the way is the form which encloses the largest amount of space for the amount of walling, and admits of the cheapest form of roof to be adopted. In plate 1, we give in fig. 1, the plan of a rectangular or parallelo- grammed- shaped single-storied cottage, in which a is the porch, this being the snuggest form of all porches — the interior — b, the living-room or kitchen ; c, the scullery, in which is the boiler or " wash-copper " d, as it is called, " a lucus nmi lucendo " principle, as it is in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred not copper but cast-iron, and often very bad cast-iron withal ; and e is the slop stone, not e the " sink " be it observed, for which distinction there is a marked necessity — see the Section on Fittings; the bedroom is at/, with the pantry a,tg. Now this is a fair conveniently- arranged cottage for a married couple without children, or for a widow with two children. It will be observed what a large amount of accommodation can be got within the en- closing walls ; and further, the compactness with which this is characterised. This is one of the advantages of the rectangular form, that all the apartments lie closely to, and can be made to dovetail, so to say, into one another. The roof, we cannot too often repeat, is the most expensive part of a house to construct, and that part of it which is requiring repair most frequently. . Now, in the rectangu- larly-formed house the roof is the cheapest which can be put up, if the end walls are gabled ones, as it presents one unbroken surface on each side, from ridge pole to eaves, and from end to end there are no breaks or " re- turns " formed by the changing of direction of lines or surfaces of roof caused by parts of the wall projecting and breaking the straight or continuous lines which are the characteristics of the rectangular-formed cottage. It is 30 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. those breaks in other forms of roofs which not only add to the expense of their original construction, but it is at the junction of them — the "valleys" — where repairs are most frequently called for. Class 3. — Singh-Storied Cottage, with Two Bedrooms. Fig. 2, plate 1, shows another arrangement, and also with a pantry. Another arrangement of a cottage of the same class is shown in plate 2. This, as will be seen, more nearly approaches that of a square in its outline than the plan in plate 1, and the accommodation is that fitted for a married couple with a family, two bed-rooms being given. The porch in this case is interior also, but an exterior porch may be placed at the end as shown at a. This carried back gives space b, for a water closet d, and a coal- place d. The entrance to the back bed-room d, may be at <: ; but as it is considered — and justly also — that it is not a good plan to pass from, one bed-room through another, the door to room d may be placed at /. This, no doubt, in- volves the necessity to pass through the scullery' to gain admittance to the bed-room, but the objection to this is not so great as passing through the front bed-room ; and this for obvious reasons. The advantages of having se- parate entrances to bed-rooms are specially appreciated in times of sickness, and always when the members of the family are grown up. But it is only by having a special passage that the best method of having these separate entrances can be obtained ; but as this takes up space, and space means extra cost in builditig, it is the reason why in low-rented or cheap cottages that the separate entrance to bed-rooms is dispensed with, and one is always passed through the other ; the arrangement is not so bad, of course, where the inner room is occupied by young children, and the outer by their parents, or vice versa. This cottage belongs to the class of which the form is rec- tangular, and a slight break or projection. We now come to the modification of the form which has projecting parts, and is more or less irregular in its out- line, and which forms the second class of those authorities. The first illustration of this is given in plate 8. In this there is only one bed-room, corresponding to the plan in THKEE-ROOMED COTTAGES. 81 plate 1, the accommodation, in fact, being the same in both. The porch may be placed at the end, as at a ; the coal and wood place at b. In plate 4, the accommodation is enlarged to correspond with that in plate 2 ; but here the plan necessitates the passing through the living-room to gain access to the two bed-rooms ; this, however, could be altered very simply by placing a door at d in the porch, removing the privy to the garden, which, in fact, would be better — see remarks on this convenience in a succeeding chapter — making this the coal-place, and what is now the coal-place into a store closet, through which access may be had to the bed-room b by the door a. There is, however, no great objection to having one bed-room pass through the living-room c, and, indeed, it will be all the more con- venient, as in times of sickness, to have a second entrance to bed-room c as at/, in addition to that at d. Having thus illustrated and described the arrangements of cottages of the simplest type, from the minimum to the maximum of accommodation which can be got in a single-storied structure, we have now to pass to a higher form or deve- lopment of arrangement as exemplified in Two-Storied Cottages. We have just said that we have illustrated the maximum of accommodation obtainable in a single storied cottage ; this, of course, must be taken with a reservation, for it is obvious that by merely spreading out, so to say, or extending the walls of a structure of this class, we might give any accommodation within them which we desired. But this would be a very expensive method of obtaining extra accommodation, or even the usual extent of it desirable in a cottage of moderate, or say average size, inasmuch as it would involve the con- struction of a large area of roofing. Now, as already stated, there is no item in house building so expensive as that of the roof, hence the advantage, in this respect alone, of having a two-storied structure where the amount of internal accommodation goes beyond the mere single living-room and a bed-closet or bed-room, with the other essential convenience, a scuUery ; for by giving two stories to contain the extra accommodation, the same area of roof covers twice the extent of accommodation which is given 32 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. in a single-storied structure, and the great additional ad- vantage is obtained of having the bed-rooms lifted up, so to say, out of the damp region of the ground soil. Glass 4. — Detached Two-Storied Cottages, with Two Bed- Rooms. Taking the accommodation in the lower storey as com- prising the living-room and the scuUery only, this will give in the second storey, with ordinary or small sized rooms below, space for two bed-rooms only. The arrangement of these may be as in plates 10 and 11, the living-room being in both cases to the front. In figs. 7 and 8 (wood-cuts following) an arrangement is shown in which there are three bed-rooms obtained in the second storey. These plans were designed by Mr. Strickland, and published in a very able report by this gentleman on the subject of the Cottage and Farm Building Plans, for which prizes were some years ago offered by the Yorkshire Agricultural Society. The Plans here illustrated show some very good features in arrangement, and may be taken as an- other class or type of cottage. Fig. 7 is the ground-plan in which a is the porch, b the space for the stairs, c the larder or pantry, d the scullery, and in which e is the slop- stone, and/ the wash boiler ; g the hving room. Fig. 8 is the chamber or first-floor plan ; a is the space for stairs, b for landing, c front, d back, and e small bed-room. At the Exhibition of Plans above referred to, a very large number were shown, displaying a variety in arrangement, and in the extent and kind of accommodation which apparently set an attempts at classification at defiance. But the attempt was made by the Committee appointed to report upon and adjiidicate the prizes, with what success it is needless now to say ; suffice it to say, that the classifica- tion was one purely conventional, as aU such classifications must be, although it, perhaps, was the first attempt to tound a system upon the forms or outlines which the cottages were forced, so to say, to assume by the arrangement adopted by the Designers ; the idea evidently being that there was a limit to the methods of arrangement, and that these naturally grouped themselves. The following plans give a few of the arrangements exhibited. In fig, 9, we give the DETACHED COTTAGES. 83 ground-plan (left-hand half, the centre line being 12) of part of a semi-detached or pair of cottages, fig. 10 being the . chamber on the pair plan (the right-hand half of the plan) . In fig. 9, a is the wash boiler, h the oven for baking. I'ig. 11 is part ground plan (left-hand half) showing another arrangement ; fig. 12 being part chamber, the pair or bed- room plan (right-hand half). 34 COTTAGES : now TO PLAN AND BUILD. Glass 6 .-^Semi-Detached Pair of Cottages, with Three Bed- Rooms, and Cellar in Basement, Accommodation for Provision, Store, Fuel, etc. DETACHED COTTAGES. 35 Scullery Lobby 9/wm/////M//VM'vmm/m//!i Fig. 9. Pia. 10 36 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BVILU. Fio. 11. ^^^^m -^^^ mm.w^- Fia. 12. SEMI-DETACHED COTTAGES. 37 In plates 7 and 8, we give drawings showing a superior arrangement of cottage, adapted to be built in pairs, or semi-detached ; in these the additional accommodation of a cellar on basement floor, with its attendant conveniences, being given. The cellar plan is shown in fig. 2, plate 6 ; fig. 2, plate 5, being an alternative, or different arrangement of the apartments, the exterior walls remaining, of course, the same. Fig. 1, plate 5, ia the ground-plan, and fig. 1, plate 6, the chamber-plan. Class 6. — Plan of Semi- Detached, or pair of Cottages, with superior accommodation, but with One Living or Sitting- Room only, and without Cellar or basement floor. The entrance doors and lobbies in last plans are at the ends in the plan of cottage ; in plates 7 and 8 they are in the centre of the cottage, the stairs being also differently arranged. Plate 9, is the elevation, the same style may be adopted to the plans in plates 5 and 6. In this plan there is no basement or cellar floor; but this can very easily be given by dispensing with the china closet (see plate 7), so as to admit oi entrance being gained to the cellar steps, which go under the steps shown in plate 7, leading to the second or bed-room floor ; the living-room, larder, and coal closet being the parts cellared under. For the china closet thus dispensed with, the coal closet shown in plate 7 can be used, accommodation for coals being ob- tained in the cellar. At the show held at Cardiff of the Eoyal Agricultural Society of England, a special prize was offered for the best plan of a cottage adapted for farming districts. Of the many which were exhibited, none were deemed by the Committee worthy of the prize offered ; but they selected one for commendation, as coming nearer the standard whiph they had decided on, than any other of the plans shown. This plan by Mr. Hines, well-known for his labours in this department, is illustrated in plate 10, fig. 1 being the ground, fig. 2 the chamber plan. The Com- mittee in publishing this in the Journal of the Society, to the pages of which we are indebted for the illustration we give, gave at the same time illustrations showing it as 88 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. " amended " by themselves. Our readers will be able to judge of the value of tliis " amendment," by inspecting the plans, fig. 1 ground, fig. 2 chamber, in plate 11. Class 7. — Plan of Semi- Detached Cottar/e, icith Two Sittimj- Rooms, Four Bed-Rooms, and ivith Cellar or Basement Floor. In this plan a still higher class of cottage is illustrated, suitable for the accommodation of those who occupy supe- rior positions on an estate, such as the under agent or bailiff. Although shown as semi-detached, or built in pairs, they are obviously adapted to be divided, so as to form detached or single houses, which may be preferred by some landlords ; or in cases where only one of the class is required. Or should they be built ia town or suburban districts (see next Section), they can be also arranged to be built in rows of four, eight, or twelve, or more cottages, care being taken to arrange them in succession of pairs, not as single houses, vrhich the plan does not admit of. The plans we have now given have reference chiefly to cottages in agricultural and rural districts ; although they wiU, together with the remarks thereon, as regards arrange- ment and the fittings and conveniences of the house — as may obviously be applicable, with certain modifications, to cottages erected in surburban districts, and even to those in central parts of the towns. When applied in the latter situations, the modifications chiefly required will be con- nected with the " convenience " of the cottage, by which name, as we have elsewhere observed, the water-closet is now so generally called, being an expression which harmonizes with the dehoacy, or assumed delicacy, of the times. In agricultural cottages the water-closet, or rather the " privy, " as that arrangement of " the convenience " is called, in which none of the mechanical appliances, more or less complicated, of the water-closet, are used, is almost invariably placed outside in the. yard, if there be one attached to the cottage, or the garden, if there be none. An arrangement very often adopted now is making it to form part of a range or assemblage of small apart- ments useful for various purposes, to which the SEMI-DETACHED COTTAGES WITH SUPERIOR ACCOMMODATION. 39 name of " outbuildings " is given. This the reader -will see illustratsd in the simplest forms in figs. 13 and 14, and in the more amplicated, or rather complete, arrange- ments in figs. 15 and 16. Fig. 16, it may be noted here. r^MMM Y hRO fAR O' Fio. 13 Fig. 14. is the plan of " outbuildings " adapted for the cottages illustrated in plates 10 and 11. As will be observed in the appropriate Section treating of the Sanitary Construction and Arrangement of Houses generally, a great deal of discussion has been carried on with reference to the question as to whether in rural dis- tricts the "closet" should be inside the house or outside. So far as the point of healthy position is concerned, there can be no doubt that the placing of the privy exterior to 40 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. Wntl^ Of? ^ COTTAC. '//m'/////////?\ Flo. 16. COTTAGES FOK WORK-PEOPLE. 41 the cottage is infinitely superior to the plan of giving it a place ineide, and forming part therefore of the plan of the house. Whether this has been the motive or not, it is somewhat difficult now to say, very probably one much more connected with a desire to economise than otherwise, but the point has been practically decided by the plan almost universally formed, of having the closet in country cottages outside the house. Although this is to a large extent also the rule in many districts of towns, especially so in the manufacturing towns of Lancashire, still, under the Provisions of the Police or Municipal Acts, which many towns have now passed, the water closet is placed within the cottage ; and as the applications from Corpora- tions of towns to carry out sanitary improvements — or what are deemed to be such — have increased very much of late, and are likely still further to increase, the probability is that before long all the towns will compel the owners of cottage property to have a closet, and that placed within the house. Further remarks on this point will be found in the chapter devoted to this and kindred subjects. Section III. — Cottages foe Woek-people in Town and Manufactueing Districts. The Plans of cottages which up to this point we have given are, as we have stated, chiefly those adapted for rural or farm labourers in purely agricultural districts, or for those who hve in suburban districts, and who are as a rule employed in out-door work, market gardens or the like. Why it is difficult to say, looking at the questi6n from one point of view, yet from another it is easy enough to decide, but the fact remains for such consideration as may be given to it, that iu those districts and for these classes of our work-people, cottages of a very humble char- acter are either only required by or wished for by them, or are suppHed to them as the best that they will get, however much they may wish to have better. The same classes — that is, work-people proper — in towns, would not as a rule put up with what their brethren in the country do put quietly up with : not that the cottages in towns are what they ought to be, either in convenient and commodious 42 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AXD BUILD. arrangement or in healthy construction ; wretchedly far removed from this condition are they as a rule, and as our sanitary philanthropists know well. Still they are more pretentious, and offer an appearance of completeness, if they do not actually give it, not to be met with as a rule in many country districts. The difference between the two classes of cottages is perhaps more in the extent than in the kind, or rather the goodness, of the accommodation. Thus we have seen that in the rural cottage one room is not seldom aU that the house (?) affords by way of living space, this beginning the scale. Now, in the towns, and especially in manufacturing ones, the lowest mark on the scale is the cottage with two rooms on a floor, two above and two below, four in all, a great advance on the one-roomed single-storied cottage. Our readers, however, must not have the idea that there is no such thing as a single room being the whole living space occupied by work- people in towns. Hundreds — perhaps, thousands — of ex- amples of this kind are to be met with, but it is the result of a system of sub-letting or sub-division of the rooms of a house or cottage which gives rise to this system, and keeps up the supply of single-roomed houses ! The cottage or house, as originally designed and built, was arranged to have so many rooms, making a complete house of it so far as it went, and it is only the wretched result of social degradation that those structures which were meant to be the abode of one family are divided and sub-divided so as to form the abodes of many families. This is the point which constitutes the difference between the cottages of t6wns, with several rooms, and those of the country, with only one room ; although, in point of lact, there is httle choice between the " rookeries " into which town houses are transformed, and the hovels of the rural districts ; nay, in truth, there is much, for in the country the concentra- tion of wretchedness is spared, and the glorious advantages of purer air to breathe and brighter scenes to look upon are obtained for nothing, and for which the cooped-up town denizens of rookeries would give a trifle if they but knew their value, or, knowing it, could obtain them. COTTAGES WITH THEEE ROOMS ON A FLOOR. 43 Class 1. — Cottages with Two Booms on a Floor. In plate 12 we give the plans (fig. 1 ground, fig. 2 chamber or upper floor plan) of a cottage of this class, in which the stairs are taken oif the back kitchen or scuUery. The cellar floor, which is a feature of all cottages however low rented, being reached by stairs under those shown in the ground plan, entering at the point a so as to get " head room " for ascending and descending. In the plan on plate 13 the stairs are in the centre of the cottage, and the entrance to cellar floor is obtained at point a (see ground plan). In both of those plans (plates 12 and 13) the cellar floor contains only one apartment, namely, that under the scuUery or back kitchen in plate 12, or under living room in plate 12. In the bed-room floors access is had from the landing to each bed-room independently, without passing through one room to the other. Plate 14, is a suggestive elevation for those two cottages. Class 2. — Cottage with Three Rooms on the Orownd Floor. This class is illustrated in plate 15, and is adapted to be built either as semi-detached or in pairs, or, if required, in a row of four or more, each set being a repetition of the two or pairs. In this arrangement the scullery is at the back, and is lighted by what is called a " screen " door, that is with the upper half glazed. This looks into the yard, also shown in the plan, and outside of the scuUery is the w. c, or rather privy. In plate 16, part of the upper or chamber floor is shown, and in plate 17 the cellar plan and alternative arrangement of ditto. In plate 18 is a suggestive elevation of a plain character. In plates 19, 20, 21, and 24, are drawings of a detached cot- tage, with three bed-rooms and a bed-closet, this being two-storied. A superior arrangement of semi-detached cottage is illustrated in plates 22, 23, and 24 ; this may be arranged to form a row or terrace — a row of Jfour or eight ; in this arrangement there are four bed-rooms on the upper floor. The Dimensions ok Sizes op the Eooms in Cottages for WoBE-PEOPLE. — To this important point by far too little attention has been paid, and the indifference, we regret to 44 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. say, still exists. And yet it is not easy to over-rate its importance, as very much of tlie comfort, and not a little of the health, of the inmates of the house depend npon it. There is something in the very feeling of heing cramped for room to move about in, which makes one uncomfort- able, and the difference between the want and the pos- session of but a few inches more in the floor space of a room is just the difference between one which is pleasant to abide in, and one which is quite the reverse ; and it is a point which always exists, and the comfort or discomfort of which is being felt every time the room is used. Many of the mistakes as to dimensions arise really from an inaccurate knowledge of what effect a certain number of inches will have when added to or taken from the floor space of a room, or the width of a passage, or a stair-case, or a closet. Some artificers even, who ought to have an accurate knowledge of what dimensions are, from their perpetual use of the rule and the measuring tape, never seem to be able to attain a ready mental grasp of the sub- ject, and to them the mention of such and such sizes are but names andnothing more. Others, again, have apparently an intuitive knowledge of dimensions, and can not only at once hit upon what should be the size of rooms or of their fittings, but can decide at once as to what the effect will ulti- mately be when they are laid down. As a result of these two conditions, some have not the slightest conception what a difference even a few inches will make in the comfortable size of a room, enabling furniture, &c., to be more conve- niently placed, and people to move easily about in it ; so that when asked to give say six inches more to its length or breadth, they say it is of no use to give that, as it is too little to do any good. Others, again, will see at once that the few inches will make a wonderful difference in the real utility, so to say, of the apartment. If we find this ignorance of the effects of dimensions existing, as it assur- edly does exist, amongst some artificers, we can have but little expectation of finding owners and proprietors free from it ; and yet many whose callings are iar removed from that of building have an exceedingly accurate notion of what dimensions are, and many a valuable hint can be got by architects and builders from them. Housewives — many of SIZE OF KOOMS, ETC., OF COTTAGES. 