DESIGN No. 23.A GARDEN SUMMER-HOUSE.

Front elevation.

its front towards the road, on high ground, the road looking down to a wide extent of open country. The garden side of the house commanded a fine prospect. Advantage was taken of the steep descent of the ground to build the kitchen and scullery, with a day room for the children, apart from the main building.

The plan of the basement is given on p. 236;ais the kitchen, 18 feet square, the sculleryb, was at the side, and the larder,c, at its side;dis the place for coals, a passagee, leads to the day room,f, for the children;gis either the cook’s room, or a sleeping room for a man servant;his the passage up to the house,iis the dry larder,jis the butler’s pantry, with a strong room for holding plate; this was intended to be a sleeping room.kis the wine cellar,lthe back staircase which went from the lower floor to the attic,mis the principal staircase, andna place for stores. The roof of this lower building was to be formed with flat-girders, and brick and tile in cement, making a terrace-walk above; the chimneys were taken up from the lower building to the higher one, as shown in the side elevation by the dotted lines. The kitchen, and the whole of the basement, was to be paved with the best Seyssel asphalte. It is laid on a solid foundation, on a thickness of ground lime. The objection to the black and British asphalte for the interior of rooms, is that a fine dust rises from it, which insweeping, affects the eyes of the occupants of the apartments.

Basement plan.

The plan of the building was not intended to be in the old style, but to be arranged, as far as possible,according to modern notions, without any great hall, or stone screen within it. A noble stone porch was

The ground plan.

placed in front, resembling slightly an ancient archway. The hall is 20 feet in length by 12 feet inbreadth. The breakfast and eating rooms,bandc, 20 feet square, are on each side; both have bay

The first floor.

windows, with an exterior colonnade and terrace. The drawing-room,d, and the librarye, are each 18 feet square; both have bay windows, and the angularwindow peculiar to the Elizabethan architecture. These windows open on to the terrace.fis the

The attic floor.

gentleman’s dressing-room,gis the principal staircase containing the servants’ staircase,h, within it;ois the lift. At the back of the building is a colonnadecommanding a view of the country, and beneath is the terrace, with its balustrading and steps to the garden.

The one pair floor contains only four large bed-roomsa,a, and two dressing-roomsb,b. One dressing-room, that in front, could have been converted into a pleasant morning room; each of the two principal bedrooms in the front could easily have been formed into two; a small dressing-room taken out of each. Terraces were in front of these two rooms, the small circular bow-window opening on to them; the principal staircase only led to this floor. The servants’ staircase led to the attics.

This floor contained three large servants’ rooms, with two small octagon rooms. It was proposed to form the front rooms into one, with a circular roof, covered with scroll work and flowers, in the form of a garden-bower, similar to the gallery ceiling at Burton Agnes in Yorkshire. In this ceiling there are about a dozen varieties of flowers and bunches of leaves, which were placed in a scroll-stem in various positions so as to vary the pattern. The flowers and leaves could have been painted in their natural colours. These rooms, however, could not be spared, so it was proposed to turn the two octagon rooms into what may be termed garden-bower rooms, and to attempt growing dwarf fruit-trees in them, as practised in Germany.The roofs of these rooms were to be constructed in iron and glass, and covered internally with wire trellis-work, the warming to be effected with flue pedestals, two in each room, one taking the kitchen flue and the other house flues, the corresponding pedestal in the other room to have the remaining flues in that side of the building. The illustration on page 242 shows a plan and section of one of these rooms.

The tower in the centre of the back front contained a cistern for the supply of the house; the closets beneath could have Moule’s earth system applied to them, the earth to be brought up by the lifto, dried in the bower rooms, and deposited in an enclosure in the tower room from which it could descend to the closets.

It may be here remarked that the closets throughout the whole of these designs are in such a position that the dry-earth system could be easily applied to each. In cottages that have the flues in an external wall, and where this system is introduced, the earth deposit should be placed against the flue, and the closet adjoining.

