a habitation, or place built with conveniences for dwelling in. See ARCHITECTURE.

Houses, among the Jews, Greeks, and Romans, were flat on the top for them to walk upon, and had usually stairs on the outside, by which they might ascend and descend without coming into the house. Each house, in fact, was so laid out, that it enclosed a quadrangular area or court. This court was exposed to the weather, and being open to the sky, gave light to the house. This was the place where company was received, and for that purpose it was strewed with mats or carpets for their better accommodation. It was paved with marble or other materials, according to the owner's ability, and provided with an umbrella of vellum to shelter them from the heat and inclemencies of the weather. This part of their houses, called by the Romans impluvium, or cava adim, was provided with channels to carry off the water into the common sewers. The top of the house was level, and covered with a strong plaster by way of terrace. Hither, especially amongst the Jews, it was customary to retire for meditation, private converse, devotion, or the enjoyment of the evening breezes.

The Grecian houses were usually divided into two parts, in which the men and women had distinct mansions assigned. The part assigned to the men was towards the gate, and called ανδρωνικὴ; the apartment of the women was the farthest part of the house, and called γυναικεία. Jews, Greeks, and Romans, suppo- House. fed their houses to be polluted by dead bodies, and to stand in need of purification.

HOUSE is also used for one of the estates of the kingdom of Britain assembled in parliament. Thus we say, the house of lords, the house of commons, &c. See PEERS, COMMONS, &c.

HOUSE is also used for a noble family, or a race of illustrious persons issued from the same stock. In this sense we say, the house or family of the Stuarts, the Bourbons, the house of Hanover, of Austria, of Lorraine, of Savoy, &c.

Cheap, easy, and expeditions Method of constructing HOUSES, which have been found to be very useful hospitals for the recovery of the sick, and therefore may probably make very wholesome places of residence for the healthy.—The first thing to be done is to choose a dry and airy situation, on a gravelly or chalky soil if possible; upon this lay down the plan of your building, make one end of it face that quarter from whence the purest and healthiest winds may be expected to blow, of a breadth that can be conveniently roofed. Then, if boarding does not come to cheap, drive stakes, at about fix feet distance from each other, into the ground, so as to stand about fix feet above it; and, interlacing them with wattles, coat the wattles on the side next the weather with fresh straw; and make the roof in the same manner, but thicker, or of thatch in the usual way, with a hole at the very top of it, to open occasionally. Let the end of the building facing the wholesomest quarter lie open some feet back, so as to form a porch, where the convalescents may take the air without danger of any injury from the weather. A large chimney and kitchen grate may be erected at the other end. If the soil happens to be chalky or gravelly, you may hollow it four or five feet deep, within a foot or eighteen inches of the walls; but let the steps into this hollow lie far enough within the porch, that no water may get into it, and, if of chalk, the steps may not grow slippery in wet weather. From time to time open the vent-hole at the roof; by means of which all the unwholesome infectious air, as being warmer, and consequently lighter, than that which is pure and wholesome, will be driven out by the rushing in of the fresh air; a purpose, which the little openings that may be left in the sides and roofs of such rude and hasty buildings, will, even of themselves, answer so well, as sufficiently to compensate any cold they may let in, even in the coldest months. Let the floor likewise be scraped three or four inches deep every five or six days, and what comes off removed to some distance. Halls of this kind, go feet long and 20 broad, cost but a trifle to build; yet, with these precautions (even without the addition of clean straw for every new patient to lie on, inclosed in clean washed sacks fit for the purpose, which come infinitely cheaper than the bare cleaning of flock or even feather-beds, supposing it possible to wash such beds), proved of infinitely more advantage in the recovery of sick soldiers, than the low-roofed rooms of the farm-houses of the Isle of Wight, or even the better accommodations of Carilbrooke cattle in the same island, in which there perished four times the number of sick that there did in these temporary receptacles; which were first thought of by Doctor Brockleby, on occasion of some terrible infections from confined animal effluvia.

Is it not surprising, that we have not availed ourselves more of the above discovery in natural history, being, perhaps, the most important the moderns can boast of, in the most useful science, viz. the superior lightness of unwholesome and infectious air! The upper fathes in most houses, even of those who pretend to some knowledge in these matters, are generally immovable, by means of which no part of the foul air above the level of the lowest rail of the other fath's greatest rise can escape by the window; and, if it escapes by the doors, it is generally for want of a vent in the highest part of the roof, merely to accumulate in the upper story of the house, and add to the infection, which the great quantities of old furniture usually stored up there are of themselves but too apt to create, when care is not frequently taken to open the windows of it. Thus, the chief benefit to be expected from lofty rooms is in a great measure lost. Whereas, were the upper fathes contrived to come down, all the air might be easily changed, and that almost insensibly, by letting them down an inch or two. Nay, the upper fath might be often let entirely down with less danger or inconvenience from cold, than the lower thrown up the tenth part of an inch, though the doing of the former would be attended with infinitely more advantage to the health of the inhabitants than the latter. It is, perhaps, on this principle, that we are to account for the good health enjoyed by the poor who live crowded in damp cellars, and often with great numbers of rabbits, poultry, and even swine about them. These cellars are open to the street, with doors reaching from the floor to the very ceiling, but never so close at bottom or at top as to prevent a free circulation of air; in consequence of which, that all-vivifying fluid, as fast as it is spoiled by passing through the lungs of the inhabitants and their stock, or is infected by their insensible perspiration, excrements, &c. is driven out and replaced by the fresh air.

in Astrology, denotes the twelfth part of the heavens.