45 them are well gifted in this way — and if more consulted than they are, our houses would present fewer examples of ill- arranged and cramped apartments, passages, and closets, than they too often do. No doubt many of the wretchedly confined and small rooms of cottages of the working classes in towns arise from the dearness of building land ; but while this is a powerfully operating cause of the evU, it is not the only one, for we find that it is just as marked in rural districts, where land for building is not so high as to make the dif- ference between a too-confined and a moderately-sized room a matter of very great importance; so that we are con- strained to conclude that the evil arises and continues to be perpetuated by an indifference to, or ignorance of, the increased comfort given to houses by even slight addi- tions to the sizes of their rooms, &o. Take, for example, a stair-case; many have no conception what the difference even of an inch and a half makes in the ease and comfort with which the ascent and descent of it can be made ; nay, a less addition even than this to the width will often make all the difference between an easy and a difficult stair-case to go up and down on. So also in the space or length given to the stair-ease to save a few inches in the length of a passage or by an awkward disposition of the steps, some stair-cases are so steep that they are positively dan- gerous, and assuredly, if not so, inducive of uncomfortable feelings in descending them on the part of those who: — as, for example, old people — have not " steady nerves for giddy heights." Passages also are often made so narrow that they are caricatures on the very name by which they are known, so difficult is it to make any passage along and through them. Such defects are perpetual nuisances, and lessen greatly the value of property, a point which will be more considered by some than the other, namely, that they lessen also the comfort of the inhabitants. The mere destruction of paint or paper, arising from the dresses of those going up and down stairs or passing along passages, is no small item in the keeping ol a house in good order and clean-looking to the eye. But it is in rooms that the evils of want of space are felt most keenly, and those more especially in the case of bed-rooms. It is not merely in 46 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BTJILU. the fact that the lack of a few inches in the size of a room prevents the furniture from being placed ia the most convenient way, hut that the health of those who live in the rooms is greatly influenced, and that in a bad way, from the confined space which necessarily results ; this, of course, is more specially the case in bed-rooms, in which we spend by far the greater portion of our lives. There has been, and stiU. is, no end of talk on the subject of education, and the importance of imparting to all, espe- cially our working population, a knowledge of the laws of health, and of those of taste, by which their health, thoughts, and habits will be secured, enlarged and refined ; but there is little doubt of this, if it be thought of under its true aspect, that all these points are much more in- fluenced by the arrangements of our houses than is imagined even perhaps by those who have long studied the subject, and have done their best to draw pubhc attention to its importance. And taking even what to many will seem to be a very minor matter, this same point of size of rooms which we have been considering, there is good ground for believing that, apart altogether from the sanitary aspects of the question, the influence upon the minds of those living in closely confined and cramped-up rooms, in which free and easy movements are quite out of the question, must be prejudicial. There is, we maintain, something elevating in the consciousness of having abun- dance of mere space. This may be thought to be the very quintessence of ultra-refinement in educational notions, but we are induced nevertheless to believe it to be after all a thoroughly practical poiut — one worthy to be taken into account in estimating the aims, the objects, and the possibilities of daily living. Those of our readers who are fortunate enough to hve under different circumstances than those we have alluded to, will understand what we say on this point, and wUl easily draw to recollection their feeling, when they have been called upon to go to, or move about in, even for a short time, houses of the con- fined character we have named. That a better state of matters will ultimately prevail v/e have no doubt, but this wiU only be the case when education and a widened expe- rience will have taught many of our population the true SIZE OF ROOMS OF COTTAGES. 47 relation of things connected with " living," and will compel builders and contractors who build houses to look at or to sell, irrespective of aU considerations as to how best they can be made fitted to live comfortably and healthily in. What we have said on this subject may by some be thought to be more than its importance demands ; we believe the opposite to be the true position of the point, and did space admit we should say more, and be able, we7beUeve, to point out in so doing other things of practical value. It is of course dif&cult, if not indeed practically impos- sible, to lay down any rule by which to set off the sizes of rooms of cottages. We refer here, of course, to those built for the labouring classes, both in town, suburban, and rural districts, the cottages of superior classes beiog ob- viously placed under quite another regimi, which admits of rooms being given of any dimensions wished for by the proprietor or occupier. But for working men's cottages, even of the lowest class, the dimensions of the kitchen, or living room — for it practically is the room in which the family lives during the day — should have the minimum placed at 14 feet by 12. This, some will think, is a pretty fair, nay a large sized room, but it is not so ; it is in reality but a small room, where several people have to move about, and do nearly all the house-work ia. When a table is placed in the centre of such a room, there is very little space left round it. If possible the fire-place should be placed at the end of the narrow side, this arrangement giving the most space at the end of the table, which runs along the long dimensions of the room, where it is most needed when cooking, &c., is going on at the fire-place. If the living room be made less than the above dimensions, say 12 feet square, a size often adopted, then it becomes a very small room indeed under the circumstances above named. One 14 feet by 16 feet wUl give a very good room, with amply sufficient space to move about in ; and the size win be made practically greater if there be a " fall-down table " at the window, on which to iron clothes, or even to take the meals if the family be not too large ; this being let down when not ia use, and falling against the wall, will give to the room aU the space it formerly occupied. The size of the room will also practically be influenced — 48 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. enlarged or reduced, as the case may be — by the way m which the fire-place jambs are built. If they extend into the room full depth, in order to give space for the flue, the living room space is just so much reduced, although the space may be economized by filling in the recesses at the sides of the jambs with cupboards or open shelving. The " scidlery " should not be less than 8 feet long by 6 or 6 feet 6 inches wide ; if made a much larger room than this, and provided with a fire-place in addition to the usual boiler or " washing copper," then the family wUl be tempted to "herd and huddle " together in it, making it a hving room with all the discomforts of a cramped-up place. The scullery should be therefore only large enough to enable its legitimate work to be done in it, of washing up dishes, clothes washing, and doing the rough work of the house, and in no way fitted up so as to tempt the family to live in it. A scullery 9 feet by 7 forms a very fair-sized and amply convenient apartment for a working man's cottage. A " pantry" or "larder" should form an essential part of every cottage, and if placed at the end of the BCuUery will give its length equal to the width of scullery, and a good depth will be 4 feet or 4 feet 6. If only for a single couple, with no children, the cottage will be double -storied only over the hving room, the scullery being at the back and single-storied ; the size of the bed-room will thus be the same as the living room. Bed-rooms should be the airiest rooms in the house ; so that no cutting up of the room over the living room by partitions, so as to get a smaller additional room, should be allowed. Where the cottage is larger and the bed-rooms two or three in number, the house should be so planned that the partition wall of the lower rooms should run right up to the ceOing, and no cutting up of the bed-rooms on upper storey by partitions be allowed. The minimum size of a bed-room should be 12 by 10 feet ; this, however, gives a room so small that it would be best designated by the name of bed "closet." Yet, small as this is, there are numbers of cottages having smaller bed-rooms than this, just sufficient to hold a bed and a chair or two. Where a bed-room is very small, either by design or oversight, a very good plan to practi- TJNIFORM PIECES OF FITTINGS. 49 cally enlarge its floor space is to throw out the window into a recess projecting outside the wall, and supported on beams. This, if only made deep and wide enough to re- ceive a chest of drawers, the top of which will form a toilet or wash-stand, will materially add to the convenient floor space of the bed-room ; and as the only weight to be sup- ported is that of the drawers, comparatively light beams wiU suffice to carry the whole outside the walls. In deciding upon dimensions, uniformly-sized windows should he used throughout the house, so that the fittings (as blinds) of one will suit another. This principle, too often lost sight of, is applicable to other departments of house fittings. Of course this recommendation — important, as it is, if in no other, certainly in an economical point of view as saving "blind" material, in a way which will at once be obvious to the housewife — does not apply to, or rather embrace, closet windows, which are not fitted usually with blinds, and are always of less dimensions than the windows of living rooms. But although less, they ought to be all of a uniform size. What a loss of time, labour, and temper, would be avoided if builders and contractors would decide upon a gauge or standard system of dimen- sions for every kind of house fittings, grates, windows, &c. We often have experienced surprise that the lesson given in the Crystal Palace of 1851 was not taken advantage of by " the trade." The various plans now given comprise examples of the majority at least of the diiferent forms or outlines which the internal arrangements adopted create, as it were, or upon which they are dependent. And from these wHi be seen, we think, the truth of the general statement with which at the beginning of this section we set out, namely : that it is not easy — many will think not possible — to ar- range the plans of cottages met with in practice under a systematic classification. The changes in the relative position of the rooms one to another, the number of these, and of the attendant conveniences, dependent, as they are and must be, on a variety of circumstances perpetually changing, introduce such disturbing elements that what appears good to one will not appear so to another, and the " class " of to-day may be no longer that of to-morrow — 50 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. anci who is to decide what the class should be ? Enoug is done when a fair review of the plans generally in use given, as we trust we have given. It would be an eas matter to extend those to a much greater number, but th would serve httle practical pui'pose. The varieties of a: rangement we have given are so comprehensive thi anyone devoting a little thought to the subject will be abj to modify or alter those in such a way as to create desigi which will be as good, and indeed in all probability will I much better, than those we have Ulustrated. We think tv know too well what " planning " is, to say that our plan are the best — or indeed a long way from being the best- which could be designed. It is a very superior plan indee - — the ne jiliis ultra of the set, which could not be improvet The great point to aim at is to know exactly what i required in the cottage proposed to be built ; and no on can tell this better than those who design to live in i1 Every means, therefore, should be taken to ascertain tb wants of the classes living or proposing to hve in th cottages. If this principle had been adopted more exten sively than it has, we should not have so many Ul-arrangei houses about us, in which few of the conveniences of living and scarcely any — in some, none — of those structural con trivances calculated to promote health are met with. 51 CHAPTEE IV. The Arrangement of Cottage Villas ob Villa Cottages. The cottages classed as above — and the names are used indifferently, although the latter is perhaps the more fre- quently employed — might, from the locality in which they are generally constructed, be termed suburban cottages, although that term might raise ideas somewhat ambiguous, inasmuch as not only are superior but inferior classes of cottages met with in those districts, but the villa cottage is very frequently met with in districts which are beyond the suburban, and are, in every sense of the term, within the range of strictly rural districts — although it is also met with ia towns, in situations which are adapted for it ; of examples of which many wiU doubtless be familiar to our readers. We, therefore, choose the name as given above, as indicative of this particular class of domestic structures. As a rule, they are buUt on the " detached " principle, the owners or occupiers being generally possessed of sufficient, and in many cases of ample, means, preferring, as might be supposed, to be isolated as much as possible from their neighbours, and to have their residence " within their own grounds." These grounds, of greater or less extent as the case may be, are almost universally a feature of this class oi cottages, even where they are built on the semi-detached principle, or in pairs. Much of the happy combination of seclusion, with that position which does not court, but yet gives way enough to the feeling of publicity, which forms one of the charming characteristics of the vUla cottage, is gained from the way in which the " grounds" are not merely set out, but from that in which the house is placed in relation to the grounds — on which point, too often overlooked, a great deal could be said to practical purpose. 52 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. The villa cottage, although coming within the range of superior structures, does not rest its claim to that position on its size or the extent of its accommodation. Eather, indeed, upon the way in which all conveniences re- quired to secure the comfort are combined with the gene- ral air of elegance and refinement given to those parts which are more exclusively considered as ministering to the higher claims of taste. Some of the most charming villa cottages we know of are, in every sense, little — not that the rooms are small and miserably cramped in dimen- sions, but that they are comparatively few in number ; so that the cottage may be said to be, as it really is, a small house. Some are carried away with the idea that dignity is imparted to their residence by having within its walls a great number of rooms, especially of the class known as " entertaining rooms," or those devoted to the reception of guests. But to secure these — and it is chiefly, in many cases, to justify a very small vanity, which enables them to say that they have got so many, and also such and such rooms — they either reduce the number of necessary rooms, such as the bed-rooms, or, as they cannot well dispense with these, they so curtail the dimensions of them, and also of the so-called entertaining rooms, that the guests for whose entertainment they are designed feel so " cramped, cabined, and confined " in them, that they feel anything but comfortable, and their entertainment is not always that which brings with it feelings of satisfaction and pleasure. In truth, this desire to have so many rooms, and yet to have them in a house which they must have built at a certain moderate cost, brings with it many cu-cumstances which are at once as ludicrous as they are uncomfortable. It scarcely adds to the dignity of a householder to ask his guests to go into some room with a high-sounding name, to find that room, when ushered into it with all due grace and familiarity, a miserably close and confined box of a place. One is apt to paraphrase, under such circumstances, the phrase of the well-known story, and to say to the host, if the ceremony of the day would admit of such delightful candour, "More of your comfort, and less of your dignity, my friend." Pretentiousness is always painful ; and true taste and all the necessary claims of true dignity, and ENTERTAINING, BED AND ESSENTIAL ROOMS. 53 assuredly those of the comfort of friends, are met by the much more sensible plan adopted by more sensible people, who prefer to have Fewer Entertaining Rooms, hut all of comfortable dimen- sions. — When an owner of a villa cottage finds that his means will not permit him to build a place so large as to have within its walls the various rooms which in fashion- able houses go to make up the suite of entertaining rooms, he acts in a much more sensible and manly way when he decides in fashion somewhat like this : "I have not the means to build a house with this entertaining room and that, and to buUd them in such a way that they will really be what they ought to be, not mere caricatures ; but I shall have fewer of them — perhaps only one or two — but I shall have them of the best I can get ; so that I shall be able to let my guests (and myself) feel comfortable within them." Further, this sensible plan will admit of the necessary or essential rooms being given, and especially that Bed-rooms roomy, and also conveniently arranged, shall be certain to form part of the house. Nor seldom is it found that to have the pleasure — or the pride — of saying they have a drawing-room and ante-room, the owner of a cottage viUa (or other house) is compelled either to dis- pense altogether with a bed-room which he ought to have had, or, in order to complete the number of these, to cramp the dimensions of the whole, or nearly the whole, of them, so as to make them anything but comfortable as regards convenient size, or healthy as to general arrangements. The first and essential thing to do is to arrange the plan of the villa cottage, so that Essential or Necessary Rooms shall form part of it. That these be given not only as regards their proper num- ber, but given in such a way that their arrangement in relation to one another be convenient, and their sizes so that they shall be healthy. These necessary rooms being thus secured, the entertaining rooms may then be con- sidered, and the most made of the space which can be given to them to make them roomy and convenient. If they can be numerous, so much the better, but comfort must not be sacrificed to show. In case of a dining-room so small that dining— ^which includes, to be comfortable^ 54 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. having easy access for servants all round the table when the guests are seated at it — cannot be carried out with any approach even to comfort, assuredly in those circumstances a •' withdrawing " room is essential, and would be useful if the usages of society would permit a guest (or two) to withdraw, with his refection as well, and consume it with more comfort and ease than he gets at the dining-table. This may be an exaggerated way of putting the matter, but it is not so. Sober, matter-of-fact truth is it, of which abundant evidence can be gathered daily from not a few of the houses occupied by the middle classes, who are pretty well to do, as the phrase is. Plans of Villa Cottages, or Cottage Villas. — The plans of villa cottages which are given in plates a to 1 are not presumed to afford in their arrangements all the conveniences and to embrace all the points on the impor- tance of which we have in the foregoing remarks briefly dwelt. They are chiefly designed to illustrate what may be called the general style of villa cottage accommodation ; although they may be said to be also illustrative to a large extent, if not wholly bo, of the principles which make up these remarks as a whole. That they — as well as the plans of cottages of a humbler class — could not be im- proved, and greatly so, it would be presumptuous to say. What we conceive to be a good arrangement, another thinks is a bad one ; and in considering the various re- quirements of different parties, and the different views they hold upon what constitutes convenience and comfort in arrangement and construction, it would be wrong to say that such criticism is either not correct or should not be indulged in. The true way, we take it, to look upon such plans as are given in this and works of a similar character, is to consider them as suggestive of arrangements which will, as they are given, suit the views of some readers who may be contemplating building ; or of arrangements which will form the basis or foundation of such modifications, amendments, or alterations as may be deemed necessary by others. Taking this more usefully practical, and, as we think, more reasonable, if it be a more humble or less pretentious, position, we may express the hope that the plans we give will be useful in both of these ways. It will SINGLE-STOEIED DETACHED COTTAGE VILLAS. 