of Propriety, there will be no room for criticism; for they will
be arranged with convenience and perfection to suit every purpose. The
rules on these points will hold not only for houses in town, but also
for those in the country, except that in town atriums are usually next
to the front door, while in country seats peristyles come first, and
then atriums surrounded by paved colonnades opening upon palaestrae and
walks.

I have now set forth the rules for houses in town so far as I could
describe them in a summary way. Next I shall state how farmhouses may be
arranged with a view to convenience in use, and shall give the rules for
their construction.

CHAPTER VI

THE FARMHOUSE

1. In the first place, inspect the country from the point of view of
health, in accordance with what is written in my first book, on the
building of cities, and let your farmhouses be situated accordingly.
Their dimensions should depend upon the size of the farm and the amount
of produce. Their courtyards and the dimensions thereof should be
determined by the number of cattle and the number of yokes of oxen that
will need to be kept therein. Let the kitchen be placed on the warmest
side of the courtyard, with the stalls for the oxen adjoining, and their
cribs facing the kitchen fire and the eastern quarter of the sky, for
the reason that oxen facing the light and the fire do not get
rough-coated. Even peasants wholly without knowledge of the quarters of
the sky believe that oxen ought to face only in the direction of the
sunrise.

[Illustration: _From Mau_

THE VILLA RUSTICA AT BOSCOREALE NEAR POMPEII

_A._ Court. _B._ Kitchen. _C-F._ Baths. _H._ Stable.
_J._ Toolroom. _K, L, V, V._ Bedrooms.
_N._ Dining Room. _M._ Anteroom. _O._ Bakery.
_P._ Room with two winepresses. _Q._ Corridor.
_B._ Court for fermentation of wine. _S._ Barn.
_T._ Threshing-floor. _Y._ Room with oil press.

]

2. Their stalls ought to be not less than ten nor more than fifteen feet
wide, and long enough to allow not less than seven feet for each yoke.
Bathrooms, also, should adjoin the kitchen; for in this situation it
will not take long to get ready a bath in the country.

Let the pressing room, also, be next to the kitchen; for in this
situation it will be easy to deal with the fruit of the olive. Adjoining
it should be the wine room with its windows lighted from the north. In a
room with windows on any other quarter so that the sun can heat it, th