GLASSHOUSES. 



185 



the outside. But the inside should still be white, as conducive to that thorough cleanliness and light 

 that are among the first desiderata where plant-growing is the object. 



With regard to the; conservatory, it is quite a different matter. This is a building for another 

 purpose and in another place, and therefore quite distinct principles should prevail. It is part of the 

 dwelling, and should harmonise and group with it in the matter of both form and material. Nothing 

 can be more distressing than the glass and iron adjuncts that are so often tacked on to houses, and are 

 made all the more painfully obtrusive by attempts at cheap ornamentation. Many a well-designed 

 house, old and new, has been degraded by such association. Leading makers have, sought to rival CM h 

 other in the production of every sort of gimcrack ornament, of every exaggeration of sky-line, of e\vr\ 

 impossible combination of architectural forms reduced to iiritating exiguity in combination with shcet&amp;gt; 

 of glass developed to the utmost extent. Now the strange thing is that this class of conservatory is not 

 only unbeaiitiful in i .self, but also is ill-fitted for its purpose . Once a plant has been brought to perfection 

 and is decked with its blooms, it ceases to require excessive light, which onlv causes the flowers to pa-^ 

 away rapidly and fade. For the purpose of the display of plants the aiea of transparent gla~s need 

 certainly not be greater than the area of opaque material. Architecture, therefore, becomes possible. 

 and a dcs .gn in sympathy with thai of the rest of the building may perfectly well be devoid. It the 

 conservatory is arranged as a. sort of wing touching the house on out. 1 side only, and with the other three 

 side s open to the air, the orangerv type that arose before the e liel of the seventeenth century and continued 

 throughout the eighteenth 

 century wl! answiT per- 

 fectly. So placed, the 

 coiiservaioiy may depend 

 tor light and air upon 

 glozed-iii arches on its 

 1 1 nve -ide&amp;gt;. and theTe- need 

 be no glass in the.- root. 

 1 ut a root all, or pa.rtlv, 

 of glass will be needed it 

 the- site and conditions 

 make il impossible to 

 introduce glass in as many 

 as three sides ; in that 

 case the glass in the- roof 

 may be- sciveiied l&amp;gt;\ a 

 parapet. What has been 

 termed the &quot; orangery 

 type &quot; associates charm 

 ingly with houses of its 

 own period that is, with 

 the various manifestations 

 of classic architecture 

 from the time- of 

 Christopher Wren to that 

 of Robert A el a in . 



It is more difficult to get the right thing when the house is in an earlier manner, as the original designers 

 knew of nothing of the kind. Still, the problem is perfectly e-apable of solution, and one such attempt 

 shall now be described and illustrated. It was desired to have a place for the display of plants opening 

 out of a room of a house that originated in the fifteenth century and had nothing later about it than the 

 first decade of the seventeenth. Some of the older portions of the- house were ruined, and there was a 

 space enclosed on three sides by the remaining walls of a destroyed dining-hall. This was fixed on as th- 

 site of the conservatory. It \\ill be seen that the fourth side is composed, above a stone plinth, of a. 

 framework of oak, formed into a continuous line of transomed leaded casements, the line being only 

 broken by a double oak door in the centre, and being surmounted by an oak entablature that screens the 

 glazed portion of the roof. This occupies two-thirds of the roof space, the remaining one-third being 

 a ferroconcrete flat, forming a walk reached by a little stone stairway up one of the ancient walls and being 

 used for the service of outside blinds that shade the roof glass. The glazed side faces north-west, and 

 does not admit so much sun as to make blinds necessary. The whole of the upper range of casements is 

 made to open. This, with the doorway, provides ample ventilation, while a through draught can be created 

 on sultry days by also opening a door in the opposite wall. The conservatory is waimed by a large 

 radiator, served by the same furnace that heats the house.- Every week there is a partial change in the 

 plants that tenant it. Such a conservatory should never be crowded should never be congested with 



CONSERVATORY AI&amp;gt;1&amp;gt;KD To AN OLD HOUSE. 