55 have been observed, in the course of the preceding pages, that the remarks have had reference perhaps more specially to the general reader than to the practical men engaged in the actual business of erecting buildings. But it is to be hoped that even he may find in -what we have stated much that is suggestive, and perhaps points here and there turning up -which he can apply in his practice. Of these, it is only right to state that they are not as merely theo- retical, or — as some practical men like to substitute for this term — fanciful, notions or statements, but are the out- come of some experience in the practical planning of designs, as well as of a careful survey or inspection of what buildings have been erected over a wider range of districts of the kingdom, and embracing a larger number of exam- ples, than falls to the lot of many to be privileged to arrange and examine. The writer feels, therefore, that without at all presuming too much — as assuredly he does not wish to indulge in anything like presumption — he may claim for his remarks, that being derived from a knowledge of what so many have done in the way of planning and executing, there may be " picked out of the mass of matter" which he presents, something which may prove truly practical. Section I. — Plans of Single-storied Detached Cottage Villas. Having said this much, and necessarily, by way of pre- face to the plans of villa cottages or cottage villas, we now proceed to describe those which we have given in plates 25 to end, inclusive. The " designs " — to use a term fre- quently employed in connection with drawings of houses — begin with those which give the minimum amount of accommodation, such as would be required for a single lady, or, for example, some " misanthropic bachelor " — although why he should be so esteemed, deemed, or consid- ered too popularly to be, we have a difficulty to see, any more than that a " single lady " — as the term oddly enough phrases it — should be called an "old maid." There is nothing opprobrious conveyed in the simple designation bachelor, and we always regret that that of spinster has died out. Small as the smallest of the cottage villa is — such as is shown on plate 28 — it nevertheless presents aU 56 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. the aocommoclation and conveniences necessary for one occupant, with a female servant, so as to make living in it at once comfortable and healthy. As greatly adding to the latter essential — and for the reasons which will be found fully explained in the succeeding chapter (the fifth) — a cellar is provided for in most of the small cottage viUas given in plates 25, 26, 27, 28, and 29 of the single-storied class. Thus, in fig. 2 on plate 25, the cellar plan of the cottage villa in fig. 1 is given. This, it will be seen, gives — as already explained when treating in the preceding chapter on cottages for working people — -capital accommo- dation for storing provisions, which, if kept above ground, would not remain so long fresh and good, but would also inconvenience the occupants, where accommodation at the best is limited. If the cellar in the house in fig. 1, plate 25, be not constructed, the space occupied by the stairs may be utilized otherwise. Thus, the porch might be placed nearly opposite to the door to kitchen, the w.c. being moved to where the porch in plan is, thus giving either a larger closet to the parlour, or another closet or pantry to the left hand side of porch. If the " cleaning up " of dishes, &c., was done in the kitchen — which, with a good servant with tidy ways, might be done by having a small "slop stone" in the corner, or this might even be dispensed with — the scullery space could be made into a good store closet, a small passage being left at end by which entrance cotild be got to servant's bed-closet. Fig. 3 shows plan of another design for single-storied detached cottage villa, the entrance to the working apartments being at the back ; the advantage of this being that the occu- pant, if standing much upon " dignity," could have the "servants' hall" and door distinct from the " visitors'" ditto. The dignity would, however, be let down a trifle in practice by the servant in " answering the door " having to walk round from back to front — no great distance cer- tainly in such a place, but not very comfortable in wet weather without. To avoid this, a verandah, as in fig. 1, plate 25, might be a;dded to the house. This "feature," when neatly made — this does not involve expense to any great amount — and covered with creeping plants, and decked out with the garnishing of flowers, always tends greatly to add LAYING OUT OF THE GROUNDS OF THE COTTAGE VrLIiA. 57 to the snug beauty of the cottage villa. Of course it is understood that however small the house may be of the class now being considered, it is surrounded by "its own grounds," as the somewhat grandiloquent phrase goes, to indicate the piece of land, too often of very Umited extent, which such places have given to them to make kitchen, flower, and ornamental gardens with. Yet in the hands of one who knows the business well, much may be made of but a few square yards, as we have more than once had the pleasure to see. By judicious laying out of the walks — the straight line, as a rule, being scarcely ever, the curved line, in its endless and beautiful variations, being always employed ; by placing a clump of shrubs here, a twining belt of evergreens there, a mound of earth with appropriate plants here, a small fence of privet or hawthorn there ; a series of " infinite surprises " may be so contrived, that the visitor, in walking over the " grounds of the villa," will have the idea most strongly impressed upon his or her mind that they are really of considerable extent ; just as by the opposite mode of treatment a really exten- sive piece of groimd may be positively dwarfed, and made to appear as if it was of the " smallest," like the clown's beer in the play of the " Taming of the Shrew." And by judicious planting and cropping, a very small patch of ground wUl raise a large amount of vegetables ; we have known but a few rods literally keep a famUy of four Uberally supplied with most excellent kitchen vege- tables all the year round, but a small proportion having to be purchased. Of course, also, the "villa cottage" should be placed on its grounds so that it be some distance from the road or street ; and if the grounds be laid out well, whUe the house wiU have the privacy which most staid people like — we are making no allusions to bachelor and old, &c., proclivities, presumed or actual — the occupants will yet have stolen glimpses of the outside world, whUe that wiU have the same of the inside ditto. Many indeed will pass by with the impression that the tiny cottage villa is a mansion, or at least a building worthy of the somewhat imposing name which may be put up on the gate leading thereto ; and this wiU be another advantage which it wiU possess, should the occupant be at once poor and .58 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. proud. In plate 26 we give another example of a cottage villa, with the same accommodation as that in fig. 1, plate 26, but of which the arrangement may be better liked by some, or afford suggestions for the " designing " of another plan to suit one's own peculiar- — or rather, we ought to say, particular — views ; this, in fact, being one of the main objects we have in giving the plans in the various sections of this work. Although still under the same class, we show in plate 27, the plan, in fig. 2, of a house in which there are two bed-rooms given to the owner's part of the accommodation — or we should perhaps say, one good-sized bed-room and one good-sized bed-closet. Although, in truth, small-sized closets are all dignified with the name of hed-roonis in houses of no inconsiderable pretensions as to size and amount of accommodation, although rooms is scarcely the term to be applied to most of them, so far as the bed-chambers are concerned. This cottage villa is on the " square" plan of outline, than which no arrangement is supposed to give so ugly an " elevation " or architectural look. If the new modes of treatment of such houses, in points such as the continental roof, as it may be called, bay windows, bracketing its eaves, orna- mental iron-work, &c., &c., be not adapted to such houses on the score of expense, they may be made to look beau- tiful exceedingly by the aid only of trellis-work in the form of verandahs, &c., upon which and up which climbing plants, evergreens, and perennials may be trained : roses, jessamines, &c., &c. ; these, of course, it need scarcely be said, helped by good taste and some knowledge of plants and flowers. We know of several square houses — tea-boxes, they are derisively called — upon which not a shilling has been spent in external decoration, the only decoration being that obtained from the above sources ; and yet we question much whether those be not the most charming dwelling-places we have an acquaintance with. There is, at all events, whatever may be said to the contrary, an unmistakable attribute of snugness and comfort about a house square in plan, and they impress one with the feeling of " home " perhaps more than any other. Further, they are the cheapest houses which can be builtj and they give the largest possible amount of space within the walls. USEFUL AND ORNAMENTAL FEATURES IS COTTAGES. 59 And for the owners or occupants of square cottage villas, one-storied, who are disposed to lay out money on their architectural decoration or treatment, there is this comfort : that this can be more effectively and easily done than in the case of larger-sized houses on the same plan, but two- storied. In addition to the verandah, another feature adds very matetially to the appearance of a square house, that is, the porch as in fig. 2, plate 28 ; of the comfort of this, or rather of the coinfort it gives to the house, we need say nothing, that being obvious enough. In fig. 2, plate 27, we show another arrangement in the same class, but of which the outline is oblong. This also gives two bed- chambers ; the smallest one is, however, not provided with a fire-place, as the corresponding chamber in fig. 1, but at small cost a clever mechanic can easily fit up an appli- ance or apparatus by which the heat of the fire-place in the parloui may be used to produce a supply of warmed air to the bed-chamber. Or, by a still simpler and cheaper contrivance, the back of the parlour fire-place can be so arranged that it will afford heat enough to keep the tem- perature of the bed-chamber comfortably warm even in the coldest weather. In plate 28 we give another arrangement, in which the accommodation is given in a plan with various " offsets," so as to admit of the adoption of an architectural style of external treatment more or less elaborate. In this, if the scullery can be dispensed with — and the wash-house in cellar (fig. 2) may admit of this — the space may be given to form the servant's bed-closet ; the space marked for that in the plan, fig. 1 , being devoted to the owner's accommodation, forming a bed-closet either entered from parlour, or, by doing away with the china closet in the back lobby, from the part of the house which vnU be the best and most convenient arrangement. In plate 29 we give the plan of a semi-detached one-storied Villa Cottage. As a rule, those who desire cottage villas under the class now being noticed — and of which we have given several examples in plates 25 to 28, inclusive — prefer to be as private as possible ; and, however small the grounds may be, to have their houses enclosed within or surrounded by them, so that they will "not be overlooked by other 60 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. people." Whether this feeling— which prompts the people of this country to be so fond of seclusion, " shutting them- selves up," and which marks us off as a separate people from those, for example, of the Continent, more perhaps than any other of our insular characteristics — is a right one, may admit of doubt ; although possibly this outcome of it, as regards a desire to have " one's house all to one- self," is the one of which most can be said in its favour. At all events, where people can afford it, they prefer de- tached to semi-detached houses ; and those, again, before those buUt in larger numbers, as in terraces, streets, or rows. StUl, inasmuch as all those latter classes of houses are, as a rule, somewhat cheaper than isolated houses, with their connected grounds, there are many who would like rather to occupy a semi-detached cottage villa in the suburbs or in the country, than a house in a terrace or row in the town. We deem it right to give one example at least of this class of cottage villa. In each house there is only one bed-room ; but here, as in one or two cases already described in this chapter, if the scullery can be dispensed with, this may be made a small bed-room or closet. We have given no cellar plan to this example, but the lobby is wide enough to admit of stairs being taken off one side of its inner end, by which access could be gained to cellar apartments under the parlour and bed-room. We have been thus particular in illustrating the class of small detached cottage villas, as we know that a great want exists for this class of houses. In almost every town and moderately large village, one hears complaints made that there are no houses fitted for the occupation of respectable people who do not require great accommodation. Many there are who, possessing a moderately fair income, find that it wiU not enable them to take a house larger than their necessities require, and who do not care to go to live in districts inhabited by those whose tastes, habits, and mode of living are so different from their own. Such are either compelled to board with some family, or to take apartments, with all their attendant circumstances, so op- posed in many cases to the " home " feeling which people of refinement and education have so strongly developed, and which, when it can be gratified, adds so largely to COTTAGE VILLAS OP TWO OE MOEE FLOORS. 61 their material comfort. Some districts are now and then met with in which the smaU hut good houses we refer to are situated, but even in these they are but comparatively rare ; while, as a rule, this class is by no means repre- sented. We talk of good "family " houses, but seeing that there are many who have no families, why should houses not be built for them ? We would, in fact, advocate the extension of the principle we have already pointed out in connection with the subject of cottages for the working classes, namely, structures with varying accommodation for varying necessities, to the better classes : an extension, we confess, we are surprised has not been thought of, for assuredly it is a real want of the age, and we feel convinced that those who would set themselves to supply it would find their account in so doing. Section II. — Cottage Villas of Two or more Stories or Floors. We now come to illustrate the second class of cottage viUas, those having larger accommodation than the houses we have abeady described ; this being given in two or more floors, and, as a rule, detached. The plates indicate sufficiently the arrangements of the various plans, so that we may pass on to other subjects without further comment. 62 CHAPTEE V. Connected with the Site — Choice op Position — Aspect — Nature of its Soil, and its Peepaeation for the Eeception of the Cottage or Villa Cottage — Prevention of Damp. The importance of the subject, the details of which will take up the space of the present chapter, is, we fear, but little recognised by those about to buUd. And yet we require to give but very little consideration comparatively to it, to perceive that the site, taking it as a whole, must exercise an influence upon the building which occupies it. That influence wiU be exercised for good or for evil accord- ing to circumstances. For it must be obvious that if, for example, the nature of the soil constituting the site be such that it gives damp or unhealthy exhalations, these not only surrounding the house and therefore, to a greater or less extent, contaminating the atmosphere, but entering it through the medium of the floors, these too frequently constructed in the worst possible manner, as if to facilitate the action of such influences — must poison, so to say, the air which is breathed directly by the occupants. We shaU see that this is so, and that other evils more or less grave have their origin in defective sites. The converse of the case, in which the site will exercise, if not a positive influ- ence for good, at least a negative one doing no evil, need not be here stated, it being obvious enough. We have said that but little importance is attached by many to the site, but we may go further than this and say that up till a very recent period it was, as a rule, having but few excep- tions, universally overlooked, being a point to which it was not deemed necessary to pay any attention whatever, save that connected with the securing of a safe foundation for the superstructure to be raised upon it. We owe the recent CHOICE OF SITE OP COTTAGE VILLAS. 63 attention paid to it to the investigations of Sanitary Economists, wlio have placed the matter on a footing quite commensurate with its importance ; and who have showed exclusively that a great deal of the health of the occupants of a house depends upon the goodness of the site. In pro- ceeding to present to our readers the principal points connected with this department of Cottage Building, we deem it right to remark that much of what will be given will refer chiefly to cottages of a better class than those of which the rental is low, but still as the greater includes the less, in these remarks will be found much that we feel assured will be suggestive, as applicable to all classes of domestic structures. It would be well if all the precautions taken to secure healthy sites for superior were applied to in- ferior edifices also, but we fear we can scarcely hope for this as long as health is sacrificed, as sacrificed it too frequently is, for the sake of making money. In such cases it is obvious where the responsibility lies, and it is a responsibility, which whatever may be thought of it now, will at some — let us hope it will be an early — period in our social history be fully recognised and acted upon universally. The Choice op Site. — In Towns there is of necessity but little choice given to the owner as to site, for having fixed on the locality of the building he proposes to erect, he finds it mapped out by the proper authorities, and he has to build not where and how he would, but where and how they like. But even in such cases, there are certain pre- cautions which it is in his power to take in order to avoid an absolutely unhealthy site, and to these, if he be wise, he will give his best attention, or at least his Architect or Builder for him. In suburban districts, the chances of a choice of site widen, although often even there such are the demands for space, and so occupied may be the best positions, that the choice after aU may turn out to be but Hobson's, "this or none." But as in the town, so here, there are certain powers at the command of the owner which he ought to exercise. In the districts that are absolutely rural, the chance of obtaining the best site is widened to such an extent that it will be his own fault or the neglect of his Architect or Builder if he does not get it. 64 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. What we have to say on the subject of the site of a house, will be said in general terms, so that the reader who may be contemplating the erection of house property can take from them what will be applicable to his own case, whether he be about to build in town, in its suburbs, or in the country, at a distance greater or less from it, as the case may be. Soil of Site. — The soil of a site must obviously effect, and that materially, the house, prejudicially, which is built upon it, and that in more than one way. Thus it may be such as being always damp itself, it will of necessity render damp the walls of the house. This chronic condition of damp may arise from various causes. The soil near and at the site of the proposed house may form part of a field or ground which has never been drained, and the subsoil of which may therefore have here and there concealed deposits of water which keep the whole soil damp and moist. And this may be rendered much worse by the position of the ground with relation to some ground near it. This may be in a higher level and drain into the lower ground, thus adding to and keeping up the moisture which itself possesses naturally. In a case like this, matters will be either made better or worse, according to the nature of the soil of the site. Thus if it be a gravelly subsoil, with a porous upper or surface soil, or a chalky subsoil, with a like porous surface soil, or a sandy upper soil lying upon gravel or other porous subsoil, the site even under the circumstances above named will be at times dry, and gene- rally comparatively so. But if the soil of the site be a close, retentive, and deep clay, or if even the upper surface be a light porous soil lying upon a subsoU of close clay, damp will never be absent from the site. Drainage of Site. Securing Dryness in the Cottage. — From what has been said then wUl be drawn the conclu- sion that of soils the best for a site is gravel ; the worst, close retentive clay ; and running between these two extremes will be a wide variety of classes of soil for sites, each of which will be good or bad, or rather better or worse, according to the proportion in which it approaches the gravelly or the clayey soils. A further conclusion will be drawn, that to get rid of the damp in the MADE SOIL, OK EUBBISH SITES. 