The lifto, shown in the plans, connects every floor with the basement; it permits coals and other heavy articles to be lifted up, receives the speaking tubes leading to the basement and children’s day-room, and any bell wires that may be required.

Plan and section of garden bower-rooms.

Side front.

Section through lower part of building.

The first elevation given shows the front of the building, having a length of 87 feet. Although the structure was to be an imitation wooden house, the timber was merely intended to be an appendage to the brickwork. The exterior walls were to have been two bricks and a half thick on the ground-floor, two bricks above. The wooden posts and pans were let into the external half brick, and well built in, the ornamental woodwork in inch oak screwed to the wood-quartering, the space between them filled with plaster, with an ornamental pattern-stamp on it, and the columns and entablature were of oak.

The next elevation given is that of the side front, with its gable, in the centre of which is a small circular window, opening on to a terrace over the colonnade; the scroll at the side is a construction to permit the flues from the lower portion of the basement to ascend the tower walls; flue sweeping doors could be placed there. A section of the lower part of the building is given, taken through the centre of the house, showing the principal staircase and the external steps to garden. The perspective view shows the garden front.

Wooden houses were once the chief kind of construction in England. The great fire of London would not have been so serious in its results if such constructions had not been almost universal.

In many parts of England these houses have other designations. There is a mode of building peculiar to each, and adapted to the kind of material that the districts offer. In Cambridgeshire, for instance, many of the houses are formed entirely of “Clunch,” a kind of indurated chalk marl, of which there are extensive quarries at Roach, near Burwell. Others are of gault, a local term for the blue clay which lies below the gravel of Cambridgeshire, and forms the immediate substratum in the low ground about it. This is beaten up with chopped straw, then formed into blocks of large size, and dried by the sun. A writer in the “Cambridge Portfolio,” in his remarks on what he terms the inferior style of domestic architecture, says: “Many of these houses have the lower floor formed of stone or clunch, in which a framework of wood is raised, consisting of studs and wall-plates with strong posts at intervals and some cross pieces as a tie. The joists of the upper floor are laid in the wall-plates, and project about a foot or eighteen inches beyond the wall beneath. The smaller timbers have tenons which are fitted into mortices in the larger, and secured by wooden pins. The interstices are filled either with durable boarding, double lath and plaster, clunch or bricks, laid level or obliquely. The better houses of this description have gables, with ornamented barge-boards with hip-kobs and corbels or brackets,more or less carved, under the ends of the principal timbers of the upper floors.”

The barge-board is sometimes called berge-board, verge-board, parge-board. It was a board fixed to the ends of the gables of timber houses, to hide those of the projecting timbers of the roof, and throw off the wet. They were generally richly carved and very ornamental. Occasionally some of these of the date of the 14th century are met with; those of the 15th and 16th, many of the Elizabethan character, are very common. We have few of the better class of these half-timbered houses, in which the decorative labour of our ancestors was most conspicuous, remaining in our towns and cities; but in Edinburgh, York, Chester, and Newcastle there are still a sufficient number of specimens to prove the truth of these remarks. In the towns of Normandy and the Netherlands numerous buildings, and indeed whole streets, may be seen which still exhibit the perfect counterpart of our old Cheapside, as it appeared before the great fire. Troyes, the capital of Champagne, still retains its ancient buildings, and the chestnut-timber houses of Caen, which were raised, or restored, during the period in the 15th century when it was in the hands of the English, show us what our cities once were, and, of course, the extent of our improvements. London formerly possessed the richest examples. At thecorner of Chancery Lane, in Fleet Street, there once stood a five-storied house in timber, each story projecting; the whole of the timber and the gables being richly carved. In this house once lived the celebrated Isaac Walton.

The other most common application of this kind of house is “half-timbered.” In some counties the woodwork is not in patterns. It appears that when a greater degree of elegance was required the uprights and beams were carved, or the houses were pargetted, that is, coated thickly with plaster, in which embossed or indented ornaments were used. This kind is very common in nearly all the English counties. The origin of the wordpargetappears to be doubtful. We findparget, substantive, andpargetting,pergetting, andpergining, verb, in old writings, of various kinds of plaster work, used inside and outside of houses, particularly about the time of Elizabeth; the wordpargetwas used as far back as 1450.

