but-and-ben

• Is it not better to have a big country than a kailyard, or a house in Grosvenor Square than a but-and-ben in Balham? " —  The Moon Endureth: Tales and Fancies
• The cottage had originally consisted of the usual "but-and-ben" -- that is to say, in well regulated houses (which this one was not) of a kitchen -- and a room that was not the kitchen. —  The Dew of Their Youth
• So they lived on in the but-and-ben, with the lonely, tall ash standing over it, and the view of Jura, the sweetest I know, in front, and he died very old indeed, and his wife followed him in two or three days, so they were not separated even by death for long. —  From Edinburgh to India & Burmah
• Storms broke on the hills, spread snow or filled the freshets as with tears, and then departed, leaving the curlews drilling holes with their cries in the sphere of catharised clear air; and the people there, men resting on their staves, women at their but-and-ben doors, spoke with magnificent calm, as if they had exhausted all their violence on certain specific occasions. —  The Judge
• Your but-and-ben adorns, —  The Complete Works of Robert Burns: Containing his Poems, Songs, and Correspondence. With a New Life of the Poet, and Notices, Critical and Biographical by Allan Cunningham

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