65 upper or surface soil — which is that on which the house is built, or if deeply excavated, by which it will be surrounded — the water, the cause of the damp, must be drained away. This drainage is absolutely essential where health is a matter, as it ought to be, of primary importance, and it should therefore be insisted upon by the owner, and his Architect or Builder ought to see it faithfully carried out. This drainage, to be of real practical service, must be what farmers call " thorough "—that is, the drains must be deep, not less than four feet, although six inches added to this will make the work more perfect — and they must cross the whole site in greater numbers and in closer con- tiguity than at the other or general parts of the field. And, lastly, a good outfall must be obtained, so as to ensure the water being absolutely carried off from the site. " Made-soil " oe Eubbish Site. — But, in addition to the evils arising from dampness in the soil of the site, others — and those, too, of a very grave character — may arise from other peculiarities in it. Thus, in towns, both within their bounds as boroughs and in their suburbs, sites are frequently not of the natural soil at all, but are made up of materials obtained from a number of sources ; and, in addition to soil possibly of a good, possibly of a bad, kind, may contain large bulks of the veriest rubbish, rank with all sorts of fQtb and dirt abominably foul. Those sites are technically known as of "made-up soil," or " made soil," and a fine make they too often are. Derived, as said above, from all sources — often the rubbish of old houses recently pulled down — there are present in such soil, heaps of organic substances which decay rapidly, and send up foul smells and air-contaminating gases. Nor is this the worst of it. This is shot down upon the natural surface of the ground — the level of which it is desired to raise for some particular purpose — which is often fiUed with large holes, which the contractor, as a rule, never thinks it right to fill up previous to shooting down the rubbish ; or, if fiUed with water, as they often are, never deems it neces- sary to empty. These holes become receptacles for per- manent supplies of water, which, passing from the surface through the mass of filthy stuff in the " made-up site," becomes, in time, no better than a mass of sewage ; the 66 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. gases of which pass upwards through the soil, and, entering the house, give rise to "those smells of which we complain SO much ; but where they come from, nobody can tell, as you know " ! Further, the organic substances in the body of the bulk of soil, decaying in process of time, cause holes to be formed ; and these give rise either to subsidence or downward settlement, or become in time fiUed with water, or rather sewage matter, adding to the evils already named. No house should ever be built on a made soil ; and if corporate bodies knew their duty, they would never allow "made soils" to be made — if the paradoxical state- ment may be permitted to be given here. That the matter is of importance must, after what has been stated, be obvious enough ; but if there be doubt on this in the minds of any of our readers, we should counsel them to get hold of, and carefully peruse, a report on the condition of " made " soils of sites, presented a few years ago to the London Corporation by their Medical Officer.* Enough is shown in this to indicate the dangers arising from such sites. Position or Locality op Site. — The position of the site must not be overlooked in considering this department of " wise building." By position is meant the relation of the site to surrounding objects, some or all of which may influence prejudicially its healthy features. Thus, for example, the proposed site may he near to, or indetd close upon, the outer margin of a piece of marsh.y, ill-drained land, and which may probably never be improved ; or it may be near a piece of water more or less stagnant, and "nhich will be all the more unhealthy if, as is often the case in such instances, the water be surrounded, or partly so, by trees or shrubs, the leaves of which, falling or being blown by winds into the water, decay, sink to the bottom, and add to the mass of decaying organic matter there con- tinually collecting ; or it may be on a level expanse, sur- rounded by rising grounds, the drainage of which passes * Since writing the above, we have observed that the Medical Officer of one of the largest towns in the kingdom has represented to the Cor- poration the absolute necessity of forbidding houses to be built on such soils aa we have described, as the gravest sanitary evils arise through them. BAD SITES FOR THE COTTAGE VILLA. 67 to the lower level, keeping it in a state of what may be called chronic dampness, which scarcely anything can remedy. Further, the site may be near a plantation of trees ; these, when too near a house, invariably render the air damp and cold, and, in autumn and spriag, the odour r>f decaying vegetable matter lying on the ground near them is anything but agreeable, even if it be not unhealthy, which, to an extent more or less modified according to cir- cumstances, it always is. We might go on multiplying the instances of bad positions for sites, but many others will occur to the reader ; enough has been here hinted at to show that anyone proposing to hwld should consider carefully the site of his house, as that may influence, in a very marked manner, both the health and the comfort of its inhabitants. Only one other point do we refer to before dismissing this subject ; and that is, the love which many seem to have, to be — as one expressed it — " jammed close up to the edge of a road, dusty in summer, dirty in winter, and disagreeable, always." To such as we have now referred to, however the last feature of this position does not exist ; for, so far from being disagreeable to them, Uke the Pharisees of old (slightly paraphrasing the saying and the circumstance), they apparently love to be seen in the streets, or at least from them, and also to see on to them, so closely do they set their houses to the edge of the Queen's high- way. Tastes differ, is an old and a true saying ; and to those who love to live, to a certain extent, in public — as such a position for a site may be said to force them to — there can be nothing to object to, as they like it, save this, that it is worthy of remembering that such a position invariably and inevitably brings into existence that plague of the house-proud — dust. In such a position, not a room to the front of the house, and all that the room contains, will be free from dust for many minutes, however frequent and however careful may be the " dust- ings." Dust is not only disagreeable as offending the eye of the cultivated and refined, intensely disagreeable to the touch of those accustomed to handle articles free from it and sweetly clean ; but it should be borne in mind, what recent scientific researches have clearly proved, that it is 68 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. exceedingly prejudicial to health. To our mind, a suburban or rural house has the best position for its site when it is placed at a moderate distance from the road. This admits of the exercise of taste and skill in laying out the ground or approach to the house, so that this will be a real adorn- ment to it. Seclusion to a proper degree may thus be obtained, without that complete exclusiveuess which is not a pleasant characteristic of either a house or its owner. Aspect of the Site. — Closely connected with the posi- tion of the site of a house, is its "look-out," as the popular phrase goes ; in other words, its aspect. Some are pro- foundly indifferent to this point, as if they had no idea beyond setting down a house on any spot of ground, no matter where. Sufficient for them that a site is got, and quite forgetting — if, indeed, they had ever known — the fact that a house may be made a cheerful one or the reverse, according to its look-out or aspect. Thus, a due northern aspect is always a gloomy one ; and if the house is so placed that the chief or living-rooms look in this direction, they will never be cheerful, as no ray of the glorious sun can ever enter them. Light does not merely give a cheer- ful look to rooms, and sets off to the best advantage their interiors and their fittings and furniture, but it is healthy — highly so. Some diseases are brought on by its absence, as they are prevented or cured by its presence. The best aspect is the south- east, as this yields the largest amount of sun-light during the greatest number of days in the year. Having shown how the treatment of the site of a house greatly influences its condition, as regards the health of its inhabitants, we have now to point out some other methods by which this may be greatly aided, and, in addi- tion, their comfort and conveniences secured. Cellars in Houses. As securimi Dryness in the Cottage. — Underground cellars — or, rather, cellars under the main flooring of a house — while they give accommodation highly useful for domestic purposes, are by far the most effective means of securing a dry house ; at least they aid, and that most effectively, other means which may be adopted to se- cure that desideratum. In the great majority of soils — save that of an undrained, retentive, close clay — cellars will alone VALUE OP CELLAES IN COTTAGE VILLAS. 69 keep a house dry. But they serve other important and useful ends. They keep the under timbers dry, and pre- serve them from dry rot and fungi ; and the constant circulation underneath the living rooms, of air which is admitted to the cellars by air-bricks in the wall, and also by windows or ventilating openings and shutters, wiU tend materially to improve the condition of the whole house. The last, and by no means the least useful purpose cellar- rooms serve, is the storage room they give. This, for pro- visions alone, makes one cellar-room at least an indispens- able part — or what we venture to think so — of every weU-finished cottage. To those who have not had ex- perience of the " working," so to express it, of cellar-rooms when used to store up and keep provisions, it is not easy to describe the difference between the condition of provisions — ■ especially those of a quickly perishable nature — kept in a cellar under, and those kept in a larder above, the ground level. In the underground cellar there is a uniformity of temperature, and a " something" — difficult to say what — in the atmosphere, which keeps the provisions in a sweet, healthy state, not obtainable in any other room or larder. Wine and beer also can be kept in excellent order ; and, indeed, if the cellar be properly made, almost anything can be stored up in it. The coal-place will, of course, be in the cellar. In providing cellars to separate houses — that is, where each house is occupied only by one tenant — a great deal of their efficiency depends upon the way in which they are constructed. If the soil of the site be very damp, it should, of course, be well drained in the first instance, and the walls of the cellar be provided with a " backing " of good concrete ; or, if the expense of that be objected to, of dry smithy clinkers, or pieces of broken gas retorts, or good, sound, well-burnt bricks, or lumps of coke. These will act as good non-conductors of damp, and also as drains, carry- ing the water to the lower part of the " backing trench," at which there should be a drain tube laid, leading to the drain tubes used to drain the site. But, as the best and the cheapest in the end, we should recommend the concrete backing — and this will be of the best which can be had if Portland cement be used. The cellar floors will also be 70 COTTAGES ; HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. of the best construction and freest from damp if of the same material. The excavation in the soil for the cellar should be of such a depth that, after allowing for a good height overhead in the ceUar-rooms — say seven feet, or six inches more to that — the level of the upper surface of lobby or entrance hall, and of all the first-floor rooms, be such that three steps at least be required to enter the house. Steps not only add to the appearance — we might say to the dignity — of a house entrance, but necessitating, as they do, the raising of the floors of the hving-rooms above the ground level, keep the house dry. They may be dispensed with if the house be cellared under throughout, which in moderately-sized houses is rarely done, part only being, as a rule, cellared ; but they — steps — are absolutely indis- pensable where cellars are not made. Floors securing Dryness in the Cottage. — Should the house not be cellared at aU, or only partially cellared, in addition to raising the floors some height above the ground level by giving steps as above described, it will be well if the following precautionary measure be taken : Let the soil for some distance below the ground level be excavated, say to the depth of twelve or fifteen inches, and let this be partially filled up with concrete as the best material, or with dry cinders, broken pieces of brick, or any other non-absorbent material. This will give a dry surface immediately under the flooring timbers, and these being raised by the steps already recommended, a clear space for the passage of the air, through the air-bricks placed at intervals in the walls, will be obtained, and which, being thus well ventilated, will preserve the lumber, as well as help to keep the house dry. Should this be objected to on the score of expense or otherwise, then, at aU events, let this be followed : before the floors of the ground story apartments are laid, see that all sub- stances which should not be there are taken away, and the whole surface of the ground rendered clean and put in decent order. Few people have an idea of the way in which dirt and filth accumulate on the ground surfaces enclosed within the house during its period of building, and of the condition in which they are left when the house is said to be finished. A condition which is not only repul- DAMP-PKOOF WALLS. 71 sive to all ideas of refinement, but is eminently prejudicial to health, inasmuch as in course of time the various sub- stances left, being chiefly organic, decay, and send up noxious and unpleasant gases through the floors. Damp-proof Walls. As securing Dryness in the Cottage. — To prevent damp passing up from the lower to the upper j)art of a house, various methods have been and are proposed and adopted. The most common of these is the laying of a course of slate, a layer of coal tar, or of thin sheet lead, aU round the walls at a height a little above the ground level. Of these, the best is sheet lead. Damp-proof course bricks have also been patented and introduced to effect the same end ; these being, in fact, perforated or hollow bricks. The object aimed at in all of these is the keeping down of the damp by arresting it in its upward course by a material imper- vious to it. Although these methods are not sp necessary — if necessary at all — where the methods previously de- scribed are closely followed ; stUl, as those damp-proof expedients just named are not very expensive, and as by using them you will make assurance doubly sure, it will be as well to do so. Damp is such a dangerous and insidious foe to good health, that all means should be taken to pre- vent its getting possession of a house. The methods already described to prevent damp have for their object, to prevent it rising up the walls vertically from the ground ; but the upper parts of the wall, however well protected from damp of this kind, are liable to be subject to it through rain being dashed against the outer and passed into the interior surface of the wall iu windy weather. To prevent this, the system of building walls hollow has been introduced. There are many ways of doing this, but in all a cavity or empty space is left in the wall from top to bottom ; any damp passing through the outer wall is by this space arrested in its oourse, and pre- vented from passing to what may be called the inner skin of the wall, by the cavity between it and the outer one. The two side walls, so to call them, forming the cavity waU are bound together by cross or bond bricks. These, of course, cross the cavity. Now if these bond or building bricks are laid or "set" with an inclination inwards — that 72 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILP. is towards the room — they act as conductors of the rain which is driven up against the outside of the wall, by the wind, &c. In such work, the room side of the cavity wall is almost sure to be damp. A cavity wall, to be effective, must be honestly and well constructed. Damp often arises in the upper rooms through defective " pointing " — that is, leaving the joints of the outer surface of wall so carelessly filled up that the rain is easily dashed through them and passed to the interior surface, if the wall be not hollow. The remedy for this is obvious : let the pointing be done carefully and well. Some coat the weather side of the walls of a house with coal tar, or cover it over with slate ; both are mere make-shifts, and both are ugly, the first especially so. If any coveriag be wished for, there is none better, in the sense of being efficient, than first-rate concrete cement ; but, like the coal tar and slate, it is ugly from its lugubrious colour, which paint alone can conceal. Better, however, not to apply this cement, than to apply it when not of the best materials. The truest safeguard against being supplied with bad ones is to employ a house or tradesmen who think so highly of business reputation and personal character that no temp- tation wUl induce them to use other than the best materials, no matter what might be the extra profit gained by the contrary proceeding. Happily, such men are to be had if looked lor. Discarding all attempts to prevent damp passing through walls by dealing with the outside of them, some confine their eilorts wholly to treating the interior surfaces of the walls by coating them with various substances. Those patented and introduced into practice during the last score of years have been very numerous, and some have been adopted with more or less success ; but the most recent, and, without being invidious in our naming of materials, by far the most successful, if one can judge from expe- rience, is the paint introduced by the " Silicate Paint Com- pany." It is cheap, as easily apphed as paint, is impervious to damp, and has no objectionable feature in the sense of colour, but looks well, and is capable of being cleaned by washing without at all injuring or damaging the surface. 73 CHAPTEE VI. Drainage — Water Closets — of and Water Supply to Cottages and Cottage Villas. The next important department of house construction, to which we are naturally led up from the consideration of points connected with the soil, is the Sewage Drainage. This is a subject the full and complete treatment of which would take up the space of a "small volume or bulky pam- phlet ; what, therefore, can be given here on it, must be simply in the form of suggestions, leaving the reader to extend and apply these in the way best likely to suit his circumstances. Drains carried through the Cottage. — The subject presents itself in two aspects as best suited for the circumstances of this work : first, that which concerns the purchaser of property already built ; and, secondly, the owner of property about to be built. These two aspects are in some points separate — in others inter- mingled, so to say ; one not being easily discussed without the other. In the case of old property, it should be the concern of the proposed purchaser, or his professional adviser acting for him, to see to the way in which the drainage has been carried out and executed. In some old cottages, and in others not so very old — and, indeed, in too many which are new ones, is the practice adopted — the drains, with a total disregard of all correct principles, of which very probably the builder was profoundly ignorant, carried the drains right through the house from the back or kitchen premises to the front part, where the main sewer might be situated, and is in towns almost always so. In some cases, the structural arrangements or plan of the house, and its relation to the site, admitted of no other alternative than this 74 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. bad plan. But the best was rarely made of the unfor- tunate circumstances ; for, in many instances, the drains were so badly constructed that becoming, very quickly after being so called " finished," thoroughly defective, they leaked — and the result may be guessed at. But not only this, since they were compelled to go through the house with the drain, they did not choose the best course for it, but the worst, and often had it right under the floor of the parlour or breakfast-room and dining-room. Badly placed, and worse constructed, as we have seen, the reader will, perhaps for the first time, be made acquainted with the origin of the smells of which he may have heard his friends complain. Happy he, if he had no reason to be the com- plainant. Cesspools. — Few of our readers, we apprehend, but what have heard and read of that " abominable con- trivance, the cesspool," as it was and is, in the stereotyped phrase of Board of Health and other Sanitary Eeports, somewhat forcibly termed. Unquestionably, as it was, as a rule, constructed, this contrivance deserved the worst condemnation which indignant sanitarians adjudged it. For constructed with loose lying and loose set bricks — sometimes not even mortar, far less cement, being used to secure water-tight joints — the filthy matters which were passed into them, with some vague idea that they would remain there, did not do so wholly, but largely passed out of them. These passing into, and percolating through, the mass of the surrounding soil, some idea of the emanations proceeding at once from the cesspool, which was supposed to act as a receptacle for confining the sewage matter and its gases, may be conceived. This was bad, but the position in which this contrivance was placed was in many cases such that matters were rendered still worse. Quite close to the house, in the back yard or " drying green," close to kitchen door, or under bed-room window, good means were taken thus to secure a supply of sewer, or rather cess- pool, gases to the house. But better means still suggested themselves to the artificers to obtain this, to them appar- ently, desirable end ; for, not satisfied with bringing the cesspool as near the house as possible, as above stated, they, in some instances, brought it wholly within it. Not CESSPOOLS IN OLD AKD NEW HOUSES. 75 seldom did its " presence grace the entrance-hall or lobby," although, as Mrs. Gamp would say, all "unbeknownst" to the unhappy — or happy, in the ignorance which we are told is bliss — occupants, who " could not account for such mysterious smells." Such were the doings of the artificers, to whom, as a rule, such matters were left in those halcyon days of yore, before " Sanitary Eegulations and Police Acts" absolutely "hampered" them, as some have been heard to say, and before architects did undertake to look after such things as they sometimes do now. But although the "cesspool," as a rule, was swept away, before or by the advanced and advancing flood of superior know- ledge, and Board of Health regulations, it is quite a mistake to suppose that all have disappeared either from the in- terior or the exterior of houses which were built under the old regim'e* True, under the new regime, drains were put down which were connected with the street sewers, or the old drains were furbished up and carried also to the same final place of deposit. But although the connection be- tween the drains of the new system, and the cesspool of the old, was thus cut off, and ostensibly the latter had disap- peared from the sanitary system of house construction, it by no means followed that the cesspool itself had disap- peared. In not a few houses it was left — in some, shall we say several, it still remains — nothing, no doubt, being added to its contents ; but those are still there, sending out what gases they have to spare from the rotting, seething mass within. The hint derivable from this — or moral, if it may be so called — is, that the proposed pur- chaser of property of some years' date should look to this matter, or have it looked into for him. We could cite a very recent case where smells disturbed the air — by no means odoriferous were they — for which " nobody could account," till at last a wise head suggested that some old cesspool might still exist in or near the house. It was found within the house, under the lobby, near the dining- room door ! * See a striking case in point — the school at Uppingham, of which so mnch has appeared in public of late. Numerous other cases could be found if looked for ; many are found when not looked for, to the great trouble of house proprietors or Gccupiers, little dreaming of such a near neishbour. 