The half-timbered houses generally had the woodwork (studs and posts) painted black or tarred, with the intermediate spaces of brickwork whitewashed. Many of these houses have been plastered over in modern days. In London several of them have been refronted, and we lose sight of the woodwork, and imagine we see fresh-built houses.

In some parts of the country we see numbers ofcottages built of mud mixed with chopped “haum.” This is commonly barley stubble. The word appears of foreign derivation; in High and Low German, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, halm; Ang.-Sax., healm; Icelandic, halmr, stubble.

The haum is used to give the mud strength. These houses, previously described in connexion with concrete erections, were built about a yard in height at a time; each part was allowed to dry before further addition was made. The openings for windows and doors were cut when the wall became firmer; the walls were then smoothed off a little, and whitewashed. These houses are said to be very strong, and to last for many years. In the Midland Counties they seldom exceed one story in height, but in Devon, Somersetshire, and Hampshire, this composition is a common material for gentlemen’s houses two and three stories in height. It is there calledcob, the derivation of which word remains in obscurity, unless it is a short term forcobble, or a coarse clumsy performance. A cob-wall was one composed of straw and clay beaten up together.

In Kent, the half-timbered houses are called wood-noggin houses, because the pieces of timber were called wood-nogs. Nog is properly a wooden brick, which is inserted into walls to hold the joiners’ work;nogging is the term for the brick-filling partitions between the quartering.

Sometimes, but very rarely, there is no projection of the upper story over the lower one. These openings in the windows are common, and all have richly carved barge-boards.

In some of the Kentish villages there are several noggin houses plastered over, with a ground in which flowers and patterns are worked in another colour. Some have a red ground and white flowers, others a black ground and white flowers. The wooden frame is always built on a substructure of brick or stone, called the “under-pinning.” Numbers of the houses in Kent are covered at the sides with weather tiles; here the brickwork is carried up to the first floor, in which the wooden framework is placed, and laths nailed across, in which the tiles are hung; the shape of the tile varies. Some are diamond-shape, and others finish with circular ends.

In Warwickshire, Oxfordshire, and Gloucestershire, we meet with half-timbered houses, which are there called brick pane houses, but very few of them are worked in patterns.

In Northamptonshire the half-timbered houses are commonly called studded or framed houses, because the framework is put up before the spaces are filled up. The studs are upright between the posts, whichare larger than the studs. There are also “wattle,” and “dab-houses,” and sheds, which are constructed of studs, sills, and wall-plates. Between or into the studs are laid, horizontally, plaited or wattled strong hazel twigs, or other underwood, and on both of these a thick coat of plaster or mud is laid or dabbed. A wattle is a hurdle made of four or five upright stakes, and hazel branches woven closely and horizontally into the stakes—Anglo-Saxon,watel, a hurdle or covering of twigs; in some counties they are called “flakes,” merely from their being thin and flat. In Sussex and Devonshire, and in the South of England, wattled hurdles are called “Raddles.” In a little Dictionary for children of the date of 1608, we find “a hartheled wall or ratheled with hasile rods or wands.” The wordhartheledis the same as hardilled, and the Dictionary spells hurdillhardill, Ang.-Sax.,hyrdel, Low Germ.,hoidt, Dutch,horde. Germ.,hurde.Ratheledis from the same derivation asraddled. What in one county is “wattle and dab,” is in another “raddle and dab.”Dabis here used as a substantive, but it is properly a verb—to dab on, to sprinkle, or bespatter. In French,dawber, ordober, to smear, hence “to daub.” These mud cottages are very common even in the richest counties of England. In South Northamptonshire are red sandstone houses frequently possessing stone mullions in the windows, and dripstones.

