a separate roof. Under the front roof, which is
somewhat higher than the other, are the living-rooms of the family:
sitting-room, parlour, bedroom, and attics, or servants' bedrooms. Under
the lower roof are the offices, the cheese-loft, dairy, kitchen, cellar,
and wood-house. Numerous doors give easy communication on each floor, so
that the house consists of two distinct portions, and the business is
kept quite apart from the living rooms, and yet close to them. This is,
perhaps, the most convenient manner in which a dairy farmhouse can be
built; and the plan was undoubtedly the result of experience. Of course,
in dairy-farming upon a very extended scale, or as a gentlemanly
amusement, it would be preferable to have the offices entirely apart,
and at some distance from the dwelling-house. These remarks apply to an
ordinary farm of moderate size.

Leaving the hall by the door at the side of the staircase, two steps
descend into the dairy, which is almost invariably floored with stone
flags, even in localities where brick is used for the flooring of the
sitting-room. The great object aimed at in the construction of the dairy
was coolness, and freedom from dust as much as possible. The stone flags
ensure a cool floor; and the windows always open to the north, so that
neither the summer sunshine nor the warm southern winds can injuriously
affect the produce. It is a long open room, whitewashed, in the centre
of which stands the cheese-tub, until lately invariably made of wood,
but now frequently of tin, this material taking much less trouble to
keep clean. The cheese-tub is large enough for a Roman lady's bath of
milk. Against one wall are the whey-leads--shallow, long, and broad
vessels of wood, lined with lead, supported two or three feet above the
floor, so that buckets can be placed underneath. In these "leads" the
whey is kept, and drawn off by pulling up a wooden plug. Under the
"leads"--as out of the way--are some of the great milk-pans into which
the milk is poured. Pussy sometimes dips her nose into these, and
whitens her whiskers with cream. At one end of the room is the
cheese-press. The ancient press, with its complicated arrangement of
long iron levers weighted at the end something like a steelyard, and
drawn up by cords and pulleys, has been taken down and lies discarded in
the lumber-room. The pressure in the more modern machine is obtained
from a screw. The rennet-vat is perhaps hidden behind the press, and