The book of houses, by the author of 'Wonders of the sea shore'.1851 |
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adorned ancient Andalusia apartments appearance arched architecture bamboo Barèges beautiful brick British Guyana building built Bushmen business wait called châlets chimney clay coloured comfort constructed containing cottage court covered divan divided door dwellings edifice entrance erected feet high fire floor frequently front gables gallery Garah garden glass grass ground habitations hall heat height hundred huts inhabitants interior island kind light Little Coxwell lofty luxury magnificent mansion marble material matting ments mountains natives night occupied Old Castile ornamented painted Picts Pitti Palace plastered poles Pompeii portable stove principal rank residence Romans roof Royal palace rude seen shelter side snow spacious specimens staircase stone story straw streets summer surrounded Swiss cottage tents tesselated thatched tiles timber towns traveller trees tribes twelve feet Venetian blind verandah villages Waldensian walls weather whole winter wood Woodchester
Popular passages
Page 182 - When one looks upon the fairy traces of the peristyles, and the apparently fragile fretwork of the walls, it is difficult to believe that so much has survived the wear and tear of centuries, the shocks of earthquakes, the violence of war, and the quiet, though no less baneful, pilferings of the tasteful traveller : it is almost sufficient to excuse the popular tradition, that the whole is protected by a magic charm.
Page 32 - The dome was closed somewhat suddenly and flatly by cutting the upper slabs in a wedge- form, instead of the more rectangular shape of those below. The roof was about eight feet high, and the last aperture was shut up by a small conical piece. The whole was built from within, and each slab was cut so that it retained its position without requiring support until another was placed beside it, the lightness of the slabs greatly facilitating the operation. When the building was covered in, a little loose...
Page 94 - It, which being expanded upon Ropes from one Side of the Parapet Wall to the other, may be folded or unfolded at Pleasure. The Psalmist seems to allude to some Covering of this Kind in that beautiful Expression, of spreading out the Heavens like a Curtain.
Page 179 - A marble pavement runs down the court, and the arches surrounding the court are supported by pillars, in a style different from all the regular orders of architecture ; and the ceiling and walls are incrusted with fret-work. In every division are written Arabic sentences, denoting " there is no conqueror but God ;" and " obedience and honour to our sovereign.
Page 32 - These slabs were tenacious enough to admit of being moved about without breaking, or even losing the sharpness of their angles, and they had a slight degree of curvature, corresponding with that of the circle from which they were cut. They were piled upon each other exactly like courses of hewn stone around the circle which was traced out, and care was taken to smooth the beds of the different courses with the knife, and to cut them so as to give the wall a slight inclination inwards, by which contrivance...
Page 39 - Their other domestic utensils are mostly square and oblong pails or buckets to hold water and other things, round wooden cups and bowls, and small shallow wooden troughs, about two feet long, out of which they eat their food, and baskets of twigs, bags of matting, &c.
Page 10 - These pits resemble, in their form, an inverted cone, and are of unequal dimensions. In some instances they appear double, or only divided by a very slight partition of earth, and the soil in which they are dug is of so dry a nature that no water has ever been known to stagnate in them.
Page 99 - ... aid of a lantern. The whole village is exceedingly dirty, and the atmosphere perfectly stifling. We were indeed by no means surprised to hear that the inhabitants never exceeded forty persons, although, from the number of houses, there appeared to be room for a much greater population. As at Siwah, it is the custom, when the son of a family takes a wife, for the father to build him a dwelling on the roof of his own, and so on until there are several stories, not communicating internally, but...
Page 92 - Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick: and it shall be, when he cometh to us, that he shall turn in thither.
Page 33 - ... by the heat of the body. At each end of the bed a pillar of snow was erected to place a lamp upon, and lastly, a porch was built before the door, and a piece of clear ice was placed in an aperture cut in the wall for a window.