Further northwards, as in Shropshire, Cheshire, and Lancashire, we find a better description of the half-timbered houses in many of the manor houses built there. Lord Liverpool’s seat at Pitchford, near Shrewsbury, illustrated by Habershon, is a fine and a very large example, although the pattern is not so elegant as many of them. Joseph Nash and other artists have made the best of these familiar to us by their publications. Cheshire is the county most abounding in them. In the southern part of the county of Lancashire they are called “post-and-pan houses.” Post is an upright piece of timber, used in various ways, such as gate-post, door-post, a jamb-lining. The word “post” is found in many languages, commonly meaning an upright. In Ang.-Sax.,post, a post, Frisic,post, a beam, German,pfost, French,poste, Latin,postis, a post.

“Pan,” in Lancashire, certainly means a beam, and is the common name for it (beam not being used), although we do not find the wordpan, a beam, noticed in most of the glossaries as it deserves. In the Craven Glossary, “postandpan” a building of wood and plaster alternately.Pan, totally to fit: “Weal and woman cannot pan, but woe and woman can,” is the complete old English proverb, in which the word pan is used. In the glossary of Tim Bobbin, “Pan” means to join or agree. In Hunter’s HallamshireGlossary “pan,” properly in building, is the wall-plate—the piece of timber that lies on the tops of the posts, and on which the balks rest, and the sparfoot also.To pan, to apply to closely. In Brockett’s North Country work,panmeans to match, agree. The idea of a pan for a beam would seem to be a shortened word for span, but it comes, it is said, from the old wordpan, denoting to close or join together, to match, fit, apply, agree. From this, or the origin of which, came pane, or panel of wood, or wainscot, pane of glass. Ang.-Sax.,pan, a piece, hem, plait; pan hose, patched hose, because pieces are fitted into them.

In Warwickshire and Oxfordshire they call a post-and-pan house a brick-panehouse, because the wood-work divides the building into rectangular spaces, filled withpanesof brickwork.

In Forby’s Suffolk Vocabularypaneis a division of work in husbandry, also strips of cloth. The slits in Elizabethan dresses are calledpanes. Du Cange, in hisGlossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis, haspanna, a carpenter’s word, signifying a square piece of wood of 6 or 7 fingers on a side, which being placed on the rafters of the roof, and retained by wooden supports, carries the asseres. The “Glossary of Architecture” construes a pan as a lathe; but of this there seems some doubt.

There is a remarkable example of the wordPannain the Close Rolls of the 9th of Henry 3rd, membrane 5, page 65, though the word in the printed copy is erroneously speltpauna.

De postibuset pannisdatis.

Mandatum est Hugoni de Neville quod habere faciat Baldivinium de Veer duos postes et duospannasin bosco nostro in Deresle, de dono nostro ad se habergandum apud Thrapston. Teste rege apud Westmonasterium XV die Octobris, anno nono.—That is: The King orders Hugh de Neville to give Baldwin de Veer twopostsand twopansout of the Royal forest of Deresley to build a house at Thrapstone.—“Habergandum” is fromhabergo, to build a house, which seems to be derived from the old Germanhabe, goods and possessions, andbergen; in Ang.-Sax.,boergan, to defend, keep, and protect.Habe, goods, is from the Germanhaben, Ang.-Sax.,habban, to have and possess. In Du Cange we find “Habergagium vel habergamentum, domicilium domus,” that is, a place to keep goods in. This account is given us by the writer in the “Cambridge Portfolio,” who adds, “That it is probable the house alluded to in Thrapstone was merely a shed.” He gives a great many derivations from the wordpanin French. He says thatpanorpostis apostandpanwall, perhaps with boarding in the panes instead of brick or stone. A post-and-pan house therefore signifies one formed ofuprights and cross-pieces, and this appears to be the most rational name for them. The patterns of the woodwork are sometimes extremely elegant; at Park Hall in Shropshire, one represents balustrading intermingled with quatre-foiling, while the plaster ceilings inside the building are of excessively rich character. In many of the old post-and-pan houses, the windows are between every post, running the whole length of the house in each story, rendering a remark of Lord Bacon’s true, that in such houses you did not know where to become to get out of the sun or the cold. They are now sometimes called “bird-cage houses,” from the effect at a distance. Some of these old mansions had the hall extending to the roof, and this was carried down to a very late period. At Kirby in Northamptonshire, a seat of the Lord Chancellor Hatton, built by the architect, John Thorpe, Inigo Jones altered the timbers of the hall roof and gave them an Italianized character. He was, previous to his visit to Italy, one of the chief and most celebrated masters of the then fashionable Elizabethan style, which was carried down to a later period than is generally supposed.

