A Farm House and Farmery suitable for a Farm of from Three Hundred to Five Hundred Acres in France, 1834.
Part 2: The Farm House, Estimate, and Remarks on the Dwelling-house.

The Farm House is a model of excellent contrivance and economy. Its general appearance is shown in figure 998; and its details, which are given with such distinctness and accuracy that the simplest country carpenter may build from them, are exhibited in figs. 999 to 1008. The plan of the house is formed on the same general model as that detailed in §742; but it is necessarily larger, in order to afford the additional accommodation required. The living-apartments are raised on four cellars, which give a bake-house and wash-house, a beer and cider cellar, a cabbage or green vegetable cellar, and a cellar for potatoes and other roots. All the living-rooms and bed-rooms for the family are contained on one floor over these cellars; and on the floor above are the bed-room for servants, and a place for drying linen. The only luxury which may be said to distinguish this plan from that before given is, that there is a bed-room for strangers. Fig. 999 is a plan of the cellar floor, in which a is the wine, cider, and beer cellar; b, the cabbage or green vegetable cellar; c, the bakehouse and wash-house, with a square supporting post; and d, the potato-cellar, also with a post. In the bakehouse there are an oven, e, and a stove, f, which might be employed for heating the whole house. The foundations of the stairs to the principal entrance, and for descending to the cellars, are shown at v; those of the back door and staircase at w; of a small storehouse or fruit-room at p; of the implement-shed at q; of the shed for wood at r; and of the cesspool of the two privies at t. Fig. 1000 is a plan of the principal floor, in which g is the kitchen, with its dresser and post, z, and sink stone, u; h is the parlour, with its double-sized or best bed, which in French farm houses is but seldom used, the whole family sleeping together in one large bed-room, l; or the master and mistress using the stranger's bed-room, m; i is the master's office, or place of business, the window of which ought to command the entrance gate to ther farmery, and does so in the plan, fig. 997 [Part 1: General Arrangement]; k is a clothes-press, or linen and china closet; l, the children's bed-room, and room for sewing work (chambre de couture); m, stranger's room; n, light closet; o, pantry; p, fruit-room; q, shed for all the agricultural implements used on the farm; r, shed for wood and other domestic purposes; s, s, privies; v, entrance porch, with stair down to the cellar and stair up to the kitchen; w, staircase to the upper floor.

In the centre of the building may be seen the octagonal funnel which recives the heated air from the stove in the cellar, and communicates with the parlour and the two bed-rooms through the lateral openings. Fig. 1001 is a plan of the upper floor, in which are seen the sleeping-room for servants, and general lumber-room, v; place for drying linen, w; and reserve bed-room, x. Fig. 1002 is the plan of the joists of the principal floor. In this plan the situation of the upright posts may be observed, from which it will be evident that neither girders nor joists are required of a greater length than ten feet. Fig. 1003, top of page, is an elevation of the entrance front. Fig. 1004 is an elevation of one side, in which may be seen the entrance porch, and stair to the principal floor, c, and the projection behind containing the staircase, d. Fig. 1005 is a longitudinal section through the bed-rooms, in which may be seen two stoves, e, e, one in each bed-room; the door of the oven, f and of the ash-pit under it, g; the stairs up to the principal floor, h, and down to the cellar, i; the inside stair to the beer-cellar, k; the stair to the principal floor, l; and to the floor above, m. In showing in what manner this dwelling is but an extension of that detailed in §742, Morel-Vinde´ remarks that the kitchen has the addition of a pantry; that the stove in the centre, which ought to warm, dry, and ventilate the whole house, is enlarged in proportion to the dimensions of the rooms which it has to heat; and that the air which supplies combustion in this stove, must always be drawn from the exterior, which it well be, if the bakehouse door does not fit very accurately, or if the window be left partially open.



Instead of the ladder for ascending to the garret in the smaller house, we have here a staircase; and the garret, which in the smaller house was intended chiefly as a granary, has now a ceiling and boarded sides, and forms a servants' room, a room for drying linen, and the reserve bed-room.

Estimate. This building, with its two porches and sheds, covers 1580 superficial feet; and it costs, at Paris, 546 pounds: 15 shillings: 10 pence; or, in the departments, 328 pounds: 2 shillings: 6 pence. As the cubic contents of the buildings amount to 25,280 feet, it thus appears that 5 pence per cubic foot is something near the rate from which to form an estimate for this description of farm houses in the neighborhood of Paris, and 3 pence in the provinces.

Remarks on the Dwelling-house. A superficial observer, deeply imbued with the prejudices common in Britain, and especially in Scotland and other stone countries, against wooden buildings, and not taking into consideration the fitness of means to ends, will be apt to despise the simplicity and homeliness of this farm house; but to us, who have entered into all the details of this Design, it appears perfect of its kind. The accomodation is ample for the country and state of society for which it is designed; and it is contained in a form as near as practiccable to that of a cube. The mode of heating is the most perfect that could be devised; and the room for drying linen is a great source of comfort to the housewife, in rainy weather or in the winter season. It may be thought that there are too few bed-rooms, and too many beds in one room; and the bed in the parlour will no doubt appear shocking in the eyes of an Englishwoman. It should be recollected, however, that the manners of the French are materially different from ours in this respect; and that, with apparently less delicacy, they have not less moral rectitude. Whoever has travelled much by the public conveyances in either France, Germany, or Italy, must have frequently found himself going to bed in the same room with strangers of different sexes.

Part 1: The Object and General Arrangement.
Part 2: The Farm House, Estimate, and Remarks on the Dwelling-house.
Part 3: The Barn, Stable, Cow-house, Calf-house, Dairy, Cheese-room, Poultry-house, Pigeon-house, Piggery, &c.

One of many
farmhouse plans from the book

Loudon's Architecture, Book 2.1.


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