174 PLANNING OF THE LARGER MANSIONS 



Buckingham House. These outlying blocks contained the 

 offices, which were sometimes the kitchens, sometimes the 

 stables, and occasionally the library or chapel. The incon- 

 venience of the arrangement is obvious ; under it compactness 

 was sacrificed to appearance. If these outliers looked out on to 

 the approach, their windows embarrassed the access to the front 

 door. If they looked the other way, they turned their dull 

 backs upon the main approach. Windows suitable for a kitchen 

 had to be balanced by similar windows in the stables which 

 were not suitable ; or, as an alternative, sham windows were 

 employed. Designers found themselves obliged to resort to 



FlG. 115. Plan of Stoke Bruerne, Northamptonshire. 



devices of one kind or another, which sacrificed the convenience 

 of one block in order to assimilate it in appearance to the other. 

 Nor did the sacrifice stop here ; it affected more or less the 

 whole house. The mistaken claims of " architecture " led to the 

 external appearance being considered as of the first importance ; 

 the internal convenience was modified to suit it. Not infre- 

 quently rooms were wrongly placed, wrongly lighted, awkwardly 

 shaped, given a bad aspect, or otherwise ill-handled, in order to 

 preserve the symmetry and proportion of the exterior. The 

 placing of the kitchen in a distant block, connected perhaps by 

 an open colonnade, must have been a great inconvenience both 

 to the family and the servants. But inconvenience counted for 

 little so long as an imposing edifice was secured. 



The introduction of this particular form of plan, with a 