76 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. Laying of Drains. — In the case of new houses ahout to ■ be built, the greatest care should be taken in the laying of the drains. Many workmen, and not a few of their em- ployers, have but a slight knowledge of the points con- cerned in this work, more especially as to the way in which unequal settlement of the soil takes place. In fact, nothing is more insidious and uncertain than the way in which this action shows itself, and the mischief which it does. In large works, as well as in small, it is the worst enemy with which the architect and builder has to contend. The civil engineer knows it well also, and dreads it ; for it is the cause, in a great number of instances, of "failures" which are as distracting as they are costly. In the case now under consideration, the trenches may be cut, and their beds and their rate of inclination may be laid down with the most scrupulous care — so also may the filling up of the material in which the drain tubes are laid — and yet unequal settlement will take place. And that to such an extent, and so rapidly developing itself, that in a very short space of time — if the trench was laid open and the work exposed — it would be seen that many of the drain tubes were displaced, their line of continuity broken, and, as a necessary result, their efficiency as drains for conveying the liquid refuse from the house to the sewer, thoroughly and completely ruined. In addition, therefore, to ha'\'ing the tubes laid in the most perfect way attainable, it will be a good plan to discard the system of spigot and faucet joint, thus making the line of tubes, as it were, continuous ; and to adopt instead the newer plan of putting down the tubes in short lengths, their ends resting upon earthenware " saddles," the ends or junctions of the tubes being covered, when set, by "caps." This system lessens to a considerable extent the evils of unequal settlement ; and if it does take jDlace at any particular point, the trench may there be opened and a new length put in, without disturbing the whole range of tubes, as in the old system, by simply removing the covers, and replacing them when the new tubes are put in. But by far the best way, as some hold, to prevent unequal settlement, is bedding the drain tubes in concrete. The plan is a very old one ; and some drains, which were laid many generations ago on this plan, on being recently taken up, TBAPPING OF DEAINS. 77 were as perfect throughout the whole length as when they were first laid down. We believe we shall yet see our drains made of concrete, as many of our sewers are already so. The modes of laying drain tubes, and the different forms used and employed by architects, &c., are so numerous that it is impossible to notice them ; one form of tube is stated by the highest authorities to be the best yet intro- duced, and that is the circular- jointed of Mr. Stamford, made by Doulton and Co., of Lambeth. All drains should have, at certain intervals throughout their length, test holes, by which the condition of the lengths between them can be ascertained. Indeed; every builder ought to make himself acquainted with the latest improvements, and the architects ought to prepare and keep a plan, showing posi- tion of the drains of every house they design ; this ought to be made imperative. The necessity for the drainage work of a house being attended to, and seen by trustworthy parties that it is so, will be obvious when we remember that it comes under the category of work which is concealed or kept closed from any after inspection, by being at once covered up when finished, or said to be so, by the workmen. Now, it is the unfortu- nate concomitant of concealed work of this kind, that it tempts the workman to do his work carelessly, or, as has not seldom been proved, not to do it at all. For the sake of all concerned, and the health of those dependent upon drainage work being well done, let all means be taken to remove this temptation from out of the workman's way. " Trapping " of Dbains to pebvent escape of Sewee Gases. — Drains and sewers containing so much decom- posing matter, gases of a foul and unhealthy description are generated in them ; and as they are generally arranged and constructed, that their connection with the interior of the house is direct, those gases pass from the drains to the houses. This passage is much facilitated by the numerous openings in the house leading to the drains, such as the opening at the scullery slop stone or sink, and that at the water-closets and bath. Not only from the action of the "law of diffusion of gases," which is con- stantly in operation, but also from the ventilating action of fire-places — and, further, from the upward currents 78 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. created in the drains by the flowing in of air, forced, with greater or less pressure, through and from the sewers by the wind passing through gully holes and gratings in the streets, &c. — there are large supplies of sewer and sewage gases passed or forced into the interior of houses. To prevent, not the forcing action, but the passage of the air sent up the pipes by it into the house, through the openings alluded to above, the system of "trapping" has been adopted. A "trap" — or "stench trap," as they are neither euphoniously nor elegantly, but truly enough, termed — is a contrivance in which a column or body of water is retained within the tube leading to the drain by a certain arrangement of its shape or form, those varying according to the fancy or opinion of the designer. While the water in the trap allows the passage downwards of all sewage matter into the tube leading to the drain, and from thence into the sewer, it at the same time prevents the passage up the tube of the sewer gases, and from thence into the house. Strictly speaking, this is, as a rule, any- thing but correct ; more so it would have been to say that the water in the trap is supposed to prevent the passage into the house of the gases from the drain. For as the action of the trap depends upon the downward pressure of the column of water in it being greater than that of the upward column of sewer gas, when the pressure of the gas is greater than that of the water, the gas has free entrance through the trap into the house. Now, in a large majority of traps, the column of water in them is so short that it practically exercises little or no power upon the upward flow of gas. Other causes, such as foreign bodies getting into the traps, also prevent their proper action ; so that practically they are not to be relied on — and should not be so — to prevent the entrance of the sewer gases into the house. We have already indicated, in a general way, how dan- gerous the sewer gases are to health ; and as showing still more strikingly what danger is likely to arise from their presence in the interior of our houses — and even, in fact, in their immediate vicinity, we may refer to the very recent researches of Professor Frankland. These have disclosed the startling fact that sewer gases act as a VENTILATION OF DKAINS. 79 vehicle for conveying solid as well as liquid particles to the atmosphere, and that there are well-proved cases to show that disease has heen communicated ' ' by the germs in suspension in the air that has escaped from sewers " and drains. Such dangerous gases being, there- fore, perpetually fermented in these sewers, and ever seeking to gain, and obtaining with greater or less ease, entrance from them to the house ; and the appliances hitherto relied upon — and, in too many cases, still rehed upon, so ignorant are many of the true facts — to prevent this entrance, being found to be so inefficient, the question becomes one of vital importance from a sanitary point of view : "What invention, design, contrivance, or principle is there to overcome this difficulty ? It is considered, and fortunately answered effectively, by the introduction of the principle of ventilation of the whole system of underground drains and sewers. Ventilation of Drains, as a means of preventing the ACCESS op Sewer Gases to the interior of the Cottage. — Like many good things the plan of ventilating drains was long advocated — and the present writer did his little share in the work of advocacy — long before it was introduced in practice, so that it can only be called comparatively new. But little as has been done with it, in view of how much has or ought to be done, it has proved itself, we think, beyond all question, the right principle for overcoming a great difficulty — a difficulty daily increasing with the in- crease of the system of drains and sewers. The plan has for its essential principle or element, this — that no accumu- lation of gas or foul air be allowed within any part of the drains or sewers underground. That so soon as any is generated, it must be at once led off to the outer air, by means of tubes or pipes. These communicate with the drains, and are taken outside the house, up the wall from top to bottom, and terminated at a point some dis- tance above the roof. The gases are thus diffused in the open air, and rendered comparatively harmless. Indeed, the action of the system is such that, from the continuous draught or current throughout the whole system of drain tubes and main sewers, the gases from these are in them- selves almost innocuous — at least so, compared with the old pent-up gases of confined drains and sewers. 80 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. One method amongst the many introduced for the ven- tilation of drains connected with a house, is to arrange a pipe, or series of pipes, all leading into a flue which is built alongside and runs up the whole length of one of the fire- place chimneys ; — the kitchen chimney being obviously the best for this purpose, as it not only has the strongest fire and consequent draught, but is almost — indeed, is always— in use, more or less, all the year through. Into this separate flue the sewer and drain gases being led, are carried upwards by the draught, which is greatly in- creased by that of the fire-place flue, and delivered to the atmosphere, with which it mixes, or through which it is diffused and rendered harmless. But as " down draughts " are hkely to happen through adverse winds, &c., &c., the drain-ventilating flue or shaft should be carried up for some distance above the roof, and furnished with a ven- tilator, by which not only the down draughts and the forcing back of the drain gases will be prevented, but their removal facilitated by the action of the ventilator. Another plan for the ventilation of the sink or slop- stones, &c., &c., may be described briefly as follows: Outside the back wall of the house, say near to the scullery window, a cast-iron or earthenware receptacle — the last-named material is the cleanest and most imperish- able — is sunk into the soil, so that it may not be in the way of being easily injured. This receptacle has a vertical diaphragm, dividing it into two chambers, one smaller than the other, and this at its lower edge dips into the water contained in the two chambers, which is common to both. A pipe or drain tube leads off the water or sewage liquid to the drain, and from thence to the sewer, and is placed at such a height that a certain body or bulk of water is retained in the main receptacle. To the larger chamber of this a vertical ,tube is connected ; this is either, as, in some cases, the ordinary down rain water spout, or it is a special tube, which is best, leading right up to and above the roof. To the smaller chamber, a pipe from the scullery sink or slop-stone leads all the waste water ; and other pipes from the bath, or the water basins of the bedrooms, or the lavatory, if there be such, the overflow from the water cistern or cisterns, &c., &c. The contents of the SMOKY CHIMNEYS. WATER SUPPLY OF COTTAGES. 81 water-closete, for obvious reasons, are led to the drain by a special pipe. We have said that the ventilating tube may be the ordinary down spout, or rain water pipe ; it may, but it ought not, for in no way would we permit such a valuable source of the finest water obtainable for washing and ablutionary purposes to be wasted. Every drop of rain water ought to be collected from the roof and passed into cisterns, of which more presently. Smoky Chimneys. — As for a smoky chimney, in the ordinary and certainly most disagreeable form met with, in nine cases out often it is caused, first, by defective workmanship, such as the want of careful pointing of the joints in the interior — bricks left out here and there, so as to allow of connection either with other flues or with the outer air. Again, the neg- lect of " pargetting," or lining, with the usual mixture, well known to all builders — the giving of sharp, and generally quite unnecessary, bends — and last, but not least, of all, the want of a due supply of air to the fire-place below. All or any one of these defects will cause a chimney to smoke ; and by attending to them, so as not to have them in existence, there need not be a smoky chimney in any house. In the case of new houses, no builder ought to have a smoky chimnej' in any one of the rooms. A " down draught," or "blow down," will often cause a chimney to smoke, from causes wholly beyond the reach of the builder, and for which, therefore, he is not to blame ; but this can be pre- vented by using a proper "cap," or one or other of the various forms of chimney tops now in use. About the Water Supply of Cottages. — Drainage being, in one sense, a part of the water supply system of a house, or at least closely connected with it, we naturally come to the consideration of this part of the sanitary — or, indeed, essential — arrangement of a house. In towns, water is supplied on two systems — the constant service and the intermittent. In the first, nothing but the supply pipe is necessitated ; although, with a view to econo- mize the water — in the metropolis, for example — what are called " water waste preventers " are in some towns, &c., by Act of Parliament, required to be used, in connection at least with the water closet. But in the intermittent system, cisterns— as its name, indeed, implies — are required to 82 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. store up the water, which is provided by the company or corporation only at intervals, so that supplies can be obtained for the service of the house at those times when the water is "not on." The way in which those cisterns are constructed, and the places and positions in which they are situated, are, as a rule, a libel, so to call it, on the mechanical genius and talent for arrangement of those connected with the con- struction of our houses. The following brief statement as to what ought to be the features of their arrangement and construction will best show what requisites they have hitherto been — and are, in the great majority of instances at present — deficient in. The cisterns should be placed in positions easily acces- sible, so that they can be examined with the utmost ease on the part of the workman, in the event of repairs being necessitated. The closet or room should be well lighted, well aired or ventilated, kept well washed and dusted, clean and sweet. This room and its cistern should be as far as possible from the water closet and all other sources of con- taminating air or gases. The overflow pipe should have connection with the chamber of the drain ventilating appli- ance described in the section on ventilation of drains. The cistern itself should not be lined with lead, which is so acted upon by water of certain qualities, and under certain conditions, that deleterious chemical compounds or con- stituents are produced, which make the water unhealthy. Neither should zinc lining be employed, which, although not so bad a material as lead, is bad enough under certain circumstances. Slate is good, or stone, but only for ground floor space, on account of their weight. The best for upper floors is wrought-iron, lined or finished off in the interior with hard black glaze, now used to coat water pipes with. This is not acted upon by any chemical combinations, and, therefore, gives a cistern sweet and clean, and, from the material, light, yet very strong and lasting. Eain water should be stored up in a cistern a little below the roof, so that pressure will be obtained to supply the lavatories, wash basins, and baths. For washing purposes, it will best be kept in an underground tank or cistern, placed near the scullery or wash-house window. From this a supply can be pumped up to a smaller cistern, placed at EAIN WATEE CISTERNS AND TANKS. 83 an elevation su£&oiently high to fill the boilers easily, wash- tubs, &c., and also to supply the kitchen boUer and slop- stone or sink, &c. These underground cisterns keep the rain water in the best condition for the longest time, as the confervsB and algae do not grow so readily in dark as in light places, and the water keeps cooler and fresher in hot weather. By far the best method of constructing underground tanks or cisterns is to employ concrete — that made with Portland cement as the binding material being by far the best. The concrete wall or Uning, if made properly, sets hard as stone ; and if the work be properly done, the tank may be considered monolithic — i.e., as if cut out of a single stone — without a break or joint in any part. If brick be used to line the excavation, the inside may be faced with a thin layer of the finest Portland cement concrete, made of eand and cement. We have here, before concluding our remarks upon drainage and water supply, to advert briefly to one or two points connected with those departments, as carried out in rural districts. The first is the place of final deposit of the sewage and refuse hquids of the house. This is not the street sewer, as in towns, and must be either a neigh- bouring river — which is bad, as it contaminates the water, and may kill or injure the fish, if any ; or the nearest open ditch — which is worse, as the sluggish, and too often stag- nant, waters thereof may not carry it off quickly, or at all, especially in summer, which is the worst time ; so that the foetid collection wUl send up and off volumes of highly dangerous sewage gases. The best, and indeed the only true, place of final deposit, therefore, for the sewage of the house, is the liquid manure tank. This should be placed at a convenient part of the garden and con- structed precisely in the same way as the rain water cistern already described in last paragraph. The drain tubes conveying the sewage to the tank should be laid as already described in connection with town drainage, and be connected with the ventilating appliance also noticed. The contents of the tank should be removed from time to time, through the man-hole door provided in the arched top of the tank, and which, in ordinary times, should be 84 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. kept covered with a stone cap. The water supply in rural districts is obtainable from springs which come up to the surface, forming what may be called natural wells ; from rivulets ; or, lastly, from wells sunk specially. As water is a most important element in domestic arrange- ments, and as it exercises an effect upon the system, good or bad, according to its quality, this quality should be ascertained by being analyzed. If a well be sunk, it should be as far as possible in position from that of the liquid manure tank, or other contaminating sources. Water-closets.— We now come to the consideration of one of the most important conveniences of the cottage, than which nothing adds so much to its comfort, if it be well arranged and constructed, and to the health of its occu- pants ; and nothing so much to the discomfort and un- healthiness, if the contrary be the case : we refer to the water-closet. It is scarcely necessary to say that, as a rule, this has neither been arranged nor constructed in accordance with the sound principles which ought to have dictated both. This has arisen largely from the mistaken views which have been held regarding it, and from an equally mistaken delicacy in discussing the essen- tial points connected with it, as if it was a subject which was not to be talked about, on which no opinions were to be held, and no suggestions as to its improvement made, iluch of this has been changed of late, and is fortunately changing daily ; and with the advance of common- sense notions respecting it, we may expect to see some decided improvements effected, and some of the common-sense views we have referred to carried out in connection with it. To the brief statement of a few of the most important of these we shall now devote a short paragraph or two. The first point of importance to be attended to is the planning of the house, so that the closet shall have its " locale," or position, such that it shall be to all the rooms in the house — the bed-rooms specially so, of course — in the best average position, so that it can be equally easily got to from any one. The second point — and it is of not less, but greater, importance than the first — is that the place in which it is situated be as large and roomy as possible. In point of fact, it ought to be a room, small if need be, but by no WATEE CLOSETS IN COTTAGE VILLAS. 