152 The Country House 



best that it should also be locked open, and only closed under extreme cases of 

 necessity. 



As the true purpose of the drawing room is one of constant use, it should be 

 as comfortable as possible. The modern tendency is toward unsympathetic stiff- 

 ness on the one hand and the museum on the other. It is evident that it should 

 be neither of these. Although one is supposed to wipe one's feet before 

 entering the drawing room, yet it should suggest comfort after one gets there. 

 Stiff and uncomfortable furniture should be avoided, and in their place should 

 be such pieces as most appeal to home comfort. Nor is the drawing room a 

 place for gaudy demonstration. Quiet restfulness should be preserved; it should 

 be remembered that whatsoever it contains must be lived with from day to day, 

 and therefore chosen very carefully. Bric-a-brac should be used sparingly, as it 

 has a tendency to accumulate and hence "clutter" the room. 



A generous reading table, which can also be used for writing, makes a 

 fitting centre motive for the room. A bookcase, even though the house con- 

 tains a library, adds much to the home character and will be found a most 

 useful bit of furniture. There is nothing more cheerful of a winter's evening 

 than a good book, a good chair, a good light, and a good fire in the fireplace (even 

 if we be slaves of the furnace). 



As regards furniture, there is one sort that is always ugly no matter 

 where it is used the upholsterer's delight, stuffed inside and swelling out, like 

 a fat boy full of dried apples. If you sit on it with firm determination you will 

 rebound like a rubber ball. It has no lines or anatomy, and hence no claim to 

 dignity, and as such should be avoided. There are, of course, good upholstered 

 examples, but they are not of this sort. 



Modern American architecture has evolved the reception room; its name sig- 

 nifies its purpose. Sometimes it is a room by itself, and sometimes it is 

 embodied in the hall. The former method is the better, owing to the privacy thus 

 obtained, although the latter saves some room and may often be managed success- 

 fully. When the outlay is large enough and the demand upon it is sufficient, 

 the separate room is convenient indeed. One can receive the formal short 

 call and transact small business in it. In size it should be medium, and should be 

 provided with a centre table and writing desk, besides comfortable chairs, and, 

 if room permits, a formal sofa. Its character should be stronger and somewhat 

 richer than the drawing room; not a lounging room, but comfortable nevertheless. 



In these times of the bound volume, which is made to come within the reach 

 of the many, the library becomes almost a necessity to the book lover. About 

 the middle of the seventeenth century the French had made the library a feature 

 of the private dwelling. The cabinet continued to be the receptacle in which the 

 books were kept, but the closed panelling had given way to glass and the bindings 

 were thus exposed to view, as is the custom of to-day. Once upon a time, when 

 the book was a costly and rare article and the binding more valuable and better 

 known than the contents, as is often true of the modern volume, it was kept 

 under lock and key and behind the awful presence of the retainer's axe. Since 

 then the contents have become more familiar and the bindings consequently 

 simpler and less expensive, although there are people who fill their libraries with 