The division of the heavens into houses is founded upon the pretended influence of the stars, when meeting in them, on all sublunary bodies. These influences are supposed to be good or bad; and to each of these houses particular virtues are assigned, on which astrologers prepare and form a judgment of their horoscopes. The horizon and meridian are two circles of the celestial houses, which divide the heavens into four equal parts, each containing three houses; fix of which are above the horizon, and fix below it; and fix of these are called eastern and fix western houses.

A scheme or figure of the heavens is composed of 12 triangles, all called houses, in which are marked the stars, signs, and planets, fo included in each of these circles. Every planet has likewise two particular houses, in which it is pretended that they exert their influence in the strongest manner; but the sun and moon have only one, the house of the former being Leo, and that of the latter Cancer.

The houses in astrology have also names given them according to their qualities. The first is the house of life: life: this is the ascendant, which extends five degrees above the horizon, and the rest below it. The second is the house of riches; the third, the house of brothers; the fourth, in the lowest part of the heavens, is the house of relations, and the angle of the earth; the fifth, the house of children; the sixth, the house of health; the seventh, the house of marriage, and the angle of the west; the eighth, the house of death; the ninth, the house of piety; the tenth, the house of offices; the eleventh, the house of friends; and the twelfth, the house of enemies.

Country House, is the villa* of the ancient Romans, the quinta of the Spaniards and Portuguese, the closerie and caffine of the French, and the vigna of the Italians.

It ought always to have wood and water near it, these being the principal beauties of a rural seat. The trees make a far better defence than hills, as they yield a cooling and healthy air, shade during the heat of summer, and very much break the severities of the winter season.

It should not be situated too low, on account of the moisture of the air; and, on the other hand, those built on places exposed to the winds are expensive to keep in repair. In houses not above two stories high, and upon a good foundation, the length of two bricks, or 18 inches, for the heading course, will be sufficient for the ground-work of any common structure; and fix or seven courses above the earth, to a water-table, where the thickness of the walls is abated or taken in, on either side the thickness of a brick, viz. two inches and a quarter. But for large and high houses of three, four, or five stories, with garrets, their walls ought to be three heading courses of bricks, or 28 inches at least, from the foundation to the first water-table; and at every story a water-table, or taking in, on the inside, for the summers, girders, and joists to rest upon, laid into the middle, or one quarter of the wall at least, for the better bond. But as for the partition-wall, a brick and half will be sufficiently thick; and for the upper stories a brick length or nine inch brick will suffice.

Hot-House. See Stove and Hypocaustum.

House-Breaking, or Robbing, is the breaking into and robbing a house in the day-time; the same crime being termed Burglary when done by night: both are felony without benefit of clergy.

House and Window Duty, a branch of the king's extraordinary revenue†.—As early as the conquest, mention is made in Doomsday book of fumage or faggote, vulgarly called smoke-farthings; which were paid by custom to the king for every chimney in the house. And we read that Edward the Black Prince (soon after his successes in France), in imitation of the English custom, imposed a tax of a florin upon every hearth in his French dominions. But the first parliamentary establishment of it in England was by statute 13 and 14 Car. II. c. 10, whereby an hereditary revenue of 2s. for every hearth, in all houses paying to church and poor, was granted to the king for ever. And, by subsequent statutes, for the more regular affluence of this tax, the constable and two other substantial inhabitants of the parish, to be appointed yearly (or the surveyor appointed by the crown, together with such constable or other public officer), were, once in every year, empowered to view the inside of every house in the parish. But, upon the Revolution, by stat. 1 W. and M. c. 10, hearth-money was declared to be "not only a great oppression to the poorer sort, but a badge of slavery upon the whole people, exposing every man's house to be entered into and searched at pleasure, by persons unknown to him; and therefore, to erect a lasting monument of their majesties goodness, in every house in the kingdom the duty of hearth-money was taken away and abolished." This monument of goodness remains among us to this day: but the prospect of it was somewhat darkened, when in fix years afterwards, by statute 7 W. III. c. 18, a tax was laid upon all houses (except cottages) of 2s. now advanced to 3s. per house, and a tax also upon all windows, if they exceeded nine, in such house. These rates have been from time to time varied, being now extended to all windows exceeding six; and power is given to surveyors, appointed by the crown, to inspect the outside of houses, and also to pass through any houses, two days in the year, into any court or yard, to inspect the windows there.

Schemes of the different rates of duty upon houses and windows may be seen in the Almanacks, or in Kearley's Tax-Tables published yearly.

HOUSE-Leek. See Sedum and Sempervivum, Botany Index.