Purchased houses are either freehold, leasehold, or copyhold. Of these, a freehold is greatly to be preferred. It becomes, by purchase, the property of the purchaser for his life, with power to will it away at his death. Any improvements made by him on it increase the value of his possession, and are not only for temporary enjoyment, but become actual investments.

A leasehold, on the contrary, can only be bought for a fixed period of time, longer or shorter, and at the end of that time reverts to the original owner or lessor. Long leases falling in, after the property by improvements of tenants or other causes has grown valuable, frequently enrich the descendants or heirs of the lessors.

Copyholds are held by lives being placed on them. For example: -

Three lives may be put on the house; if all three fall in, the lease lapses to the lord of the manor, and is lost to the lessee. Consequently, every life failing by the death of the individual must be replaced to preserve the property. The putting in a new life is a very expensive affair. It is well, therefore, to insure the life placed on it in case of accidental mortality; young and healthy lives should also be chosen for this purpose. But this kind of house property must be looked on as a bad investment.

With all these objections, there may yet be good reasons at times for purchasing a leasehold house. If the lease be for 70, 80, or 99 years, and to be had cheaply by the payment of a moderate ground-rent, the present outlay may be compensated by the house costing less yearly than the purchase of a freehold would involve. All leases with uncertain fines should be avoided. A short lease seldom pays, The title-deeds of a house should be carefully examined before it is purchased; indeed, no one should buy a house without employing a lawyer to look at them first.

The expenses of conveyance must be calculated as forming an item in the outlay for purchasing a house. They are much greater for freeholds than for leaseholds.

All fixtures put up in a leasehold house belong to the lessor or original owner, and cannot be taken away at the expiration of the lease, unless otherwise specified. No fixture in the soil, out-house, or fold-yard can be taken away; no wainscot, doors, floors, etc., can be removed; but a tenant may remove any conveniences fixed up for the purposes of his own trade, as counters, engines, brewing utensils, etc.; the removal taking place before the expiration of his lease.

Chimney-pieces, pier and other glasses, cupboards, bookcases fitted in recesses or against the wall, and wainscot (if it is not nailed but put up with screws) may be removed.

An outgoing lessee must be careful to leave the house in good repair, as he is otherwise exposed to an action for dilapidations, which might cause him great expense and trouble.

Before purchasing a house it is well to have it carefully examined by a surveyor, in order to ascertain that the walls are thoroughly waterproof, that the roof is in good repair, and the drainage perfect; also that the roof shall not be one which will retain snow, or compel the sweeping it away with difficulty. An exit to the roof is desirable for this purpose, as well as for an escape in case of fire.

The chimneys should be tested, in order to ascertain whether they smoke or not; indications of this miserable defect may be seen in the nouse, unless it has been painted and papered since its last tenant left.

"A dark house is always an ill-aired house, always a dirty house," says Miss Nightingale, in her invaluable "Notes on Nursing;" "want of light stops growth, and promotes scrofula, rickets, etc, among the children. People lose their health in a dark house, and if they get ill they cannot get well again in it...... One of the greatest observers of human things (not physiological) says, in another language, ' Where there is sun there is thought.' All physiology goes to confirm this. Where is the shady side of deep valleys, there is cretinism. Where are cellars and the unsunned sides of narrow streets, there is the degeneracy and weakliness of the human race - mind and body equally degenerating. Put the pale withering plant and human being into the sun, and, if not too far gone, each will recover health and spirit...... People think the effect of sunshine is upon the spirits only. This is by no means the case. The sun is not only a painter but a sculptor. You admit that he does the photograph. Without going into any scientific exposition, we must admit that light has quite as real and tangible effects upon the human body, liut this is not all.

Who has not observed the purifying effect of light, and especially of direct sunlight, upon the air of a room? Here is an observation within everybody's experience. Go into a room where the shutters are always shut (in a sick room or a bedroom there should never be shutters shut), and though the room be uninhabited, though the air has never been polluted by the breathing of human beings, you will observe a close, musty smell of corrupt air, of air - i.e., unpurified by the effect of the sun's rays. The mustiness of dark rooms and corners, indeed, is pro. verbial".

The Italians have the following truthful proverb: -

"Dove non entra il sole Entra il Dottore".

"Where the sun does not enter the doctor does." Dwelling in so cold and moist a climate as we do, it would be well if builders were taught this truth from the sunny South. It is better, therefore, to choose a house the aspect of which is east and west; most assuredly no one who can possibly avoid it should hire or purchase a house with a northern aspect, unless the chief sitting-rooms face south and are very open to it. Air through the house, and sun-light on three or two sides, are the conditions of health.

Suppose that the householder, as is sometimes the case, has no choice of his dwelling, he may still do something to improve it. Say it has damp walls, the following suggestions from that excellent paper The Builder, may be followed with advantage: - " Remove the whole of the damp plaster down to the surface of brick or stone walls, rake out the joints, clean and well wet the surface; lay on a coat of good Portland cement, mixed with one-sixth sand; be careful to cover every part of the brick or stone; broom or otherwise roughen the surface of the cement while soft; let this stand a few days, to get a hard skin on it, then re-plaster in the usual way. It will not do well to finish the inside surface with Portland cement, as condensation will take place on the surface in damp weather. If speed in execution be desired, the surface may be finished with plaster of Paris, Keene's Parian, or Martin's cement, with the usual proportion of sand".

A wash of boiling oil over paint is also an excellent method of keeping out damp.

Sometimes the dampness proceeds from the spouts being foul, and overflowing, or from a leakage in the inner side of one of them. They should be looked to, repaired and cleaned out; the latter process is imperative occasionally, as birds build in spouts and collect immense quantities of rubbish in them; the water not finding a free passage runs over and damps the walls.

Preparation For Damp Walls

Nitric acid, 4 ounces; sulphuric acid, 4 ounces; spirits of turpentine, 3 ounces; muriatic acid, 3 ounces; stove sal ammoniac, 1 ounce. Mix to a consistency of colouring in 8 pounds of lime with hot water, and apply when the wall is least damp with a whitewash brush.