Gray, W(illia)m J.
A treatise on rural architecture, comprehending plans, elevations and sections, of farm houses, farm offices, cottages, manses, schools, gates, railings, etc. with specifications, and all necessary information as to their cost. Edited by William Wallace Fyfe.
Edinburgh, W.H.Lizars 1852.
Full Description
Large 8vo. xi + (5) + 144pp, 48 litho plates. Publisher’s cloth. A good copy.
First and only edition of this rare volume of costed designs for farm houses and farm buildings, all executed for named clients by William J.Gray, an architect in practice at Coldingham, Berwickshire. Gray’s designs for soundly constructed and well-planned farm buildings, built in local stone, had evidently pleased his client base of nearby landowners in the Scottish borders, and the text of the volume, probably largely written by its editor W.W.Fyfe, puts them in the context of other publications offering model designs for rural cottages. The volume is unusual in that Gray was an architect with a strictly focused local practice in a rural part of Scotland, and it is not easy to think of a contemporary parallel for it.