The superior class of wooden houses were for the gentry, the wattle and dab houses for the hind. This cottage, then, must have been little better than a miserable shed. Cottages still exist in the north ofEngland, amid the northern counties, that are bad at the very best. The tenants have to bring everything with them, partitions, window-frames, fixtures of all kinds, grates, and a substitute for a ceiling. Certainly the improved concrete cottage, if it could be erected at a small expense, would be a great advantage to them. Its partitions, and even its roof, the latter covered with slate, might be securely formed of strong hurdles, and a cistern for water easily placed just below it. The walls, if covered with a good Portland cement face, will last for many years, and, if the roof be so formed as to protect them, for warmth, comfort, and cleanliness such cottages are unsurpassed.

It is to be regretted that the combination of workmen forming the various Trades’ Unions, has so raised the price of labour that it has reacted against themselves, and the workmen’s houses, roomy, and formed of sound, lasting materials can no longer be constructed at a cost that would allow a fair percentage on outlay.

Lord Bacon paid particular attention to building, and he had several fine mansions. He received his Sovereign at one,Gorhambury, who on her remarking its great size, said, “It was not that the house was too big, but that her Grace had made him too big to inhabit it.” His essay on building gives such a complete picture of what the nobleman’s house was in those days, that it is here quoted.

“First, therefore, I say you cannot have a perfect palace, except you have two several sides: a side for the banquet, as is spoken of in the book of Esther, and a side for the household; the one for feasts and triumphs, and the other for dwelling.

“I understand both these sides to be not only returns, but parts of the front; and to be uniform without, though severally partitioned within; and to be on both sides of a great and stately tower in the midst of the front, that, as it were, joineth them together on either hand. I would have, on the side of the banquet in front, one only goodly room, above stairs, of some forty feet high: and under it a room for a dressing or preparing place, at times of triumphs. On the other side, which is the household side, I wish it divided, at the first, into a hall and chapel (with a partition between), both of good state and bigness; and those not to go all the length, but to have at the farther end a winter and summer parlour, both fair; and under these rooms a fair and large cellar sunk under ground, and likewise some privy kitchens, with butteries and pantries, and the like. As for the tower I would have it two stories, of eighteen foot high apiece above the two wings; and goodly leads upon the top, railed with statues interposed; and the same tower to be divided into rooms, as shall be thought fit. The stairs likewise to the upper rooms, let them be upona fair open newel, and finely railed in with images of wood cast into a brass colour; and a very fair landing-place at the top. But this to be, if you do not point any of the lower rooms for a dining-place of servants; for otherwise, you shall have the servants’ dinner after your own; for the steam of it will come up as in a tunnel; and so much for the front; only I understand the height of the first stairs to be sixteen foot, which is the height of the lower room.

“Beyond the front is there to be a fair court, but three sides of it of a far lower building than the front; and in all the four corners of that court fair staircases, cast into turrets on the outside, and not within the row of buildings themselves; but those towers are not to be of the height of the front, but rather proportionable to the lower buildings. Let the court not be paved, for that striketh up a great heat in summer and much cold in winter; but only some side alleys with a cross, and the quarters to graze, being kept shorn, but not too near shorn. The row of return on the banquet side, let it be all stately galleries: in which galleries let there be three or five fine cupolas in the length of it, placed at equal distance; and fine coloured windows of several works: on the household side, chambers of presence and ordinary entertainments, with some bedchambers; and let all three sides be a double house, without thorough lights in thesides, that you may have rooms from the sun both for forenoon and afternoon:—cast it also that you may have rooms both for summer and winter; shade for summer, and warm for winter. You shall have sometimes fair houses so full of glass that one cannot tell where to become to be out of the sun or cold. For embowed windows, I hold them of good use (in cities indeed, upright do better, in respect of the uniformity towards the street); for they be pretty retiring places for conference, and besides they keep both the wind and sun off; for that which would strike almost through the room doth scarce pass the window; but let them be but few, four in the court, on the sides only.