85 means one of those abominably confined and too often utterly dark spaces which are the rule, not the exception, even in houses of moderately large accommodation other- wise. In addition to being roomy, its lighting should be seen to. Nothing is more repugnant to, and opposed to, all the right feelings with which such a convenience is used, than the dark holes in which they are too often placed. And if well situated, large, roomy, and well-lighted places are demanded at once by the dictates of a correct and pure taste, what must be said of the pure air which health no less demands, but so seldom obtains ? How can it be ob- tained in a large number of cases, where the conveniences are boxed up in small closets — the term is peculiarly appli- cable — which are, in many cases, absolutely air-tight, save for the air passing through the chinks of the door ? By far the best way to secure an ample supply of air, and light also, to the closet, is to have it placed within an off-set, or part projecting from the main brick wall of the house. This is, in every sense, the proper position for, and the best way of building or arranging it. It is open to the air on all sides but one, so that cross lights or windows can be given to it, in themselves admirably effective means of ventilating the closet ; while the foul smells, as well as the drain gases, can be led up along the wall, at once free from aU inter- ruptions, and terminated at some height above the eaves, and finished off by a cap or ventilator. In many houses, where the architects have had freer scope to their own will — for, be it noted, they are greatly hampered by many of their clients, who judge every inch of space they give away from their grand entertaining and " company " rooms — they do give large space to the closet accommodation, but they often combine it with that for the bath and the lavatory. Now, while the latter may be, and indeed often is, a convenience very much appreciated in the closet-room, we submit that there is an incongruity, to put the matter in its mildest form, in the conjunction or close contiguity of the two conveniences. We therefore most strongly recommend the bath-room to be quite a separate one from that in which the closet is placed. Innumerable have been the forms, designs, and con- trivances, introduced by a " host of inventors," to overcome SG COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. tlie difBoulties connected with, and simplify the arrange- ments of, the mechanism of the closet. And of all these, the oldest, or nearly the oldest, has retained for the longest period its hold, if not on the public, certainly on the " trade " who supply that public with closets. The plan or principle we refer to is the open pan, flap or lid valve, and syphon trap arrangement. Yet, in view of the difSculties which are thrown in the way of the accurate working of this apparatus, through the carelessness of servants and others, it is perhaps the worst form of appa- ratus which could he used. The pan, moreover, from its form, exposes a large surface, while the object to be aimed at is reducing this to a minimum : while the syphon trap is, in too many instances, but a trap in name. It is diffi- cult from amongst the good and efficient forms of closets now to be had, to name which is the best — and is some- thing invidious withal, as far as their inventors are con- cerned — but we must say that that which is provided with a light valve is better than that in which the old flap, or hinged valve, is retained. A ventilating tube should, as already hinted at, be taken at once from the soil pipe right up to the roof, passed through, and terminated a few inches above the level of its ridge. We have already stated that the closet and the water cistern should be separated as far from each other as possible ; their close contiguity, so often met with, being in direct antagonism to aU sound principles of sanitation. This is bad ; but the plan of pass- ing the overflow pipe of the cistern into the soil pipe of the closet, is worse. Indeed, it is impossible to find language strong enough to characterise the dangerous absurdity of this plan. The foul sewer gases from the drain and from the closet, are certain to pass up into the interior of the cistern, and contaminate its contents. Hitherto we have been proceeding upon the assumption that the water-closet is placed within the house. General — nay, almost universal — as the plan is, however, it may be here noticed that, in view of certain sanitary points worth being secured, if possible, it is now a question whether this internal position of the closet is the correct one. Of course, a return to the old exposed and inconvenient plan of former years before water-closets were invented, is not within the SUGGESTIONS FOR THE AEKANGEMENTS OF WATEE CLOSETS. 87 question. But there may be a compromise between the old and the new systems obtainable, and which, assuredly, is not beyond the skill of our architects to design. We cannot see why certain conveniences — the existence of which, and the necessity for, can neither be ignored nor overcome — should not be as easily made to form part of, or take a position in, arrangements which are in themselves at once beautiful, novel, and useful. In our domestic architecture, we have been content to run so long in the same groove, that if any attempt is made to get out of it, and to run in another and a better, the attempt is looked upon as beiag much akin to that to which the epithet of wisdom is not attached. There can be no doubt that, not merely in the department of house conveniences, which we are now considering, but in other departments, if architects had their own way — and we are so free from professional prejudice or bias that we are ready to reverse the position, aad say their clients, or owners or occupiers of houses — and were not hampered either by conventional ideas, on the one hand, or fear of what any Mrs. Grundy might say, on the other — that some exceedingly strildng, novel and beautiful structural adjuncts to our homes could and would soon be seen. And these would be such that, as in the case of many other things, we would wonder how it was that " those things have never been thought of before." The truth is, they have been thought of ; but the thinkers, knowing the prejudices of those who do not think, deemed it the wiser of the two ways before them — utterance and silence — to choose the last. This display of structural novelty and beauty in utilizing " these departments " now under contideration, could, for example, be shown in the alternative arrangement we have hinted at as perhaps being necessary. Thus, in some cases, space could not be had in the garden, or objection might be made to having the closet on the ground floor. Now, space could always be had in suburban cottage villas, at the back of the house, to throw out a covered structure way, entering from the bed-room or chamber floor. This, being supported on iron columns, would take up no space of the working ground below ; and, in place of the structure being a deformity or excrescence, it might and could be DO COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. made a truly beautiful addition to the house. It is scarcely necessary to add, that ventilation, thorough and complete, of the room would require to be carried out, as well as all the other constructional details and arrangements necessary to make this part of the house as comfortable and healthy as any othui. 89 CHAPTEE VII. Supply op Fkesh Air to, and Withdrawal of Foul Air FROM, EOOMS OF HoDSES WaRMING LIGHTING. The Supply of Fresh Air to our Houses. — Having in the brief discussion of certain house conveniences shown how their good arrangement promotes the health of their occu- pants, as their mal-arrangement causes diseases and complaints, we have now to point out a very potent cause of the latter, if neglected or wholly overlooked : and that is the want of pure fresh air in the rooms which we inhabit. The supply of j)ure, or fresh air as it is generally called, to the interior of our rooms, and the withdrawal of it when it is foul, is what is known as ventilation, and, dignified with the title of a science, almost every- one presumes to have a scientific knowledge of the subject. Much is certainly talked about it — the necessity to supply and carry it out ; but aU the while we box ourselves up by the hour in apartments in which little fresh air is allowed to enter, or can indeed enter, or at least from which, when it is foul, it cannot pass away. Practically the result is, therefore, that we have no such thing as ventilation proper ; the very words, indeed, in which the term is understood by most show that what ventilation is, is in fact not even understood by those who do talk so much about it. The supply of pure air to a room alone is not ventilation ; where that is supplied, and the withdrawal of the impure air goes on pari passu — or, as we may say, in proportion^ — that is ventilation, as above stated. This can scarcely be too often repeated. How is it, with all our talk about the importance of carrying out this, in connec- tion with our houses, we do not actually carry it out ? We have a horror in drinking foul, impure water — nay, we will not drink it. Foul air is not a whit less re- pulsive, in fact, but we habitually take large draughts 90 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. of it. It hovers over the splendid service of our dining- tables, it floats amidst the light and elegant grandeur of our drawing-rooms, and it fills to repletion the interior of our bed-rooms, in all oases alike nauseous and repulsive ; and yet we are careless of its presence. But then we do not see or taste it, and that is the secret of our real indifference to it. If it was as obvious as some other nuisances to the sense of sight or taste, good feehng alone would go far to urge its removal ; and although it can scarcely be said that it cannot be perceived by the organ of smell — as going into an occupied bed-room in the morning, or a crowded draw- ing-room in the evening, from the fresh air, wiU easily prove — still it is not, in the broad sense, obvioas and easily detected ; hence one reason for the general indiflFerence prevalent on the subject. Yet, after all, there is some excuse for us. The majority of educated people would like to ventilate their houses, but to do so is not quite so easy a matter So far from this, that after workmg away for a pretty long number of years, we seem to be as far off as ever from succeeding in our attempts. The great obstacle in the way is the method we have adopted of constructing our houses ; nearly every detail being a difficulty, which the ventUator cannot easily overcome, as he attempts either to admit fresh or withdraw foul or used air. Take, for example, our ceilings. Had the constructor tried to devise a plan which could more effectually be a hindrance to the easy removal of used air from the interior of our rooms, it is scarcely possible to conceive of a contrivance so admirably adapted for this purpose. The misfortune of the matter is, that it is exactly the reverse of the purpose required to be served by a ceiling. And yet it is by no means a difficult thing to devise a ceiling which would be at once an elegant adorn- ment — a novel architectural feature — to the room, and an efficient means for withdrawing the used air. It could be made, in fact, so efficient, that as fast as the air was vitiated below, it would be carried off above and delivered to the open air. Failing this thorough revolution in ceiling construction being adopted, however, there are other methods, less efficient no doubt, but still to a certain extent bo, for carrying off foul air from rooms. These VENTILATION OF ROOMS. 91 vary in detail, but the general principle which regulates them all is that of the draught of the chimney flue. If this be adopted, it will be well to avoid the use of all movable flaps and valves, which are very apt to get out of order if not attended to — and this they rarely are — and, indeed, even if well attended to, they are troublesome and not always eflScient. The best way to use the chimney draught is by having adjacent and separate flues running up parallel to it, or flues at various parts of the wall all round the room, the openings of which are above or at the level of the cornice : this being so constructed or designed that the mouldings will mask the openings to them. If clients would but go to the expense, the architects or builders would have no difficulty in devising good and efficient plans for withdrawing foul or used air from our apartments. For cottages on which much outlay cannot be afforded, the chimney can always, by judicious ar- rangements, be made to act in more than one way as an effective withdrawer of foul air. The chief difficulty in ventilation, however, is the supply of fresh air, not merely in arranging contrivances by which it is to be admitted to the interior of rooms : that, probably, is the least difficulty. The prejudice which a "true-born Briton " has to draughts — that is the difficulty the ven- tilator has to contend with ; and all fresh air, if felt to be at all cold, is certain to be denounced as a draught, and therefore dealt with accordingly — that is, prevented, and that promptly and decidedly, from being admitted at all. It is, 01 seems to be, of little use to argue against this hatred or fear of draughts. Physicians, physiologists, philosophers, surgeons, and architects, have all shown that where ventilation is properly carried out the admission of fresh air does not of necessity involve a draught. But all to no purpose. If a hole — in ventilating parlance termed an aperture, ventiduct, or air-shaft — is known to exist, being put there for the purpose of admitting fresh air, the conclusion is at once come to that there must be a draught ; and if, in accordance with the dictates of the proverb, the will is not made or the soul attended to, one thing is certain to be done— the hole, aperture, ventiduct, or air- shaft is at once closed. 92 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAX AND BDILD. The only way, therefore, apparently, out of the difficulty is to warm the air; and then the air so admitted, not being felt, would have some chance of not being denounced as a draught — a chance, for, if felt, the usual 'fate would meet it. But warming the air admitted by special apertures in the wall is not such an easy matter as it seems. So admitted — and that is the best and most effective way — it is, on the contrary, a very difficult thing to do ; so that until we have as complete a revolution in our system of wall construction as we have hinted at in the case of ceilings, we must fall back upon some simpler method of admitting and warming the air. The revolution in wall construction — which would be by no means difficult to follow up, and for which, indeed, several plans have been proposed and some patented — would admit of air being warmed in the basement or cellar part of the house, carried up by means of the flued walls to, and distributed through, every apartment, without the slightest current being felt, or inconvenience from over-heated air. Till this plan be adopted, the next best at command is that of warming the entrance passage or hall, and allowmg the warmed air to pass up to all the apartments. This plan, indeed, if well carried out in detail, will be found as effectual as almost any of the more elaborate schemes proposed, and at some of which we have hinted. In houses already constructed, the diffi- culty is to hit upon the means of warming the air in the hall or lobby ; and this from want of a flue or chimney by which the products of combustion from the fire-place or stove used may be led to the open air. This difficulty is very much increased in houses already constructed on the "flat system." It may be more easily overcome in self-contained or separately constructed houses, by the adoption of a detached open fire-place on the old plan, but in which the fuel — if the name be applicable — is gas ; this being supplied to the centre of the grate by the medium of a "Bunsen" burner, and by which, with a small proportion of gas, a very intense heat is produced. To give the cheerful effects of blazing or red-hot fuel to this arrangement, asbestos in masses may be placed round the burner to fill up the grate. In new houses a LIGHTING OP ROOMS. 93 chimney flue and fire-place recess should always be pro- vided in the hall or lobby ; and although we would not recommend the latter to be fitted up with an ordinary fire- grate, the space affords means for providing fresh- air chambers, &c., for improved forms of open stoves, which are set forward clear of the wall, thus giving out large surfaces heated at a low temperature, and affording also bulks of air well warmed, but not over-heated. For houses of a superior class other methods may be adopted, but those we have noticed will do for the better class of cot- tages, or villa cottages. It would be well, indeed, for the occupants of superior houses if they could say they pos- sessed them. It is trite now-a-days to remark that our fire-places, and the grates we put in them, as a rule, are a disgrace to the mechanical, constructive, and philosophical or scientific abilities of the age. The remark has been applicable for many a generation, and might have been made in the time of our great-great-grandfathers. True now as then — and apparently as little likely to be altered for the better, so strong are the claims of prejudice — that fire-places, such as they are, with all their defects, could be replaced by others equally cheerful in their aspect, and infinitely superior in heating effect, and with a less consumption of fuel, is proved by the introduction of several forms of "ventilating fire-grates," of which admittedly the best is that invented by Captain Galton, E.E. This admirably contrived apparatus utihzes almost all the heat of the fuel consumed in the grate, while at the same time it acts as a most efficient ventilating appliance — that is, not only as supplying pure and warmed air, but as withdrawing that air when it is vitiated and impure by being used, or con- taminated with the products arising from the artificial lights which may be used in the room. Lighting of Rooms. — Those words bring ue to the con- sideration of the subject of " lighting;" Contrary to the popular notion, it is nevertheless true, that the use of gas is not the best way of lighting our rooms. Compared with good lamps and candles, it is unhealthy, acting injuriously on the eye-sight, and perhaps still more so upon the breathing organs. This latter evil arises from the careless 94 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. way in which it is consumed ; the pressure is generally too great, so that a large proportion of unconsumed gas passes to the room ; and no small amount of foul air ie generated by its consumption, even in the most favourable circumstances as to its supply. But there is another evil arising from its use, little suspected by the great majority of consumers of it. This is the damp vapours which it gives rise to. The moisture which is produced by the combination of the air with the hydrogen of the gas is being perpetually given off, and becomes condensed, more or less visibly, on any surrounding surfaces colder than itself. The only preventive of this evil is the thorough ventilation of the room in which the gas is consumed, or by the placing of the light either wholly or partially within a glass cover, from the upper part of which the products of combustion are led off to a ventilating flue or chimney. Lamp-hght is much more healthy than that of gas, better for the eyes, although dearer and more troublesome to manage. It is possibly the well-known conveniences connected with the use of gas, which make many put up with its avowed unhealthiness, as generally consumed, and with the damage it does to furniture, pictures, &c., &c. Many wealthy people are now giving up its use, especially in the rooms where valuable furniture and costly decora- tions are kept. For the kitchens and working apartments it wiU be long, however, before a more convenient sub- stitute is found. 95 CHAPTEE VIII. Of " Odds and Ends " connected with the Convenient Arrangement and Planning of the House — Space IN Lobbies, Staircases, Eooms — Position and Fittings or Doors, Windows, &c., &c. Having now run over briefly the . chief points con- nected with the healthy construction and arrangements of a house, we shall in like manner do the same in connection with those which come under the head of "conveniences," and which, if properly attended to, add so much to the comfort of those living in, and save so much of the labour, and therefore of the time, of those working in them. About the Space in our Houses. — The remark is founded upon some fair knowledge of what houses were and are, and upon a pretty close inquiry into the theory and practice of laying out their various apartments, which stated that, " Of the little things which in houses go to make up so much of their comfort and convenience, perhaps the most important was that of space." There can be no doubt that this is greatly overlooked in designing a house. The fact is not forgotten here, that ia towns the price demanded for building land is such that space be- comes really an important item in the cost of a house. Having, therefore, to be economized, architects and bmlders have this excuse to offer for the confined parts of the houses which they plan and erect. The excuse may be and is valid up to a certain point and within certain limits ; but that it is not always the difficulty of getting extent of surface through the cost of the land, is proved now and then by seeing in localities where land is cheap enouch the same confined planning existent. 