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large and well-arranged china closets, pantries and serving Toom, and behind the kitchen, continuous with which is the laundry, supplied with fixed washing troughs of most admi rable construction ; the whole spacious and well lighted. On this floor also will generally be found a servant’s bath-room and other conveniences, and always the lift or dumb waiter, leading to the floors above. The size of these houses is in variably regulated by the fixed frontage of a “ lot,” which means twenty-five feet by no less than one hundred feet in depth; buildings are therefore on one, two, or more lots, as the case may be, sometimes three upon two lots, and sometimes even two upon one lot, that is, with a frontage of only twelve- and- a-half feet where land is too costly for a full front. The houses are always of considerable depth, and upon the principal floor an extension is generally carried in the rear, across the whole width, giving an additional room. With us the great difficulty would be to obtain light to rooms so deep, but here the American clearness of atmosphere renders aid, and as the storeys are lofty, and the rooms unbroken by cross partitions other than columns or wide sliding doors, filled with plate glass the full height of the rooms, a sufficient distribution of light is gained. For party-giving conveniences commend me to a New York house, and for comforts in the sleeping apart ments, for spacious bed rooms, large dressing rooms, with oath rooms close at hand, the same are unsurpassed; but for quiet home life something more cheerful than a basement sitting room, and less pretentious than the spacious and splendid salons of the floor above, would be sought as models to be universally adopted. We have, however, nothing in England like the average American town-house, of moderate cost and size. The style chosen for these structures is as whimsical as individual taste can select or contrive. Severe purity of any kind must not be looked for ; here and there a fair Italian facade may be seen carried out without violating respected canons of art, and yet, although much vulgarity of taste, re sulting in overcrowded ornament and incongruous elaborated details may of course be seen, I do not, on reflection, remember anything really offensive to the eye inmost of the costly resi dences of New York or ‘her sister cities. At present the great want is of a real meaning in the embellishments so lavishly thrown upon the buildings, though it is pleasant to note the conscientious efforts made by a few native architects to bring about the commencement of a national style, by the adoption of national forms in their designs for architectural decoration. The new Academy of Design in New York is notably an example of this, and in many a princely mansion in the upper part of that costly city may be traced evidences of some thoughtful care to give an American expression to familiar details. The German clement is largely shewn in architectural design, and not, I think, very happily or ju diciously ; something in the bright climate seems to call for a lightness of design more easily to be met with in our modernized Italian, or even something suggesting an Oriental flavour in its finish and refinement. American architectural art is in a transition state, but from its domestic buildings is, I fully believe, the embodiment of some fixed principles of de sign to spring. Praise can conscientiously be given to the real nature of the embellishments employed. The internal woodwork is generally of hard wood,—oak or black walnut, maple or yellow pine, polished; graining upon deal in imitation of other woods does not find much favour, and the work throughout is generally of an honest and substantial character. The stairways are always wide, and the balusters and handrails have more im portance given to them than is the custom generally with us. The lavish supply of water to all parts of the house is a not able feature in American houses, consequently the plumbing is a very important item in a contractor’s estimate, often, in fact, forming quite one-fifth of the whole cost. In a climate so severe in winter, of course every precaution has to be taken to guard against frost, so the pipes arc laid in such manner as to let the water run back when the pressure is removed, and by opening a safety cock at the junction and closing the union attached thereto, every night, all pipes are emptied. Another mode, where the occupant is unwilling to have the supply in terrupted during the night, is used, by which the pipes are so arranged as to secure a constant but moderate circulation. The pipes are never buried in the walls and partitions, but are all displayed in sight, and being handsomely mounted on polished or painted strips, and with furniture almost invariably plated, they are rather ornamental adjuncts to a house than a disfigurement, I have heard many English tradesmen say that the plumbing and painting of the good houses of New York and other towns are superior to what they had been accustomed to at home, and few that have visited the country but have returned with new ideas. The supply of hot water to bath rooms and dressing basins is almost invariably on the low pressure system. The usual mode is to provide a coil of iron pipes around the inner side of a very largo upright copper boiler, which is connected with the water-flack of the kitchen range, or in some very large establishments has a fire place of its own; through this coil the water circulates and rises to the required levels. I would remark that these boilers are of large size, clindrical, and of capacity of from thirty to one hundred “ gallons, and also that the fuel employed is anthracite and not bituminous coal, which not only gives a greater degree of heat but keeps the flues much freer from fouling than the kind in ordinary use here. I have alluded to the superior arrangements provided for washing ; these consist of three or more wooden troughs, deep and wide, and with hinged lids to close when not in use. Each of these has a tap for hot and cold water, the former obtained from the large upright boiler before described. A waste pipe with trap leads from each. An ironing table of very con venient and novel design is in frequent use, This has a large square moveable top, hung between standards (like stall ends), which forms a table when required, and the back of a settle when out of use. Between these ends is a box for linen, the top of which forms a seat; and thus when the back is shut down a very comfortable piece of kitchen furniture is obtained. Of course these houses are well provided with bells, speaking tubes, dumb waiters, and the like; these appliances in no way differ from what may be seen here, excepting in their far more general and liberal supply. The houses thus briefly sketched are the ordinary moderate sized residences of the citizens; better indeed thansuch as arc to be had in good neighbourhoods here, but costing more consider ably than our own. All the large 1 towns abound with mansions that exhibit every luxury and extravagance wealth can sup ply, and which in point of size and lavish architectural decora tion can compete with the'grandestmodern residences of London or Paris ; but it is not fair to consider these as the ordinary houses of American families, and they are not in themselves in teresting as a class. The house of moderate size, such as every dweller in a town needs, is the example I have had before me in these brief remark on American domestic architecture; and when it is stated that such buildings may be seen erected more than twenty years ago, each one as complete and as spacious as those now rapidly rising in the new parts of New York, I think the Americans who come over here may fairly boast of being housed in a manner far beyond what present experience can honestly claim to be our own lot here. The building materials in use in America differ in the several States. All are well supplied, and the city of New York is in reality one vast stone quarry, so that in the upper part the excavations for foundations have to be blasted out, and the stone removed is frequently well adapted for building purposes. The immediate neighbourhood abounds with marble, and the opposite State of New .Jersey has abundance of a beautiful fine-grained freestone of an excellent quality. The Americans are also very fond of using a building stone from Nova Scotia, a stone very like our own Bobin Hood. Timber is of course to be had without limit, and, in consequence, the frame of a building is usually of heavy scantling. The floor joists are generally deeper than with us, and joiners prefer bolting thick nesses together to form girders, breastsummers, and lintels, to forming them out of the solid. Some of the timber-framed roofs and bridges are well worth an examination. The bricks used arc generally of excellent quality. In Phila delphia and Baltimore a red brick is made, of great beauty and durability, pressed by machinery, and remarkably true and well formed, _ In Milwaukie and other places in the West a yellow brick is made of very great hardness; the same clay being also capable of being moulded into any usual form. All American bricks are smaller than ours, being but eight inches in length, so that the walls differ in thickness from our own in this proportion. In the country wooden buildings are still very common, and 18
