CRAIG AILEY VILLA,

NEAR KILCREGGAN, FIRTH OF CLYDE,

A & G THOMSON, ARCHITECTS, GLASGOW.

PLATES XVIII.-XXI

This house being only a summer residence, space has been economised as far as possible in its internal arrangements, but without curtailment of the accommodation requisite for a family of moderate means.

The building is elevated on a base of rustic work, and the entrance porch is reached by a broad flight of ten steps, which are flanked by piers and parapets. The main door is made to fold back against the side walls in two halves of two leaves each, and is kept back during the day, so that the glass door immediately behind it is the entrance door in constant use. The vestibule is abundantly lighted by a group of five round arched in the south wall, and opens directly upon the hall and staircase, which are well lighted from the vestibule, and by a staircase window. The porch and vestibule combine effectually to protect the hall from draughts.

From the hall, a door in front opens to the dining-room, which is lighted by a large triplet window in the east wall, and a door on the left opens to the drawing-room, which is lighted by a large semicircular oriel in the south wall; another door on the left side of the hall opens on the passage to kitchen, which leads also to the offices and kitchen court. These offices consist of a wash-house, servants' bedroom, larder, coal-cellar, root-house and ashpit, and form a wing attached to the west side of the house, giving increased length of front, with more importance and variety to the exterior.

The upper floor contains three large bedrooms, one smaller bedroom, one dressing-room, a bath-room, and several closets and presses. From the stair landing a trap-stair conducts to a bevidere or smoking-room in the upper floor of tower.

The base is built of large rough stones set on end, producing a character of work suggestive of a repetition of the stratified cliff, near the brink of which the house is placed. The external walls are of rubble, built in irregular courses, and carefully pointed with a mixture of lime, smithy ashes, and oil, the joints being drawn in with a key, and afterwards painted with white lead. The surfaces of the rubble work are those formed by the natural cross cleavage of the rock without further manipulation. The dressings of windows and outside doors, external corners of walls, string and corbel courses, dado parts of the chimney-stacks, and the shafts, arches, and frieze courses of oriel, dining-room, and vestibule windows, and steps, platt, and die-wall at entrance-door, are of freestone. The dressings round external openings, and on corners, are wrought with tooled margins, the face of the stone being hammer-dressed; all other dressings are tooled. The rubble is of schistose rock, found in the immediate neighbourhood of the site; the freestone is from Gourock, on the opposite shore of the Firth.

The masonry of base is 2 feet thick, increasing in thickness downwards. From the top of the base to the line of upper floor the external walls are 1 foot 9 inches thick; above that line they are 2 feet thick, being projected 3 inches on a corbel moulding. This projection of the upper portion of the wall gives the effect of a string course by very simple means and without presenting any surface on which water can lodge. The wall over oriel window is carried on two cast-iron beams of I section, placed side by side, each beam 10 inches broad by 7 inches high, the sole-plate being 1¾, and the other parts of 1¼ inch metal; the triplet-window of the dining- room has an inside cast-iron beam, 14 inches broad by 7 inches high, of II section, the metal being of same thickness as the other iron beams. The internal thick walls are of rubble; the partitions on ground floor, with those in upper floor immediately over them, are of brick, the remainder being composed of wood standards lathed on both sides.

The safe-lintels, wall-plates, dooks, window-grounds, joisting of principle floor, outside doors with their frames, window-cases and sashes, and the wood-work of projecting eaves, are of Quebec red pine. Joisting of upper floor, ceiling-joists, roofing, and all other carpenter work, are of Quebec yellow pine. The inside doors, with all internal wood finishings, are of selected American yellow pine. The flooring is of Dram Battens.

The roofs overhang the walls 2 feet 4 inches, and are covered with large-sized Westmoreland slates, double-nailed; all the ridges and hips are covered with, and flashings round chimneys formed of. 6lbs. lead, the latter being let into reggles cut in the stone work, batted with lead, and afterwards pointed with cement; the roof over oriel and the balcony are also covered with 6lbs. lead. The ornamental parapet of balcony and finial of tower are of cast iron, and the chimney-shafts of terra cotta. The antefixae on oriel window, and acroteria on points of gables, are of red pine.

All the windows are glazed with sheets-glass in large panes, the sashes being hung in the usual way, with exception of that of stair-case, which is fixed, and those of towers and cellars, which are hinged.

The height of the ceilings on the principal floor is 11 feet, and that of the bedroom floor 9 feet 6 inches. All the bedrooms on upper floor are partially campceiled. Ventilation is provided for the space below the entrance floor by means of openings in the base, which have cast-iron gratings; and for the principal rooms by openings in ornamental composition placed over the doors.

This villa, on whichever side it is viewed, presents a finished exterior, each side varied in its outlines, and well balanced in its masses. It affords a good example of the capabilities of the Italian style, and how that style may be made to combine modern requirements, such as large and numerous windows, oriels, balconies, &c., with graceful forms and picturesque grouping. The are features also in this building which at the time of its erection were considered novel, such as projecting the oriel to an extent greater than the semicircle, so as to embrace a more extended view than the ordinary semi-circular or semi-octagonal forms of window; the great projection of the roofs, the character given to the eaves and gables, and the recessed arcaded grouping of the other windows.

Objections are often urged against roofs of so low a pitch as those of this villa, but the experience gained by this house, standing as it does in a very exposed position, goes far to prove that such roofs really require less repair than those of a steep gothic pitch. Whilst roofs of the latter form on houses similarly situated in the immediate vicinity of the one under consideration have been often damaged by the severe gales to which this coast is exposed, those of this villa have now stood for a number of years without requiring any considerable repair. The great projection of the roof is found of material advantage in protecting the walls and preserving them water-tight.

Appended is an abstract of the cost of this villa, made up for the most part from the accounts of the tradesmen; the particulars, however, to which the word say is prefixed have not been preserved with the exactness, but it is believed that the sums set down for them approximate very nearly the truth.

COST OF BUILDING

Mason and Brick work, including Iron Beams, . . say ................................... £500 0 0
Carpenter and Joiner work, including Glass and Glazing, . . say ......................363 4 0½
Slater work, . . say ........................................................................................55 0 0
Plumber work, ...............................................................................................86 18 8
Plaster work, ................................................................................................49 4 5
Painting and Paperhanging, ............................................................................51 19 4½
Marble Chimney-pieces, . . say ......................................................................20 0 0
Bells and Bellhanging, . . say .........................................................................8 10 0
Stair-railing and other Ornamental Iron work, . . say .........................................20 0 0

                                                                                               Total                     £1154 16 6

This house is illustrated by plans of both floors and elevations of three of its sides, and by a perspective view, in which the side not given in the elevation is well shown; also by two sheets of details, by means of which the ornamental portions and particulars of construction may be fully understood.