All that we have said hitherto may be considered as only committed to paper in the form of plans, and a report, for the consideration of the proprietor and his family. When these are approved of the next step is to carry them into execution. This is sometimes done by contract, and sometimes by the proprietor employing his own workmen, under the direction of a competent manager; but, most frequently, partly in one way and partly in the other. The house, offices, lodge, garden walls, and, in general, all that belongs to architecture, may be done by contract; provided a respectable and responsible builder is engaged as the contractor, and not beaten down to the lowest price by competition. The architect who designed the buildings should, of course, have the general inspection of we work as it is going on; and there should be a clause in the agreement between the contractor and the pro-prieter, that alterations or deviations from the plan may be made according to separate and specific agreements, without invalidating the general contract entered into at first. Many persons, from good motives, or from a view to economy, employ a carpenter or builder in a small way, whom they wish to encourage, to carry buildings into execution; but there cannot be a greater error.

Tradesmen in a small way of business are generally deficient in capital; and, not having a stock of seasoned materials by them, they never can do justice to the work. The charges of such persons are, also, very frequently higher than those of first-rate builders. We could give the history of many houses in the neighbourhood of London, which have cost from 5002. to between 30,000l. and 40,000l., and have been built in this manner; and for doing which the owners have bitterly repented ever afterwards. We know one gentleman who, on his own judgment, aided by that of his carpenter and bricklayer, laid out upwards of 40,000l. in endeavouring to execute a plan for a mansion, received from a first-rate architect; but, in doing this, not thoroughly understanding the construction of a certain dome over a saloon, it has become depressed at one part of the sides, and admits rain at the haunches of the arch. Another gentleman commenced the building of a house on the day-work system, which, if it be ever completed, will cost him three times more (ban he ever contemplated laying out.

B., a wealthy merchant about to retire, employed, to build a country house, a very worthy carpenter, who had married his wife's maid, and also had become a master in a small way: but, whether from not having supplied him regularly with ready money, or from some other cause with which we are unacquainted, certain it is, that unseasoned timber was used in the partitions, roof, and floors; and a very warm summer) that of 1826, happening soon after the house was finished and taken possession of, the whole of the partitions shrank and twisted to such a degree, as to produce large rents in the plaster. The carpenter endear voured to persuade his employer that the foundations of the walls had given way; but this was too palpable an absurdity to be credited by any one. The rents in the plaster of the partitions were filled up with putty in some places, and with stucco in others; but they are still conspicuous, and must necessay rily remain so till the lath and plaster are stripped off, and the stud-work reclothed. The whole of the boarded floors in this house shrank so much, that they were obliged to be twice taken up and relaid; and all the ceilings are cracked.

Another merchant in a smaller way, a few years ago, built a house in the country, which cost him 2000l., and employed a very respectable jobbing carpenter that he had confidence in, from having been long accustomed'to employ him in petty jobs in town; but confidence is often the result of habit, want of inquiry, or indolence; and this confidence may be deserved by an individual in one point, or in several, and yet not be applicable to all that that individual will, or is even entitled to, undertake. In this case, the London carpenter and joiner, who could procure whatever credit was wanting for the execution of little jobs that he executed from time to time, under the immediate eye, it may be said, of his timber-merchant, could not so readily do this in the case of a more extensive contract for an erection in the country, where he had never before been employed; and where, as his timber-merchant well knew, if his employer did not, he had to purchase his experience, and that necessarily at the expense of others, from having himself nothing to lose. Whatever may have been the cause or causes, chalk lime, instead of stone lime, was employed for the outside walls, and unseasoned timber for the carpentry of the house, as well at for the joinery.

The joints of the brickwork were soon obliged to be raked out, and filled in with tuck and puck; and there is not a single door in the house that has not shrunk and twisted; nor a window-sash that does not rattle in the frames with the slightest breeze, It is true there is no want of ventilation in this house, and there is not a single chimney that does not draw well; but the causes which produce these effects render the rooms so cold in winter, that they cannot be thoroughly heated by the largest fires. In all the larger windows, the panes have been cracked by the twisting of the sash-bars; and it is needless to say that the par-titions and the floors are warped and rent, as in the preceding case. To employ first-rate workmen, and supply them with ready money for purchasing all the materials, is a mode often resorted to, under the idea of economy; but, however excellent and honest the workmen employed may be, and however well they may be acquainted with the various details of house-building, they must necessarily be without the experience of the master-builder, who has built several houses of different sizes; and thus be liable to be wrong in judging of what will suit The persons selling the materials will also naturally keep their best articles for their best customers; and thus the purchaser of small quantities will not be able to get his materials either so good or so cheap.

We acknowledge that it seems hard to lay down rules which are calculated to prevent the mechanic or tradesman who has no capital from ever bettering his condition; but we cannot help it. We merely state foots, and the opinions which we have formed on them. In another house, built under somewhat similar circumstances, in addition to these evils, more or less aggravated or alleviated, in consequence of employing an ignorant plumber, all the lead on the roof of the house, which was too thin, and was, consequently, raised, cracked, and twisted by the heat of the sun, was obliged to be removed, and replaced by lead of a thicker quality at the end of the third summer; and all die water-closets were obliged to be altered. One of these, a self-acting patent one, which cost double the usual expense, was rendered useless by the plumber's attempting to improve its construction, while setting it up. On inquiry into the history of this plumber, it was found that he had never been regularly brought up to the business, but that, having failed in a totally different trade, in another part of London, he had set up as a plumber on the faith of public ignorance. In this manner many persons about the metropolis setup as petty masters in businesses which they have never been regularly taught.