96 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. But even in towns, where land is dear and extended space in houses is grudged, it may be fairly urgisd whether a little consideration given to the plan might not result in the fault being amended. For it is not always true that it is the lack of space which causes the fault, but rather the way in which the space is made use of. Space should be well proportioned in the planning of a house throughout. Thus, some apartments should not be too large, compe llin g others to be too small. For instance, in many houses, the " entertaining rooms," as the drawing-room and dining-room, are made of dimensions far beyond the class of house to which they belong. Here, however, the architect or buUdei may not be, and generally is not, to blame ; for such is the desire to have pretentious "company rooms," that the pro- prietors insist upon their being got, no matter how much it may be so at the expense of the comfort of the other parts of the house. The absurdity of having entertaining rooms for a third-class house quite equal in point of size to those required for a second, or even — as is often the case — a first-class one, is so patent that no further remarks need be made upon it. If the rooms be fairly proportioned aa regards space, even in town houses the difficulty of its cost will not be so much felt. And even where laud is dear, this ought to be considered — that a yard or two extra of land will make all the difference between a cramped up and a comfortable room or a staircase ; while the cost of the land spread over the whole ground rental — or " feu duty," as ground rent is termed in the North — will scarcely be felt. Few occupiers of houses have any idea of the extent of comfort obtainable from six inches or a foot additional to the width or length of a room, or an inch or two even to the width of a staircase. And, indeed, the same remark may be made of artificers, and perhaps the highest grade of all, the house designer. lipace in Lobby, Entrance-hall, and Staircases. — There is, perhaps, no part of the interior of a house in which the want of space is so much felt as in the lobby, entrance- hall, and staircase. It is, perhaps, the contrast — so striking — between the free expanse of the street or road which one has just left on going into a house, and the narrow precincts of these house entrances, which makes these feel and look so IMPOST ANCB OP SPACE IN BOOMS, ETC. 97 miserably confined. Indeed, to give to some of these parts the name of hall is ridiculously out of place ; and is more indicative of what we might call polite pretentiousness than anything else. "It's the name of the thing" which carries so much with it. If space cannot be afforded within the main walls of the building to give an entrance lobby with floor surface which wiU be useful for one purpose, if for no more — if the house be in the country or suburbs— in other words, not a street house, the door of which comes up to the pavement — a porch should be built outside. This may not only be made an architectural feature in the design, but will add materially to the com- fort of the house interior : preventing, as it will do, the entrance of cold and strong winds into the inner lobby. The door of the porch should be placed at the side, and not at the front, if comfort be desired ; the side chosen being that opposite to the direction of the prevalent winds. Of course there will be an inner door to the porch, opening into the house lobby. The porch will be a convenient place to have the umbrella stand, &c., thus keeping the main lobby quite free from all encumbrances. And it is scarcely necessary to say that a good- sized window should be given to the porch — not trusting for the thorough lighting up of it to a fan-light over the door, as is gene- rally done. If a porch cannot be made for some reason, whether that be reasonable or not, then the inner lobby must not have its convenience and comfort spoiled by having its floor surface too small, for the sake of saving an inch or two of ground. There is one arrangement which does more to mar the symmetry and the comfort of the lobby than almost any other ; and that is, bringing the stair so far forward that the first step is within a few inches, comparatively, of the front door. When this is the case, the feeling on being ushered into the lobby is peculiarly uncomfortable. Bad as this is, it is worse when^as we have actually seen — the first step projects beyond the Hne of jamb of a side door : as, for example, that leading to the dining-room. This, if the door is hung to the jamb next the staircase — which, for the door, as far as it is concerned, is the best position for it — acts as a permanent block, over which people are 98 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. perpetually stumbling. No doubt the door may be made to open inwards, which is better, but still this may be inoouvenient for furniture, &o. ; and, at all events, the arrangement here alluded to, of having the bottom step so near the door jamb, is essentially bad. There is scarcely any excuse for planning such as this is ; and the exercise of a little knowledge of good planning will prevent this "inconvenience " in a house being perpetrated. The stairs should be thrown well back, so as to have easy room, even in small houses, for the laying down of a door-mat between the last riser — or the first riser — and the jamb of the dining-room or parlour door. And in laying out a staircase, all " winders " — that is, triangular- shaped steps — should be avoided, and only " flyers " — that is, parallel-sided steps — used. If winders must be used, it is particularly bad planning to have them, as they too often are, placed at the level of a room floor. Serving thus as a landing, they form the worst species of landing ; and giving no foot-hold at the corner, serious accidents arise to people — especially the aged and infirm — coming out of the room to descend the stairs. All landings should be at the least what are technically called "half spaces"' — that is, two steps broad on surface — and parallel-sided. Another mistake in setting out a staircase is, having the principal landing so arranged as to its level or height, that a step, which is bad, or two steps, which is worse, must be made to gain access to the bed-rooms. These, like the "flyer landings" on the stairs just alluded to, give rise often to accidents, and are always awkward. The staircase on the ground floor should be so placed that the passage at its side leading to the apartments at the back part of the house, such as the kitchen, &c., should be of ample width. It is sometimes made so narrow that the domestics have not room to carry in a tea tray easily, without fear of a "jam" or a "collision" with the wall on one side or the staircase lining on the other. One word more, and we are finished mth staircases. In cottage pro- perty they are made so steep that to those not accustomed to them, their descent is positively a trial of courage, and even to healthy people, with steady heads, they are positively dan- gerous ; for a false step taken— and a trifle may cause this DIMENSIONS OF BOOMS, ETC., ETO. 99 — and a precipitate tumble for the remainder of the height is the result, with some other results, perhaps, of a painful nature, as a broken leg, &c. The matter in such a case — or staircase — is made worse by the same parsimony which denied an inch or two more of land to make an easy going stairs, denying also a hand-rail for the protection of those using them. The same reason excludes the light, as a window or sky-light costs cash, so that the staircase has darkness to make the above-named dangers worse. Rooms of the House. — Coming now to the rooms of the house, let us glance at some of the features which they should possess. If those in which we spend most of our time, which therefore influence most largely our comfort, and exercise the greatest amount of evil or good upon our health, took, as one fancies they ought to take, the prece- dence of notice, the bed-rooms would be considered first. Yet fashion steps in and forbids that this should be the order of things. The entertaining-rooms — the dining-room and the drawing-room — must be looked to and considered before any other room in the house. Compared with these, the kitchen itself fades into insignificance ; which is odd, seeing that upon that depends one of the most important departments of living, for which most men at least have the reputation of thinking much about. This mania for, or pride of, having so many entertaining- rooms — and these large and handsome in dimensions — may be pardoned in the case of the very wealthy and weU-to-do ; indeed, in their case, it needs not to be called a mania, and pardon is unnecessary, as they have the means to have, and are in a sense justified in having, the best which money can give them. But the case is very different with many — we might say a large proportion — of the middle classes. Many have so little practical necessity for such rooms, that to have them at all may well be caUed preten- tiousness. Many have a drawing-room, for instance, into which, as a family, they rarely go ; it is only used for " company " times, and to show an occasional visitor into. Yet they will be content to have a miserably small and confined bed-room, which they call the "best bed- room," while the others are little better than mere closets. We know of several instances of this sort. How much 100 coTTAaES : how to plan and build. more truly dignified would it be for many of this class to be content with a fair-sized dining-room and a smaller- sized breakfast-room or parlour, and so obtain bed-rooms of good dimensions, so as to be airy, roomy, and well- lighted. No one of good sense would esteem a man the less, but all the more, if he would frankly admit or let it be seen that his means did not justify unnecessary display ; at all events, if he could afford it, that he preferred to spend the money in getting comfort, dispensing with display. Of course it wiU be borne in mind that there is a neces- sity to proportion the sitting or dining-room to the number of bed-rooms. A house with many bed-rooms is what is generally called a " family house ; " but the fault it possesses but too often is that the dining-room is far too small to accommodate the family. The present system of building houses according to several " patterns," as the term may be used, is that, being all alike, a family has to accommodate itself to the house. Now, by building houses on different plans in the same street, all wants and likings could be supplied. A good-sized bed-room, with fire-place in it — which does not requhe to be blocked up by the bed or some piece of furniture — is absolutely necessary in times of sickness, however readily one may dispense with it in time of health. Indeed, how some families get on at such times, who live in ultra-fashionably-planned houses— in which the company rooms elbow out, so to say, all the real valu- able space for bed-rooms — it is difficult to conceive. Many a medical man must have a fine charge to make against such a system of house arrangement. Indeed, in tirnes of sickness, the doctor has been known to order the drawing- room to be dismantled of its finery gear, and converted into a bed-room for the invalid. A suggestive commentary, truly, upon the system ! Let us hope that common sense will some day get the better of that "love for display" which is doing so much injury to society in a variety of ways, and that this system will be "reformed completely." Before dismissing the subject of bed-rooms, we should suggest that it would only be "what the thing should be " if the servant's bed-room was made something more in consistence with humanity, and, as we should say, the true WINDOWS AND DOOBS OF A HOUSE. 101 dignity of the house. With respect to this part of house accommodation, we confess to feeling heartily ashamed of it : as a rule, so unfitted for comfort, and indeed so unbe- coming in every respect, is it. We know of dog-kennels infinitely superior. We may remark in passing, and by way of comment upon what we have said above on the general question, that these — the kennels — were superior, in point of fact, to many a gentleman's bed-room, as regards roomy space and some of the fittings. True, though strange. About the Windows and. Doors of the House. — As greatly adding to the comfort, convenience, and the healthy arrange- ments of a house, attention should be paid to the placing — as regards position — and the construction of its windows and doors. Taking these in the order named, we here offer a few remarks upon windows. The art of " fenestration" — for by that name is designated that of disposing and con- structing windows in a building — is by no means at an advanced stage of progress with us. We have got into certain grooves in which, so to say, we have been running for generations, and are apparently likely to run for several yet to come. Here, where censure is to be dealt, it must honestly fall upon the architects and builders alone. The public — that much iU-used and long-suffering body — have very little in their power here ; for it is a subject involving peculiar study, and they therefore cannot reasonably be expected to know much about, or suggest anything in connection with it. The profession has been, as we have already hinted, rather indifferent on the subject, contented rather too easily with simply adopting the methods which have been in use so long, either as regards the construction or the disposition of the windows of the houses they have designed. Take the simplest department of the subject of fenestra- tion — the disposition of the windows with reference to the fire-places and the doors of rooms — and this, on considera- tion of all its requirements, will be found by no means such a simple matter to deal with effectively. Certainly this appears too true, if one examines the numerous ex- amples to be met with in which the windows are placed 102 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. in the most inconvenient positions. And the difficulties increase with the smallness of the rooms, precisely those in which the greatest care is required to obtain their good disposition. Other departments there are which are somewhat closely ailected by the disposition of the wmdows. In dining and sitting-rooms, in kitchens, and in the working offices of the house, great mistakes and omissions are made in the arrang- ing and disposition of the windows. We have, indeed, known one instance where the kitchen was so badly lighted that even in the brightest of days the fire-place was scarcely seen. And although blunders so gross as this are happily not often met with, still there are many instances in which lesser ones are met with, and which sadly interfere with the doing of the work. The kitchen fire-place, where the all-important opera- tions of cooking are carried on, obviously requires the windows to be so placed that one at least of them shall throw the full flood of light on it. The scullery, wash- house, and laundry require to be well-lighted. For the laundry, and indeed also for the wash-house, top or sky- lights will be required. The light thrown down upon the work is the best which can be obtained. These top-lights should be so constructed as to admit of their being used as ventilators at times. Cross or opposite lights should be given always in those three last-named apartments. As regards the mere mechanical construction of the windows, as well as of the kind of windows generally used, it takes but little consideration to see that there is wide room for improvement. We have, as a rule, having few exceptions, not been able to get beyond the sash window. This is well enough for ordinary purposes ; but still a little variety in design would be acceptable. In looking, for example, at the window as an aid to ventilation, the sash form does not afford the conveniences for doing this in the best way. It admits only of two movements- — the lifting up of the lower, or the letting down of the upper sash, or "leaf," or "light." Now, a little mechanical knowledge given to the improvement of the window would result in a form of construction by which a number of movements could be secured; and the air admitted to, or allowed to WINDOW FITTINGS. EXTERNAL TREATMENT OP DITTO. 103 pass from, tlie room in such a variety of ways, that a high degree of ef&cienoy in ventilation might be obtained by means of it. There are one or two forms of ventilating windows, or windows capable of being used in this way, already introduced to the public ; but we confess to some surprise that more has not been done in this direction. There is a wide field for improvement here. Even the fittings of the sash window are not such as they ought to be, in the great majority of instances. The window-blind appliances, and the fastenings to secure the two sashes together, are capable of considerable improve- ment. One alone would be of great value, and prevent many a one from getting his hand hurt ; and that is, casting all the pieces so that no sharp corners are left. This can be done by simply taking off the corner and the "arris" at certain points. Some fittings are positively dangerous. The same remark applies to many of the fittirfgs of houses. There is one thing we should recommend to be adopted in every large villa cottage, namely, one apartment at least to be provided with double windows — that is, with two sashes, an inner and an outer one, with an an- space between. This arrangement will be especially valuable for a sick chamber, as the noise from the outside is greatly deadened, and the temperature of the room kept uniform. As regards the external treatment of windows, both as to disposition in the elevation, and in their characteristic details in design, much could be said here, as much that is of architectural and artistic interest is connected with it. But this does not come within our present province. Enough to say — and the statement may be proved correct in the main by merely glancing down our rows of streets and at our detached buildings— that there is wide room for something striking, effective, and novel being done. As yet we have got very httle beyond the bald, uniform lines of straight-lined windows, with little or no projection sur- rounding these to create the play of Ught and shade which can alone redeem them from their present position. We fear that our architects are again here kept back from making efforts such as they are capable of, by the fear of the cuckoo cry of chents, "too expensive." It is a pity that 104 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. this should be so ; for it sadly interferes with the artistic ornamentation of our buildings, and prevents the doing of that which would mar their monotony of present general ugliness. The continental towns are far before us in external fenestration : and a single tour abroad would be well repaid to such builders who have not been already there, by the numerous hints they would receive. While on the subject of windows, we have just two more hints to give. The first is that their dimensions should be uniform throughout. If there was a standard, or a set of standard sizes, adopted by architects and builders through- out the kingdom — or, at aU events, say for each county — what a world of trouble and what an amount of expense would be saved to house-keepers and house-occupiers in the mere matter of window-blinds. There are scarcely two houses ahke as regards the dimensions of the windows (and, we may add, doors) ; and the consequence is, that on each removal the whole of the window-blinds have to be altered, or new ones got. But, failing this unanimity of opinion which would be necessary before standard sizes could be established, the next best thing to do would be to make the wmdow-blinds part of the fixtures or fittings of the house. The second hint is to make the sUls low ; not so low as to be only an inch or two above the feet of anyone sitting at the window — for, we take it, people feel more comfortable when they have their lower extremities partly covered by the shade of the wall, when sitting at a window — but low enough to allow the sun to be seen. The old-fashioned windows, with sills very nearly as high as the head of the sitters thereat, were simply abomina- tions. A window is not merely there to admit light in, but to allow people who are in to look out. About the Doors of a Home. — We now come to the next subject, and that is the doors of a house ; and what we have to say in connection therewith will refer chiefly to the way in which they are placed in a room in relation to certain objects therein, as fire places, &c., &c., much in the same way as we have done with regard to windows. Indeed, the same principle we endeavoured to point out respecting them, runs through what has to or can be said about doors. HANGING OF DOOES. 105 A good deal depends upon the fittings of a door. If tliey are cheaply made and ill-constructed, as too many are, the door is a source of perpetual annoyance in opening and shutting ; generally opening when it should remain closed, or vice versa. The mere time wasted in " looking after a door " — as the phrase is — which is provided with badly constructed and contrived fittings, would, if saved, very rapidly pay the difference in the cost between good and bad ones ; independently of the loss of temper, which would be also avoided ; and which loss, in the lower regions, finds expression in "drat that door!" pretty often, if not in something more expressive and worse. The hanging of a door is a little point which is apt to escape, but is worth notice. It may, for example, be bo hung as to obscure the light of a window, &o., &c. As a rule, doors should be so hung that if placed between a large room and a small one, or a closet or passage, they will always open into the larger room : never into the smaller. The principle named of having the door always opening from the smaller into the larger space should be carefully attended to. The hanging of closet doors, which are compelled — by certain arrangements in plan, &c. — to open into the closet, is a matter also requiring some thought. Thus, it may be found that the difference between hanging the door to the left hand style in place of the right, is just the differ- ence between the door making the closet very inconvenient in place of being convenient. AU these are, or will appear to be, trifling things — "little things" — beneath the notice of the architect, builder, or owner. But they wUl, if properly attended to, be found to add materially to the comfort of living in a house ; and that, as well as life itself, generally is made up of " Uttle things." Besides, in work or actions, trifling in one sense, but which is to be repeated again and again during the course of a day, what is but a minute's work at the time, becomes that perhaps of an hour or two in the day. And apart from this serious loss of time, there is the mental worry — a point of some importance, and worthy of being avoided, if avoided it can be. And there is the less excuse for such annoyances existing in a house, when but a trifling amount of thought in previous planning would prevent them. 106 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AKD BUILD. About the Minor Apartments or Conveniences of the House, as Closets and Pantries. — The Bame attention which we have shown to be practically useful in the matter of doors and windows, is necessary in nearly all connected with what are called the minor conveniences of a house. We might run over the whole of them, but space prevents us from doing this. Nor is it necessary ; for, from what we have said, the reader should be able to gather up what are the leading principles of what may be called the philosophy of house fitting — if so grand a name dare be given to so small a subject— (the housekeeper, however, and the servants, might here interpolate the words of the poet : " How small to others ! but oh ! ! how great to me ! ! ! " and with more than ordinary justice and propriety). ' We may, however, just glance in briefest way at a few of the points which should be attended to. And first as to closets, pantries, and the like. There is nothing which contributes so much to the ease with which house-keeping is carried on, and thus to the saving of time as well as of labour, as abundance of "storing space," And yet how many houses are to be met with in which there is very little of it — nay, not a few in which there is absolutely none. But it is not necessary merely to have a good many storing places ; it is also necessary that they should be situated in such parts of the house as to be con- veniently contiguous to the apartments to which they will be more immediately useful. If not so situated, then the ad- vantage we have referred to will not be gained, as much time will be lost in going to and fro over the same ground. It is not necessary to do more than give a hint as to this point, carrying it out requiring only some thought in planning. Thus a linen closet should not be placed so that it is against an outside wall, but in the warmest, driest part of the house. A larder closet has its rule the converse of this ; in fact, it should project from the outside wall, so that as much air cu'culation as possible may be obtained around it. In brick-built houses, where the jambs of the fire-places project more or leiss into the room, recesses are left, as a matter of course, at each side, between the outside of jamb and inside of contiguous walls. Those recesses afford ex- CUPBOAEDS, ETC. 107 cellent spaces for cupboards and book-shelving, &c., &e., in the lower or living rooms ; and for wardrobes in the upper and bed-rooms. For these and hlte purposes they ought always to be utiUzed, no available space for useful conveni- ences being ever thrown away. 108 CHAPTER IX. Some Hints on the Useful Fittings and Furnishing of Cottages — Shelving — Gbates. To say all that could be said about the fittings alone of cottages, to say nothing of the furniture thereof, would bring up so many considerations — such a long Ust of things to be done, and of cautions as to those which ought to be left undone — that the space of a goodly-sized volume would be required. To treat of both subjects, therefore, in that space which alone is now left at our disposal, it is obvious that we must confine ourselves, in a very close and literal manner, to the promise of our title, and give hints only, and those, too, very often somewhat of the shortest. Still it is possible, even in this mode of treating those subjects, to be able to make it the vehicle for conveying to our readers much information in few words : as we do them the compliment or justice to beheve them to be of that class who, out of a mere suggestion of the briefest kind, can derive enough to enable them to adapt and modify what it conveys in a thoroughly practical way, and to serve decidedly economi- cal ends. " A word" is of more value " to the wise" than a long series of words and sentences to one who is not so. Where so much ought to be said, and there is so little space to say it in, the difficulty is to know at what point to begin. At the beginning, of course, says one. Yes, but where is that? "Is it up stairs, down stairs, or in my lady's chamber ? " Or as there are in this advanced country of ours, and in those towns of boasted civilization, not a few cottages which can boast of no up stairs, and of down stairs that of the poorest — alas ! for " my lady's chamber," conspicuous by its absence. What then ? On this hint let us act ; and begin by showing how, with sundry fittings FITTINGS IN FIRE-PLACE JAMBS. 