“Beyond this court, let there be an inward court of the same square and height, which is to be environed with the garden on all sides; and in the inside, cloistered on all sides upon decent and beautiful arches as high as the first story; on the under story, towards the garden, let it be turned to a grotto, or place of shade, or estivation; and only have opening and windows toward the garden, and be level upon the floor, no whit sunk under ground, to avoid all dampishness: let there be a fountain or some fair work of statues in the midst of this court, and to be paved as the other court was. These buildings to be for privy lodgings on both sides, and the end for privygalleries; whereof you must foresee that one of them be for an infirmary, if the prince or any special person should be sick, with chambers, bedchamber, ante-camera, and recamera, joining to it; this upon the second story.

“Upon the ground story, a fair gallery, open, upon pillars, and upon the third story likewise, an open gallery upon pillars, to take the prospect and freshness of the garden.

“At both corners of the farther side, by way of return, let there be two delicate or rich cabinets, daintily paved, richly hanged, glazed with crystalline glass, and a rich cupola in the midst; and all other elegancy that may be thought upon. In the upper gallery too, I wish that there may be, if the place will yield it, some fountains running in divers places from the wall, with some fine avoidances. And thus much for the model of the palace; save that you must have, before you come to the front, three courts, a green court plain, with a wall about it; a second court of the same, but more garnished with little turrets, or rather embellishments upon the wall; and a third court, to make a square with the front, but not to be built nor yet enclosed with a naked wall, but enclosed with terraces leaded aloft, and fairly garnished on the three sides; and cloistered on the inside with pillars, and not with arches below. As for offices, let themstand at distance, with some low galleries to pass from them to the palace itself.”

The vignette is an elevation, with enlarged details, of a design for a weathercock or wind vane. In buildings where there are many on the roof, they are sometimes seen pointing different ways, and it is of importance they should be properly constructed. The construction necessary to prevent these differences is shown in the two sections on each side the elevation;ais a gun-metal rod, in which is fixed the small steel rodb; this moves in a piece of agate fixed in a small block of copperc; the agate is marked black in the left-hand section.

Perspective view and plan.

THIS small circular erection was designed from the express directions, as to style, size, form, and plan, of the gentleman for whom it was made, and who had it constructed. It was of wood, standing on a brick foundation, with a quaint room in the centre, completely lined with match-boarding, stained oak and varnished, the ceiling having hanging pendants. The lead lights of the sashes were glazed with various specimens of old coloured glass.

Elevation.

The view and plan are illustrated at page 262; the plan shows the general arrangements; the porch had seats on each side, and the back portion of the

Section.

Detail showing construction.

summer-house was enclosed for a single seat. The elevation given on page 263 shows, as well as the view, flower-pots on supports in the roof. These were

Gate to a flower-garden.

omitted in execution. The section shows the building as constructed; it is taken through the porch. The interior room and the enclosed seat behind the illustration gives the detail of a portion of the construction.

Elevation.Section.

Elevation.

Section.

Plan.

The building had no fireplace, being merely intended for summer use; it was placed on an elevated site, and commanded a fine view.

No small structure can be made too expensive in construction if it is to be placed in a beautiful flower-garden. However pretty its ornaments may be, they are sure to pale by the side of the natural objects surrounding it. The small gateway shown in view on page 265 was constructed entirely in oak with a slab-slated roof. It stood at some distance from the dwelling, to which it formed a conspicuous object, and it was the entrance to an enclosed flower-garden. An elevation, section, and plan of it are given on page 266.