Every one knows that the occupations of coal-merchant, wine-merchant, publican, and coffee-house-keeper, are universal resources to persons not regularly brought up to any trade; but those of petty builders, plumbers, glaziers, bricklayers, upholsterers, and a great variety of other trades and professions, are also the resources of persons who have been unsuccessful in their original pursuits. To these examples of bungled houses, we could add hundreds of other cases, some of which would hardly be credited by our readers, which have come under our observation during a period of nearly forty years, all which time our attention has been constantly directed to the subjects of building, planting, and gardening. We shall only add, that our decided opinion is, that, whether a shed or a mansion is to be erected, the cheapest mode, as well as the best, is to employ a first-rate builder.

323. The principal planting about the place, including the trenching and levelling of the ground, the formation of the approach and walks, and alsothe laying out of the kitchen-garden, may be executed by contract, by a respectable nurseryman. In general, however, whether in null or Urge places, the work will be more carefully done, and not at much more expense, by employing a first-rate head gardener, who is to be continued afterwards, to manage the garden; and allowing him to execute the work, partly by let-ting it out in small jobs, and partly by daywork. Trenching, digging drains, excavating for roads or walks, and even smoothing and levelling, may all be done by the job; and, wherever work can be thus executed, it is by far the cheapest and best mode for the proprietor, and the most agreeable to the workmen. Much, however, in this case, depends on the knowledge sad experience of the head gardener in letting out the work; and his attention in seeing it properly executed.

324. Whether the buildings or the plantation! ought to be commenced first, is a question which admits of being variously answered, according to circumstances. Where the place is extensive, and much planting, wholly detached from buildings, is required, all the plantations may be commenced two or three years before the buildings; but, in the case of a place like that before us, where the principal part of the planting is connected with the house and offices, or the kitchen-garden, or borders the approach road, all the buildings ought to be completed, at least exteriorly, before even the ground is levelled or trenched for planting: even the cartage of materials to the house along the approach road will endanger young trees bordering on it; and, therefore, it is much better not to plant them till the road is made.

325. The fret actual step in executing the buildings, more particularly the house and offices, is to erect a temporary shed for the use of the carpenter end other workmen, both as a place for working in, and to enable them to lock up their tools, &c; the next is to mark out the foundations, and to have them excavated; and the third, which ought to go on at the same time as the first and second, is the procuring and laying down materials. It may be worthy of notice, that the first and the last workman connected with erecting any building is the carpenter. He is required to construct skeleton squares or triangles, before the ground is broken for the foundations, or a single brick or stone can be laid, in order that the angles of the foundations may be truly correct; and, as the building proceeds, he is employed in preparing and placing the flooring, roofing, doors, windows, and interior fittings, to the last step in joinery, viz., that of putting the finger-plates on the doors, after the painting and papering have been finished.

Hence it is that carpenters (including under this term joiners) know more about the detail of executing buildings than any other person connected with them, not even excepting the architect; and hence, also, the carpenter, other circumstances being the same, will invariably be found the most intelligent mechanic on an estate, as con-nected with construction; as the gardener will generally be found the most intelligent, as connected with cultivation. If the proprietor of a country residence, therefore, find himself reduced so as to be only able to keep two men to look after it, these two should be the carpenter and the gardener. Remarks of this kind may, perhaps, be considered by some out of place; but, this book being intended for those who have little or no previous knowledge of the subjects of which it treats, we think them likely to be useful; and it is consistent with our plan to introduce them incidentally rather than systematically.

326. The walks, the situation of the trees, etc., are easily marked out on the ground, by driving stakes or pins in the direction of the lines representing them in the plan. - This is rendered easy by the squares already marked out and indicated on the ground, and by stakes, with numbers on them, having been driven in at the angles formed by the intersecting lines of the squares. If these squares should not have been formed, or if the stakes indicating them should have been taken up, or partly misplaced, then the squares ought to be laid out afresh, remembering to keep the imaginary lines which form their aides correctly north and south, and east and west.

Section II. Designs For Country Villas; With Their Planting, Culture, And Renovation

327. Country villas may be divided into two classes, vis. small country villas, which have no farm attached; and large country villas, which have a small farm attached to them, or, at any rate, a paddock for feeding a cow or a couple of horses. Of the first kind we shall give three or four imaginary designs by Mr. Rutger, many years land-steward to Sir John St Aubyn; and one or two by Mr. Lamb, a well-known architect: after which we shall give one or two designs of places actually in existence. Of the larger villas we shall give very few examples which have not been actually executed.

Subsection I. Small Country Villas

328. Small country villas which have no fields attached to them, have seldom very extensive pleasure-grounds; and therefore the principal difference between them consists in the various ways that maybe adopted of laying out their flower-gardens; for all kitchen-gardens must be very nearly alike, and the shrubbery in a small place is nearly always only a belt. A very few designs will, therefore, be sufficient to show the general style of villas of this kind.