The general appearance of this double house, as seen from the road, is shown in fig. 64., which is a sketch taken by E. B. Lamb, Esq., in September, 1837. The two street entrances, or gates, are shown in the front wall, each having two small niches for the scrapers. The gates are of open iron rods, hinged to stone, without the intervention of wood, which always gives a temporary appearance when joined with iron-work, especially in a door or gateway exposed to the weather on all sides. Consistency, with reference to durability in architecture, is as much a fundamental principle, as consistency in point of effect; and to hang an open iron gate to a wooden door-frame is a gross violation of this principle; and one which, when it occurs on the very threshold of a residence, gives but a poor example of the taste which may be expected within. Wooden lintels to the entrance gates of the front gardens of suburban houses are offensive on the same principle, whether the gates are of wood or iron. An error of a different kind, very frequently committed in street gates and railings, is that of having them too much ornamented for the style of the house.

The gates of these two houses, and the railing on the low wall between them, are composed simply of straight iron rods, pointed at top; and, instead of being painted of a pea-green, as is very frequently done, they were coated over with boiling gas tar, when first put up, and nothing has been done to them since. This preserves a proper gradation from the front railing to the railing between the pillars of the veranda, which is of a more ornamental description, and is painted of a stone colour. The trees in those parts of the garden which adjoin the house are so arranged as to make each side present quite a different aspect

207. The ground-floor of each home consists of a porch and veranda, terminating at one end in a water-closet (fig. 63. f), and at the other in a small circular conservatory with a domical roof (g), a view of the plants in which is enjoyed equally from both verandas, as well as from both front rooms: h is the dining-room, with a recess for the sideboard; i is the library, with two large, and three small, recesses for bookcases; k is a grating over the sunk area into which the back-kitchen door opens, and which communicates, under an arch opening at l with the ascending steps (m). The apartment (n), which might have been divided so as to form a light closet to each house, is appropriated to the house on the south side. The sunk floor consists of a front and back kitchen; wine, beer, and coal cellars; pantry, store-closet, and two other closets; and two servants' bed-rooms. So many apartments are obtained by making use of the space under the veranda; in which space, also, the main water-cistern is placed, with a sink under it, and also a fixed safe.

The dust-hole, water-cistern for the garden, lumber-closet, and servants' water-closet, for each house, are under the apartment n.