The vignette represents an open ironwork console or holder for a meat-jack for the kitchen fireplace: it is of French design.

The front elevation.

THIS is a study for a small villa in the modern French style, one which has lately been introduced into several buildings of domestic character in England, the woodwork being sent from France. The

Ground plan.

chief feature of the style is the machine-cut ornamental wood; it is of common deal, about an inch or a little more in thickness. When placed up, and coloured a light fawn colour or plain yellow, it is extremely pleasing, and has the merit of being very cheap.

The design has an ornamental iron verandahcompletely round two sides of the building, with small upright standards taken through its roof, which are

Section through length of building.

connected together with zinc wire-work; the intention being to permit flowering plants to grow over it, sothat the front should be crowned with flowers. The villa is only intended for summer use, being confined in its accommodation. The ground plan, given on page 269, showsdande, the drawing and dining

Transverse section.

rooms, divided one from the other by curtains hanging on a glazed screen; the length of the two rooms is 42 feet, their breadth 15 feet. They are decorated gaily in French style; the roomccan be used as astudy, but it is intended for a sleeping room; the kitchenfhas a large larderh, but it would be desirable if the kitchen was formed a short distance away from the building, and connected with it by a passage; the roomsfandgcould then be made into a bed and dressing-room. The wine cellar is at g, and a conservatoryi, is placed at the end of the building.

Plan of one-pair.

The elevation of the front of the building and the two sections show the general construction of the upper part of the house. This was in timber, the flues alone being of brick.

The plan of the upper floor shows four rooms; each of the flues is supplied with its pedestal, so that should the house be occupied in winter, these upper apartments could be kept well aired by the fires in the lower apartments, without any attention from the servants. The framing of the upper portion is correctly shown in the section copied from the working drawing.

Portion of verandah.

All elevation of a small portion of the verandah, showing its iron work, is given; and an illustration to a large scale shows its ornamental zinc guttering, and the carved wood French ornament, a section showinghow they are fastened on; and the zinc gutter placed in front is likewise given.

Elevation of zinc gutter, and cut woodwork.

Section of the same.

The following is a design in purely French taste for the circular top over the entrance porch on the upper floor.

Cut woodwork.

The roofs of buildings in this style should be covered with zinc. The French are as much beforeus in their use of this metal as they are with their cut woodwork.

Roofs covered with zinc could be made flatter, and have a covering or floor of boards, each board ½ an inch apart. An illustration is given of such a construction; it has a light iron railing with a scroll

Design for roofing.

against the brick parapet; and supports a stand for flowers. With the absence of offensive smoke, and with the use of the flue pedestal to supply warmth, the upper parts of our houses could easily be formed into conservatories.

The interior of the building was intended to be asprofusely decorated with the cut woodwork as the exterior. The staircase balusters were of a rich pattern, the whole being stained after some ornamental wood, and varnished.

Staircase balusters.

The expense of constructing such a building would be 2450l.

In this style cut-wood decoration the French certainly excel us. Some English examples, verycommon in our railway stations, are shown below. The most ornamental is a pattern used by the author some few years ago; a rose is introduced to cover the fastening of the cut pattern to the fascia behind.

We have in England a carving-machine, known as Irving’s patent, that was a few years since much worked at a manufactory in Pimlico by Mr. Pratt of Bond Street. At one time it bid fair to exert a most important influence upon the production of this kind of cut-wood decoration. It could make such carvings with the greatest ease and rapidity, whether in stone or wood. The machine was a simple drill in a moveable arm, worked either by steam or a hand-wheel, on a moveable table; the combined motion rendered it capable of carving any form, however intricate, from the largest Gothic window-head, to the smallest screen. At Pimlico it was under the architectural superintendence of R. W. Billings. It is still used, together with Jordan’s patent for carving, at Lambeth.

The vignette gives a pattern for cut-wood balustrading.

Perspective view.

THIS design was made a few years ago for a gentleman who was a great admirer of our old English architecture, and who desired to have a

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