Much pains was usually taken in selecting the site of a farmhouse,[1082] though opinions of course varied according to the peculiar range of experience on which they were based. In general such positions were considered most favourable as neighboured the sea, or occupied the summits or the slopes of mountains,[1083] more especially if looking towards the north.[1084] The vicinity of swamps and marshes, and as much as possible of rivers, was avoided, together with coombs, or hollow valleys, and declivities facing the south or the setting sun. If necessitated by the nature of the ground to build near the banks of a stream, the front of the dwelling was carefully turned away from it, inasmuch as its waters communicated an additional rigour to the winds in winter, and in summer filled the atmosphere with unwholesome vapours. The favourite exposure was towards the east whence the most salubrious breezes were supposed to blow, while the cheerful beams of the sun, as soon as they streamed above the horizon, dissipated the dank fogs and murkiness of the air. Notwithstanding the warmth of the climate, moreover, they loved such situations as were all day long illuminated by the sun, whilst every care was taken to fence out the sirocco, a moist and pestilential wind, blowing across the Mediterranean from the deserts of Africa. In Italy, nevertheless, the farmer often selected for the site of his mansion the southern roots of mountains, further defended from Alpine blasts by a sweep of lofty woods. ----- Footnote 1082: Geop. ii. 3. Cf. Vitruv. i. 4. Footnote 1083: Petatur igitur aer calore et frigore temperatus, quem fere medius obtinet collis, quod neque depressus hieme pruinis torpet, aut torret æstute vaporibus, neque elatus in summa montium perexiguis ventorum motibus, aut pluviis omni tempore anni sævit. Columell. De Re Rust. i. 4. Footnote 1084: The same opinion is held by Hippocrates, De Morbo Sacro. cap. 7. p. 308, ed. Foes. Ὁ Βορέης ὑγιεινότατος ἐστι τῶν ἀνέμων. Cf. Plin. ii. 48. Varro. i. 12. ----- According to the fashion prevailing in antiquity, farmhouses were built high, large, and roomy, though Cato[1085] shrewdly advises, that their magnitude should bear some relation to that of the domain, lest the villa should have to seek for the farm, or the farm for the villa. ----- Footnote 1085: De Re Rust. 3. “Ita ædifices, ne villa fundum quærat, neve fundus villam.” Cf. Colum. De Re Rust. i. 4. It may here by the way be observed that, during the flourishing periods of Roman agriculture, farms were generally rather small than large. Plin. Hist. Nat. viii. 21. Schulz. Antiq. Rustic. § vii. -----