282 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN 



furnishing shops, and with that, by which to test prices, 

 go to second-hand shops and sales. If you get a well- 

 made second-hand piece of furniture that you really 

 want for the same price as, or cheaper than, you could 

 buy painted or varnished deal well, you know you 

 have not done badly. If you buy an old bookcase, or 

 table, or sofa, for even a little more than you would 

 give for the inferior modern ones, you may still congratu- 

 late yourself. 



The only marked difference that I can see between 

 my house and most others, both in the country and in 

 London, is that I never have a roller blind. They are 

 expensive to put up, expensive to maintain, and very 

 difficult to keep clean in London. I never have them 

 in my own rooms, in bed-rooms or servants' rooms, in 

 the stable or gardener's cottage. What I do have is an 

 inner curtain hung from a small rod on the window. It 

 can be made of any variety of material, to suit the 

 different windows and the requirements of the room 

 thin silk (the effects of light through silk orange, red, 

 yellow, or green are very pretty), chintz, muslin, or the 

 thickest dark blue or green twill lined with calico, to keep 

 out light in the bedrooms in the country (in London I 

 think light blue or green twill unlined is sufficient) ; and 

 the most useful of all is the common red Turkey twill, 

 lined or unlined, which washes year after year, and always 

 looks fresh, clean, and bright, and practically never wears 

 out. In many modern windows these inner curtains enable 

 you to dispense with heavy outside curtains altogether to 

 my mind an advantage, as drawn curtains almost always 

 make a room stuffy and nearly as airless as did the 

 shutters of our forefathers. All the same, thick curtains 

 are, of course, required in the country in winter for 

 warmth. For an outside effect in London, it is very 

 pretty if the wood of the window is painted dark or light 



