INTERNAL ARRANGEMENT OF TOWN-HOUSES. 833 



some equally non-absorbent material, for, unless this done, they soon 

 become stuffy and unpleasant. 



The drawing-rooms of the house should naturally be made as cheer- 

 ful as possible, and doors arranged so as to allow for the proper circu- 

 lation of your guests when the rooms are crowded. 



The arrangement of windows and fireplaces should be carefully 

 studied, so as to allow of sufficient wall-space for furniture, and in 

 these rooms bay and recessed windows and cozy nooks will help to 

 make them more liveable and comfortable, whether for the ordinary 

 occupants, or on occasions when you receive your friends. 



As a rule, I think two fireplaces are a mistake, unless the rooms be 

 absolutely divided by doors or portieres, as, when only one fire is alight, 

 there is a tendency for it to act as a pump, and to draw down smoke 

 through the other. 



If the room be very long, a small coil of pipes, taken off the hot- 

 water service, may generally be arranged under the back window, over 

 which fresh air may enter for ventilation. 



Street houses are more or less, by the limited nature of the ground 

 on which they stand, bound to be very similar in plan ; but they can 

 all be materially improved by a careful study of the wants and require- 

 ments of the ordinary householder, and by a proper regard and atten- 

 tion to all the smaller conveniences which practically render the house 

 comfortable or the reverse. 



As a general rule, bedrooms are often very badly arranged ; either 

 the wall-space is planned so that the bed must be placed immedi- 

 ately opposite the light, or in a thorough draught between the door 

 and fireplace. I am inclined to think that the modern system of ar- 

 rangement in French bedrooms might with advantage be more fre- 

 quently carried out in town-houses, and that the rooms might be made 

 suitable for the double purpose of private sitting as well as bedrooms. 

 In a house in which there are several grown-up sons and daughters, it 

 will be evident that some such arrangement will commend itself, so 

 that each may have a private working-room, for writing or studying, 

 apart from the general living-rooms of the house. The bedroom may 

 often, therefore, be divided up so as to form at one end — that farthest 

 from the window — ^recesses for bed and washing-closet, which can be 

 screened off in the daytime by a curtain, and the rest of the room fitted 

 up as a sitting-room, wherein the occupant may receive his or her own 

 more intimate friends if need be. 



The dressing-rooms are often made much too small. They should 

 be of suflacient size to hold a bed if requisite, so that it may be used 

 on occasions when, let us say, the master of the house comes home 

 late, and does not want to disturb the wife of his bosom in the small 

 hours of the morning ; or when sickness is in the house, the room can 

 be used for a nurse ; or if the master of the house be a professional 

 man, afflicted occasionally with sleeplessness, he would often like to 



TOL. XXTI. — 53 



