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COTTAGES

a house lias 8 feet of side-wail, and is from 16 to 18 feet wide,it can always have a garret at an expence of £. 10 or £. 12,sufficient for a lumber place, and also for a spare bed-room.

Here it may be proper to take notice of a mode of con-structing cottages on a new plan , which seems to be well cal-culated for those parts of the kingdom, where there arfl quar-ries of flat stones, and where timber for the roof is expensive.

The first construction of that sort was by the President of theBoard of Agriculture, near Thurso , in Caithness. Pie builta cottage on a circular plan, with flat stones, and construct-ed the roof, by a dome arch from the side walls, covering theoutside with a smooth coat of well prepared plaster ; and thusformed both walls and roof of the same materials. As thecircular shape, however, upon a small scale, is not well adapt-ed for subdivision, or for containing furniture, the plan ofbuilding cottages of a square or oblong form has been pre-ferred. The arch for the roof is raised on the side walls, inthe Gothic or pointed shape, the outside of which is made in astraight slope line, and covered with broad flat stones or slates.Buildings of this shape, where thin flat stones, or grey slates,can easily be obtained, would not be expensive ; and if a num-ber of them were built together, the same centering that is re-quired for the arch of one would serve for the whole. Thecomparative expence of these, with cottages roofed in the usualway with wood, &c. must entirely depend on the expence ofthe materials of which they are constructed. When bricksare high priced, where there are quarries of thin flat stones,it will, no doubt, particularly where timber is costly, be moreconvenient, and even cheaper, to build in this manner. Suchcottages have the peculiar advantage of being dry, warm, andcomfortable, and, when once erected, they will last for ages.If the plan should be found to answer the expectations whichare entertained of its success, it may become a most impor-tant discovery, in this particular branch of rural architecture,to districts producing the necessary materials.