“Well,” said Eugène, when they were settled in the study, after breakfast, “there is the plan of the cellars (Fig. [21]). Let us see how it will suit your report of the ground, and whether we shall have to make some modifications in this plan. Ah! I see the rock is nearly on the surface towards the south, and the loose soil reaches pretty uniformly a depth of three yards towards the north of our buildings. We shall, therefore, make the cellars under the drawing-room, the dining-room, and the billiard-room, in the limestone rock,—cutting the latter; and we shall make a foundation for the front part, especially for the stabling and coach-house, with good masonry.
Fig. 21.
“Here (Fig. [21]) is the plan of the cellars. You see these axial lines: they indicate the centres of the walls of the ground-floor, and must not be departed from. The figures denoting the thickness of the walls are always marked from these centres. Thus you see these dimensions are greater where the cellar-wall will have to carry the spring of the vaulting of the cellars—as I explained to you, the other day.
“We have a rivulet that will supply the services of the house, by means of a reservoir, which we will place as high as possible. We have not yet taken the levels; but judging by a glance, I should say (reckoning by the falls of the rivulet and the rapidity of its course) that at 100 yards from the house the reservoir will store the water so as to enable it to reach the level of the first floor by pipes. That we shall have to ascertain. Otherwise we shall have recourse to a pump worked by horse-power or by a windmill. We will afterwards conduct this stream of water into a drain along the walls at the north of the house, as you see at A, so that this drain may collect the waste water from the house by a conduit, B, and receive the closet discharges at C, D, and E. The running water will thus take off this sewage into a tank, which we will make down below in the kitchen-garden. This water when it has settled is excellent—let me tell you—for watering the vegetables.
“I have indicated on the plan at G the sections of the cellar barrel-vaults. The cellars will measure 5 feet from the floor to the spring of the vaults, and the vaults will have a rise of 5 feet. These cellars, therefore, will have a height of 10 feet under the crown, which will be very satisfactory, especially as the ground is dry. We shall then be able to make use of the cellars, not only for storing wines but vegetables, for a larder, &c. The level of our ground-floor being 5 feet above the general surface of the ground, we shall easily ventilate these cellars by air-holes, as I have marked at H. The descent to them will be by the steps on the right, situated near the wash-houses and by the servants’ stairs in the turret. The right-hand steps will serve for taking down stores, and the winding-stairs for carrying up the wines and other things to the pantry.
“Have you seen whether Branchu has taken care to have the materials extracted from the excavations regularly deposited?”
“Yes: but hitherto he has found only thin layers of what he calls rag; but he has them stacked, and tells me they will be very good for foundation walls.”
“He is right: this rag is liable to injury from frost in the open air, but it is hard, and does very well in cellars; and it makes good strong walling, because it is bedded,—that is, occurs in the natural state in thin parallel layers, 4 to 6 inches thick.”
“That is just about what he told me; but he added that it swallows up a great deal of mortar, and I did not quite understand what he meant by that.”