FAR

FAR

subject to severe cold in the winter, as is the cafe of someof our North American colonies, a south front is ratherconvenient: for in the heat of summer, the sun, beinghigh, pastes over the roof from the east side to the west,and shines but little, or not at all, in at the front win-dows, and very weakly, because obliquely, upon the frontw all. But in the winter, being low, it shines full in atthese windows, at a time when the cold renders its cheer-ing presence quite agreeable.

Places in this kingdom intended for defence, before theinvention of cannon, were built either on rising groundsdifficult of access, or where they could easily be securedhy moats filled with water. Villages and farm-housesWere most frequently built in vallies, that they might besheltered from stormy winds; or near brooks or rivers, forthe conveniency of water. In general, every means haven °t been used to provide against the inconveniencies ofthese situations : though as Mr. Worlidge observes,

were we for the future but duly to observe the best si-tuations of places, and the compleatest methods cfbuilding, in such houses as may hereafter be raised, ourEngland would in a few years appear a kingdom besetand adorned with curious and admirable habitations, pos-sessed by noble and ingenious inhabitants.”

Houses built on too lofty a situation are exposed to theviolence of the winter’s storms, and to the scorchingdrought of the summer: yet we too generally find themWithout the only shelter their situation admits of, which•s wood. The reason of this seems to be, that the inha-bitants, finding that trees do not thrive well when they2re first planted on dry heights, are at once discouraged.Put where the plants are fenced from nipping windsWhile young, and protected from cattle till they .become^ ron g, such ground would be found abundantly favour-able to the growth of trees which delight in a dry foil.

These, as Mr. Worlidge expresses it, would yield acooling, refreshing, sweet, and healthy air and shadeduring the heat of summer, and very much break thecold winds and tempests from every quarter in win-

One might be apt to think from the unheahhinefs ofand fenny countries, that moats full of water aboutbouses should be prejudicial to health : yet many factsbew the contrary. In Numb. 310, of the Philosophical■‘ran fact ions, a particular instance is given of two parishesWhich were surrounded with a morass, and yet were verycalthy. Many houses surrounded with moats are driernan others in a seemingly better situation ; for books andrurnitufe are often less apt to grow mouldy in the former,‘ban in the latter. Hence it would seem probable, that 1‘be unhealthiness of low marshy countries must arise, ra-‘ber from the putrefaction of animals and vegetables inflow moving or stagnating waters, than from a too greatrn °istu reo f the zjr, occasioned by the quantity of waterEvaporated. Of this Dr. Pringle*gives a remarkable in-ance in his judicious and useful Treatise on the Diseases0 ‘be Army, when he fays : " Another cause of thewoisinte and corruption of the air were the inundationsof 3 h a b° ut the fortified towns since the commencementtini> War ’ which were particularly noxious upon let-ter^ Ij 16 Water est in the beginning of the summer, af-p preliminary articles of the peace were signed,bei grounds, which were once entirely covered,

stiodf ° 0W ^ ra ' nec * 2nd marshy, filled the air with1 and putrid exhalations. The states being made

sensible of this, by the sickness that raged at Breda, andthe neighbouring villages, gave orders to let in the wa-ter again, and keep it penned up till winter.”

All physical writers point out the great danger to whichhealth is exposed from a moist and warm air; especially ifit be attended with a putrid vapour. I 00 much care can-not therefore be taken to guard against both. I he toogreat moisture may probably be prevented by collecting allthe waste water into deep ditches or ponds. We frequent-ly fee that ponds which have no supply of water but fromrain, retain water during a very dry summer, when, ac-cording to the usual calculations of evaporations, thewhole must have disappeared in half the time ; fromwhence it seems more than probable, that the quick eva-poration of water, in some cafes, must arise from a heatreaching to, or affecting the earth under the water; andthat, if care be taken to make the ditches or ponds sodeep that the heat of the fun shall not warm the earth attheir bottom, the quantity evaporated will be but small,and such as will not be prejudicial to the health of theneighbouring inhabitants, if neither animal nor vegetativebodies are suffered to rot in them. The way to preventthis is by keeping the water free from grafs, or other im-purities, which may give shelter to animals, whose rot-ting, as well as that of the grafs, or of those impuri-ties, communicates a putrid taint to the exhalations. Itis in this cafe necessary, that the banks of ditches, orponds, be Hoped as little as the strength or stiffness ofthe earth will permit.

Though lofty and bleak situations are too often destituteof trees, villages built in vallies are as frequently toomuch crowded with them ; which must be attended withthe inconvenience of not having a free circulation of air,to carry off the moisture arising from the earth, and per-spiring from so many trees. The antients would havebuilt such villages on rising grounds, to avoid the toosultry heat of the summer; or they would have preserveda free circulation of the atmosphere, to prevent the badeffects of a stagnating moist air.

On the first settlement of the English in North-Ame*rica, they imitated our custom of building in vallies, andnear rivers: but experience soon taught them, that suchplaces are more subject to the suffocating sultry heat of thesummer, and, what they little expected, to a greater se-verity of frost in the winter, than rising grounds generallyare. We have been informed by one of the most curiousand intelligent observers of the laws of nature of per-haps any man on that continent, that the cold there, intheir hardest frosts, is found to be so severe in the vallies,to a certain height, as sometimes to kill every tender ve-getable, while those on the higher grounds escape. Thisgenerally takes place to a regular determined height, abovewhich the Americans now build their houses. If we beallowed to offer a conjecture concerning the cause of this,we should say, that the effect of the cold seems to be !i-mitted to the height to which the great moisture of the airarises at that season- In the hard winter of 1739-40, thefame happened in this kingdom, when the frost was muchless severe in its effect in the hilly countries, than in thelow lands.

Dr. Pringle, in his excellent treatise before-mentioned,points out the disadvantages of planting so many trees asthere generally are ih most parts of the Netherlands. TheI fame practice may be as justly blamed in many of the fiatj moist countries in England, especially where they borderO § on