Many persons who have not had much experience in the choice of a house, are captivated by the exterior; and are more influenced by picturesque effect, than by any property in the dwelling connected with habitableness. One person is an admirer of the Gothic; without considering that, unless the number of windows in such a house is greater than in a building in the Roman or Italian style, the rooms will be ill-lighted, from the thickness of the mullions, and the smallness of the frames; and probably also not well ventilated, from the defective manner in which Gothic windows generally open. Some prefer a cottage with latticed windows, and surrounded by creepers; not considering that the rooms in such buildings are very frequently low, ill-lighted, and ill-ventilated; the floors subject to the dry-rot, and the walls to damp: for, notwithstanding the beauty of flowering creepers, there is not a single kind of creeping plant which will grow against a house, that does not make the walls damp, with the exception of ivy.

Some prefer a house with a veranda all round it; and no doubt such an appendage will keep the house warmer in winter, and cooler in summer, and will afford a dry walk during rain; but those who take a house with a veranda, which they are, of course, bound to keep in repair, should first well consider if it admits sufficient light to the rooms on the ground-floor; and secondly, whether it is well put together, and made of durable materials. Some houses which are surrounded by arcades, and which are exceedingly handsome and architectural externally, are yet more gloomy within than their possessors would, perhaps, like to acknowledge.

15. A thatched cottage is an object of admiration with many persons who have not had much experience of country life; and, accordingly, we find several in the neighbourhood of London. Such cottages have, perhaps, the gable end covered with ivy, the chimney-tops entwined with Virginian creepers, and the windows overshadowed by roses and jasmines. The ivy forms an excellent harbour for sparrows and other small birds, which build there in quantities in spring and early in summer, and roost there during winter. In June, as soon as the young birds are fledged, all the cats in the neighbourhood are attracted by them, and take up their abode on the roof of the house every night for several weeks; the noise and other annoyances occasioned by which we need only allude to. We say nothing of the damp produced by the deciduous creepers and the roses, as we have already mentioned that: but we must here notice another evil, which is not so obvious, though quite as serious, and this is, the numerous insects generated in the decaying thatch; and more especially that generally-disliked creature, the earwig, which in autumn, whenever the windows are open, comes into the house in quantities, and finds its way into every closet, chink, piece of furniture, and even books and papers.

All cottages of this kind harbour snails and slugs in the ivy, and spiders under the eaves of the thatched roof; and wherever there are spiders, there are also abundance of flies. As there is always a garden attached to such cottages, it is almost certain, if on a clayey soil, to abound in snails, slugs, worms, and, if the situation is low, perhaps newts. Some of these, from the doors, or at all events the back-door, being generally kept open, are quite sure to find their way not only into the kitchen, but even into the pantry and cellars. Slugs, when very small, will enter a house through a crevice in the window, or a crack in the door; find their way to the moist floor of the pantry or the cellar, and remain there for weeks, till they are of such a size that they cannot retreat There are few persons indeed who do not experience a feeling of disgust at seeing the slimy traces of a slug in any part of their house, not to speak of finding them on dishes in which food is kept, or even on bread; or at discovering an earwig in their bed, or on their linen.

The kitchen, in low damp cottages of every kind, almost always swarms with beetles and cockroaches, and the pantry with flies; while, from the closeness and want of ventilation in the rooms, it is almost impossible to keep fleas, etc, from the beds. If a large dog be kept in or near the house, as it frequently is, or if a stable or cow-house be near, the fleas from the dog, the horses, or the cows, which are larger than the common kind, will overspread the carpets, and find their way to the sofas and beds. Having lived in cottages of this kind ourselves in the neighbourhood of London, we have not stated a single annoyance that we have not ourselves experienced; and we have purposely omitted some. Two of these, offensive smells and rats, are the infallible results of the want of proper water-closets and drainage; but these evils, great as they may seem to be, are much easier to remedy than the others already mentioned, which are, in a great measure, inseparable from the kind of house. Two others, the danger of setting fire to a thatched roof, and its liability to be injured by high winds, are sufficiently obvious; but it would hardly occur to any one, who had not lived in a house of this description in the neighbourhood of London, that a thatched roof is, of all roofs, the most expensive, both when first formed, and afterwards to keep in repair.

A plumber or a slater, to repair a lead or a slate roof, may be found everywhere in the suburbs of large towns; but a professional thatcher must be sent for from the interior of the country. For example, the nearest cottage thatchers to London are in the Hundreds of Essex on the east, and in Buckinghamshire on the west. We have dwelt more particularly on the evils incident to a thatched cottage, because in it, all cottage annoyances exist in an extreme degree; but the truth is, that all the cottages which have not their ground-floors so much elevated above the surrounding surface as to be perfectly dry, and their rooms lofty and well lighted and ventilated, are subject to the same evils, though not quite to so great an extent Notwithstanding all that we have stated, we do not recommend our readers never to take a thatched, or other fancy or ornamental cottage; we only wish to point out the inconveniences and extra expense to which their doing so will render them liable. We think we may safely assert that the same family that would want two servants under ordinary circumstances, would require three in a cottage of the kind we have been describing. 16. The kind of Country house least liable to inconvenience is one that stands high, dry, and free; that is compact in its general form; that has the diagonal line of its general plan south and north, so as to obtain the sun on every window, oh some part of every day that it shines, throughout the year; or, in other words, that has no front or side pointing directly either east, West, north, or south; that has the rooms, and especially the kitchen story, lofty, and well lighted and ventilated; that has a secure roof of slate, lead, or flat tiles; few creepers on the walls; and, that is not choked up with trees and bushes.

These conditions being complied with, the architectural style of the building may be left to the taste of the occupant.