109 of a character more or less simple, the one-roomed cottage may be provided with fittings which will tend to make it very much more adapted to carrying on the work of civUized life than it would be without them. This one- roomed cottage will be found illustrated and commented upon in a previous chapter of this work, in which the plans of cottages of the various classes are given, and some hints will also there be met with as to the way in which the one-roomed cottage may be extended and improved. The fire-places of such cottages, especially those of brick. Fia. 17 having almost invariably projecting jambs, the recesses or spaces at the sides of these and between the walls afford capital opportunities for making convenient cupboard and shelving accommodation, and which should never be lost sight of in planning, as they too often are. We should go into some of the well-kept cottages in some parts of the North of England, where even the accommodation is of the most limited, to see how deftly such places can be fitted up, and how neatly and orderly 110 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. they may be kept. One side of the fire-place may be shelved only up to a certain height, and finished with a flat boarded space, upon which things of a somewhat orna- mental character, as a flower vase or a valued piece of china — "my grandmother's, sir" — may be placed; and above this a small shelf. If the lower shelves are covered in, all the conveniences and some even of the elegancies — al- though of a humble order — of the " chiffonier " of the middle classes can be obtained at small cost. The other recess < ' L T <; ''"* is' 1 c c ^ CO . " i \ 1 — 1 ^ 1 R \ 1 F;, L u Q U may be shelved up to a certain height ; and above that, the recess closed in with folding doors, thus making a simple but convenient wardrobe, in which dresses may be hung and clothing deposited. In figures 17 and 18, we give sketches illustrative of these arrangements ; fig. 17 showing the simple shelving, open to the front, with the board space b, and short shelf c, or this may go right across ; and a shelf may be given at the ceiling, as d, for stowing COTTAGE KITCHEN FITTINGS. ]li away articles not frequently required. Fig. 18 sliO"ws the shelving, doored in or concealed by two small folding or one large door ; the former plan is always preferable, as a long single door is always in the way when being opened and closed. Fig. 19 shows the cupboard (a a) and ward- robe [h h) arrangement for filling in the other recess at fire-place. Fig. 20 shows another arrangement, in which the lower part of the recess is filled up with a folding-dooi- closet or wardrobe, aa, hh ; c c a, shelf, with open space d. In these sketches the letters /. I. indicate the " floor line," and c. I. the "celling line." ^Si§gjSjjSS5&-4v*S-~ Fig. 19. A great convenience in a small house is the fold-down table at the window, fig. 21. Some may object to such con- veniences being given " only to cottages." Well, be it so — only let those objecting to them for ever hold their peace as to the disorderly state of the cottages, nor let them say aught about " a place for everything, and everything in its 112 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. place ; " for it is sheer absurdity to say that things should be in place if the place be not provided. Many a cottager who now is blamed for having a disorderly house, would be glad and thankful to have such conveniences ; and even in the case of those who are careless as to them, they might in time be wooed to order by their existence ; and if they were not, then let our friends, the objectors aforesaid, be " down on them " as often and as hard as they list. They will not, in such cases, find reasonable people say that they --\--':n»!jsjV': . -.. , ■ . . .^ ■■';,^v^- 1 , n B Fig. 20. are then unreasonable in their fault-finding. And as to the cost of such convenience, it is surprising how far a few shillings, and a good head for contriving and an expert hand at fitting up, can go in giving them. Let a single case be taken in hand, and we promise full compensation for the cost in the consciousness of doing what, after all, is the landlord's duty to do. So far, then, we have shown how, by simple and cheap arrangements and contrivances, "living" in a single-roomed FOLD-DOWN WINDOW TABLE. 113 cottage may be rendered more in accordance with those rules which, if they do not conduce to health, a,ssuredly do to the comfort — and indeed they may be said to conduce also to the former ; for a well-ordered house, as regards what is in it, will be much more likely to be a clean house than if the reverse was the rule of life. Indeed, disorder not only creates dirt, which is bad, but in hiding or concealing it, it is allowed too often to remain, which is worse. Fia. 21. The other conveniences still required to make the veiy lowest classes of cottages more consistent in point of arrangement bearing upon comfort and health, coming, as they do under the department of alterations and amend- ments in construction, will be found in the section of the work taking up the subject of plans. We proceed now 114 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. to consider other fittings, these being taken up and treated of on the same principle we have adopted in the first section of the work, which treats of the constructive depart- ment. These wiU be appHcable to all classes of cottages- - that is, some of the details will be so, while others will be useful in the case of structures of a certain class only, not in those of another ; but the reader will be able at once to pick out the points which will be useful in his own par- ticular case. To have treated the hints in any other way which we have now to give, by attempting to classify them more systematically than we have done, would only have resulted in confusion, without yielding corresponding ad- vantages. The small fittimis of closets for stowing away various articles necessary in a house should not be overlooked — such as hooks for hant,'ing crockery ware under the shelves, and the same in front. For wardrube closets or wardrobes, made in the side recesses of fire-places, and when likely to be used much by females, low- set hooks are absolutely necessary, and for physiological reasons which only require to be generally alluded to here, a certain " purchase" — to use a mechanical phrase — is required to take such things off and on, and this purchase cannot be Lad where the hooks are above one's head. Shehing, we need scarcely say, is exceedingly useful in a house ; and abundance of it should be given in all its working parts, as kitchen, scullery, &c. Here again the height at which it is fixed should be considered. If only one row be given at any part, this should be low ; and if more than one row, the lowest row should be at such a low Isvel that the top row shall not be thrown too high. The housekeeper's common sense will direct her to place the articles most frequently required, upon that shelf placed at the most easily reached height. If a shelf be set accurately level, everything placed upon it wUl have a firm seat, and nothing which can roll will roll off it ; but shelving is often very carelessly set, so that it sometimes has a cant to the front given to it, thus giving a tendency for tall articles, &o., to tumble over. It would, indeed, be better to give all shelving a cant, but the reverse way to this— that is, to incline towards ihe wall — so tliut no KITCHEN AND SCULL3KY FITTINGS. 115 article will roll off the sbelf. This is a better and more simple plan than that of putting a ledge at the front edge of the shelf; this is effective enough, but it is in the way, and prevents the shelf from being thoroughly washed and dusted — the ledge affording a corner in which the dust lodges, from which it is difficult to dislodge it. The same may be said of the back of the shelf at the wall. It will, therefore, be a good plan to have the shelf clear from the wall, or set forward from it, say the distance of an inch ; this will give a long sht or opening, intq-^hich the cloth in cleaning may be inserted. These are all little things, but the reader will see that they save much tirrie in dusting, washing, &c. The kitchen and scullery fittingk and conveniences, oth'er than those already named, may now claim a passing word. The dresser is always an important fitting of a kitchen ; and as it takes up a good deal of floor space, the vertical height under it should always be utilized. Some prefer to have it merely filled in with shelving ; but as drawers arc exceedingly useful, the best way is to have a small cupboard in the centre, and the side spaces filled in with drawers, long and short. A table at the window is very useful for many purposes; but it is one of the most inconvenient places to put it in. To avoid the inconveni- ence, and still to have the table, the contrivance known as the " fall-down table " may be fitted up. This is simply a table-top (a h, fig. 21), hinged to wood bricks iii the wall under the window sill, and having hinged or jointed legs (c) at front. Fitting of Fire-places — The Dust Draught. — One of the great annoyances of a house is dust ; and since Professor Tyndall's researches into its constituents, as presented in many forms to us, have been published, it is now known that it is worse than an annoyance — it is a cause of disease. That there must be something peculiarly " dirty" in dust is, we think, sufficiently shown by the test of touch ; for to most people to handle a dusty article is so peculiarly disagreeable, that it is more like an electric shock than anything else — slight, doubtless, but shivery. The chief source of dust — and in some finely situated suburban or country houses, the only one — is the fire place. Every time 116 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. this is stirred out, up fly clouds of dust, more or less, but always sufficiently annoying to those with tender lungs, and to the house-proud, who do not like to see their various articles of furniture and pretty objects covered with it. Now, there is no necessity for this cause of dust existing ; it is not an essential part, so to say, of a fire- place — or, rather, it is not a necessary result of its action when stirred. It can be avoided with great simphcity. It is now clearly avoided in hundreds of fire-places in the northern counties of England, especially, we believe, in Lancashire. And that the contrivance by which it is so, known as the "dust draught," has not long ago been adopted in a much more extended way and in all parts of the kingdom, is a fine and suggestive example of how deeply-seated prejudice against, or practical indifterence to, a good thing will operate to prevent its adoption, and that for a very long period. Architects and builders by the dozen, belonging to other parts of the kingdom, and owners of houses also, must have seen or heard of it, and have known that it was successful beyond a doubt ; and yet the former have never cared to adopt it of their own free will, nor the latter insisted on its being adopted, will or no will. The contrivance is simply a small vertical iiue, formed in the wall at the back of the fire-place. Its lower end opens out on a level with the hearth ; its upper, into the chimney flue of the fire-place, at a point a foot or so above the level of the fire. The heat of the smoke, &c., from the fire, ascending the chimney, creates a s-trong upward current in the small flue, or "dust draught," and which sweeps up through the opeuing at the hearth level every particle of dust as it falls from the grate. Generally the draught is so strong that it will ' ■ draw in " dust which may be raised by sweeping the floor, even at the distance of a few feet from the fire-place. This con- trivance is worth thinking over by those who hate dust — better worth adopting. Expense need not prevent this being done, for a few pence will cover that. For kitchens, under which there is a cellar, there is a kindred con- trivance, which, if it does not do away with a nuisance, efl'ects at least a considerable economy in one department m which economy is rarely practised, save in the North of ASH AND CINDBB GEIDS TO KITCHEN GEATES. 117 England, in which part of the kingdom this contrivance is, we believe, only to be met with on an extensive scale. This contrivance is known popularly as the "ash grid." In front of the fire-place, and at a distance from the bars, so as to strike the hearth-stone at a point about two-thirds from its outer edge, a hole is cut in it, into which is fitted a cast-iron grating — or, in the North of England vernacular, a grid. The upper surface of this is level or flush with the surface of the hearth-stone. The openings of the grid are longitudinal, and run in a direction at right angles with the length of the hearth-stone, or to and from the fire-bars, and the space between each is about one-fourth of an inch. The grid thus communicates with a flue or shaft, which runs either vertically or sloping down to the cellar below the kitchen, and the aperture or mouth of which in the cellar is so situated that the ashes which pass down the grid are delivered to the cellar hearth-stone, from which they are removed from time to time, and either passed to the ash- pit in the yard, or used to add to the compost heap in the garden. When this grid is used, the ashes and cinders below the grate are brought forward by means of the shovel, and passed by means of the edge of this to and fro over the surface of the " ash grid." This working of the combined ashes and cinders separates the ashes, which pass through the apertures in the grid, and fall into and descend the flue or shaft to the cellar in a finely divided state, the cinders being left lying on the surface of the grid. From this they may be shovelled to the back of the fire in the grate ; or, if not required there, may he carried off to the cinder store. We have said that it is in the North of England only that cinders are saved. This is, of course, an exaggerated statement ; but still it is true that it is there that a contrivance for saving them forms part of the constructive appliances of every house, shewing a systematic attempt at economizing not met with elsewhere in the kingdom, so far as we are aware. Waste is a bad thing at any time, hut it is worse when exercised in times of scarcity and dearness ; and " as coals are coals now," so far as regards price, it behoves everyone to save them as much as possible. Cinders make, when added to other and fresh coal, a capital fire ; and if their value in this 118 cottages; how to plan and build. respect was more widely known, their use would be more widely spread. It is gratifying to find that this value is becoming more and more recognized, and that "ash pans," as they are called, form part of many grates ; but the value of the "ash grid" we have described is that it saves a vast deal of time, and collects and keeps together the ashes. Where a cellar is not below, a well may be formed beneath the hearth-stone to receive the ashes : this to be emptied from time to time. Fire-iirates. — The appliances just described naturally bring us to the consideration of sundry points connected with the fire-grate itself. For the kitchen it is usually designated a "range," or "kitchener," or "cooking range." The whole tribe, so to call them, of fire-grates, whether used for kitchen, parlour, drawing-room, or any other room, has for many years engaged the attention and called forth the sweeping condemnations of those who have the investigation of their forms. From the time of Count Eumford — and, indeed, long before his time — the wasteful arrangements of these forms have, as just stated, been unhesitatingly always and everywhere condemned by the scientific men. But whether the subject be one which affords only opportunities for denunciation and nothing more, or whether it be that the difficulties which lie in the way of improvement are so numerous and so great that they cannot be overcome, certain it is that our fire-grates, as a whole, still meet with condemnation from those who are judged, or judge themselves, to be authorities. And yet it is not from lack of trying to overcome the difficulties. From before Eumford' s time down till now, a long succession of inventors, im- provers, and designers of grates have exercised their heads in, and tried their hands at, discovering new arrangements, and in carrying those out into practice. But, notwith- standing all this, we have not yet arrived at perfection ; so far from that, indeed, that at the recent public competition or trial, carried on at the last Industrial Exhibition at Kensington, of all the varied forms exhibited, not one was found to be so good that it could be pronounced the best, or as coming up to the standard of efficiency set up. A poor result, assuredly, for so long a period of inventive KITOFIEN GliATES, RANGES, AND KITCHENERS. 119 energy and designing skill; and saying little, if the "finding" of the judges was correct, for the highly elaborated, and in many instances most costly, contriv- ances there exhibited. With a "wide world " of various forms and combinations of grates "all before him, where to choose," where, when, and how is the wanderer — so to call him — amidst those wilds, to decide as to the best amongst the bad, the mediocre, and the middling good ? for, according to "authority," we have seen there is no "best," truly so- called, existing. Is grate, like razor or knife, choosing, but a "lottery," in which, or out of which, you may " gain a loss" or "pull a prize?" Where doctors so dreadfully disagree as those who may be called grate doctors — there used to be a class, we know not whether it exists now, called smoke doctors, whose business grew out of, so to say, the faults of the grate and the chimney doctors — it is not so easy for a "patient" to decide as to what is or is not to be the choice, or the principles upon which that choice is to be made. It may be possible to find out what those principles are ; for that a law exists regulating the action of grates, there is no doubt. Meanwhile, a vast deal of groping in the dark is what is apparently left to us. We shall attempt, however, to notice a few of what may be called common-sense observations applicable to the subject. Kitchen Grates.^-'Kiiahen fire-places are, or may be, divided into two classes — the " open grate," and the closed or "enclosed range," or "kitchener," as it is now often called. Those are, as a rule, used indiscriminately — at least too often so used — without any reference to the par- ticular place in which they are required. The open grate, •from its very form, arrangement, and construction of its parts, is obviously not adapted to cook a great many dishes — or, rather, heat a great number of vessels — at the same time ; whUe an enclosed range, or kitchener, is obviously arranged on the opposite principle, so that a maximum of vessels can be all in operation at the same time, with a minimum of space. In this department the "fitness of things" should be considered; and if so, it will be found that a safe common-sense rule, if rule it may be called, may be laid down, namely— that for a family 120 COTTAGES : HOW TO PLAN AND BUILD. where tliere is not ranch " dinner giving " going on, and where but few dishes are generally required, to put down a '' kitchener," which costs much more money than an open grate, would be simply throwing away the money difference between the cost of the two. Where a good deal of "dinner giving" goes on, and many dishes are of course required, a kitchener would be the best to "put down," or "set up" — for, paradoxical as the statement seems to be, the two expressions, although essentially different in con- struction to the technical mind, in that of the ai'tificer mean the same thing. But it may be said that inasmuch as the makers of " hitcheners " claim for them that they save much fuel ; and not only this, but that the quality of the fuel used in them may be so poor that it would not burn or be consumed properly in an open grate : they effect a double saving. While this is quite true, still it should be remembered that an apparatus which, if properly managed, is au economical one, if not so managed is quite the reverse. But why should the kitchener not be properly managed ? may be a question fairly here asked. The reply involves a brief statement of one or two considerations. All contrivances or appliances which propose or are arranged to perform or carry out a number of operations from one primary or central force or power, must have of necessity a greater number of parts, and be on the whole much more compli- cated, than that contrivance which proposes to do, or is arranged for, but a few operations. This is the statement of a mere truism, doubtless ; but, like many other truisms, is very apt to bo — and, indeed, is very often — forgotten or ignored. Now, a complicated thing is more difficult to manage than a simple one — another truism; and if the- class of people — in our case, domestics — who have to manage them are not given to the exercise of much care, or have not intellectually the power to exercise it, these complicated appliances get rapidly out of order. Applying these considerations to the open grate and the kitchener, we find that in practice the kitchener is by no means so easy to manage properly as the simptle open grate, which, as the saying is, " any fool can manage." It is ix\