bserved,
amounting sometimes to as much as twenty degrees--a serious matter where
health is concerned. A foolish custom was observed in the building of
many old farmhouses, _i.e._, of carrying beams of wood across the
chimney--a practice that has led to disastrous fires. The soot
accumulates. These huge cavernous chimneys are rarely swept, and at last
catch alight and smoulder for many days: presently fire breaks out in
the middle of a room under which the beam passes.

Houses erected in blocks or in towns do not encounter the full force of
the storms of winter to the same degree as a solitary farmhouse,
standing a quarter or half-a-mile from any other dwelling. This is the
reason why the old farmers planted elm-trees and encouraged the growth
of thick hawthorn hedges close to the homestead. The north-east and the
south-west are the quarters from whence most is to be dreaded: the
north-east for the bitter wind which sweeps along and grows colder from
the damp, wet meadows it passes over; and the south-west for the driving
rain, lasting sometimes for days and weeks together. Trees and hedges
break the force of the gales, and in summer shelter from the glaring
sun.

The architectural arrangement of the farmhouse just described gives
almost perfect privacy. Except visitors, no one comes to the front door
or passes unpleasantly close to the windows. Labourers and others all go
to the courtyard at the back. The other plans upon which farmsteads are
built are far from affording similar privacy. There are some which, in
fact, are nothing but an enlarged and somewhat elongated cottage, with
the dwelling-rooms at one end and the dairy and offices at the other,
and the bedrooms over both. Everybody and everything brought to or taken
from the place has to pass before the dwelling-room windows--a most
unpleasant arrangement. Another style is square, with low stone walls
whitewashed, and thatched roof of immense height. Against it is a
lean-to, the eaves of the roof of which are hardly three feet from the
ground. So high-pitched a roof necessitates the employment of a great
amount of woodwork, and the upper rooms have sloping ceilings. They may
look picturesque from a distance, but are inconvenient and uncouth
within, and admirably calculated for burning. A somewhat superior
description is built in the shape of a carpenter's "square." The
dwelling-rooms form, as it were, one house, and the offices, dairy and
cheese-loft are added