DOMESTIC ARRANGEMENTS OF THE PERIOD 247 



form part of old houses, inasmuch as places had to be provided 

 for storing most of the things which are now retained by the 

 shopkeeper until his carts take them to his customers. It also 

 partly explains how it was possible to have each side of the 

 house a show-front, for there was less outside traffic when there 

 were no tradesmen's carts, although there was always a staff of 

 servants going in and out. The servants are placed either in a 

 basement or in an outlying wing, never in proximity to the 

 principal rooms ; at the same time, in order to gain their rooms 

 in the attics, they generally had to cross either the hall or one 

 of the rooms intended for the family. The effect of this was 

 that they were less conveniently placed for service than they are 

 in the present day, and yet they could not gain their bedrooms 

 without the risk of intruding on the family. 



In many instances the kitchen \vith its dependencies 

 occupied an outlying wing, and the food had to be brought a 

 long distance, and frequently through an open corridor. The 

 inconvenience of this arrangement must have outweighed the 

 advantage of getting the smells and noise of the kitchen away 

 from the house. The family rooms were the chief concern 

 of the designer, and his aim was to make them stately. The 

 arrangement most often adopted was to have a large entrance 

 hall, and beyond it a dining-room ; on either side were two 

 or more rooms with a staircase between them. The hall 

 occupied two stories in height, being as much as 30 ft. or 

 36 ft. high, and it must have been cold and cheerless, if grand. 

 The principal rooms were lofty, and over each was another 

 of the same size ; in some instances small rooms of less height 

 were placed next to the staircases, thus enabling others over 

 them to be reached from a landing half-way up " intersoles," 

 as Gibbs calls them. The same device had already been 

 adopted by Hawksmoor at Easton Neston. The symmetrical 

 disposition of the rooms favoured the placing of their doors 

 in a straight line so that long vistas could be obtained, and 

 although Gibbs prides himself on providing passages which 

 rendered every room private, there were usually doors of 

 intercommunication, and many of the rooms suffered from a 

 multiplicity of entrances. The passages were evidently a con- 

 cession to modern ideas, and were often ill-lighted from openings 

 into the hall. The observance of strict symmetry sometimes 

 led to the provision of two equally important staircases where 



