HOUSES AND GARDENS 



to fulfil its functions. He knows better than to occupy valuable space with 

 unnecessary articles of furniture, and is not without experience, perhaps of 

 that strange and dreadful tyranny which these mere inarticulate objects are 

 capable of exercising over their so-called possessors, now become their slaves. 

 But here he touches on the confines of a great cult, a religion whose votaries 

 are to be found in almost every family. These household gods are enshrined 

 in rooms willingly given up for their occupation and sacred to their 

 worship. They have no use, they have no beauty even. They are gods, 

 and it remains but to worship them, keep them clean and hidden from the 

 vulgar gaze. From this idolatry the modern householder must be set free 

 before it becomes possible to achieve domestic surroundings which are rational 

 and beautiful. 



In seeking for a basis for a plan the governing factor will necessarily be 

 the requirements of the average family, and if the matter is considered 

 carefully, it will be found that these requirements represent a fairly constant 

 quantity. It is important that the plan should be adjusted to meet these 

 requirements, and that the accommodation provided should neither be too 

 large or too small ; for the large house is not always a thing to be desired. 

 It necessarily involves not only expenditure in building, but also expense in 

 maintenance, and so it is apt to become a costly incubus to its occupants. 

 On the other hand, a house which is small and cramped is still less to be 

 wished for, involving as it does a loss of privacy and much friction both 

 physical and mental between its inmates. A house should be spacious enough 

 to allow of its occupants to move easily about without getting into each 

 other's way or tumbling over the furniture, and compact enough to make it 

 easily and economically cleaned and worked. More than this, the average 

 family should not require, nor should it be contented with less, and while the 

 house should contain all the best appliances for saving of labour it should also 

 minister to the mind, and represent the striking of a nice balance between the 

 utilitarian scientific ideal on the one hand and the assthetic on the other. 

 Whatever beauty it possesses should be based on sound and rational planning 

 and construction. In its features it should not aim at realising the latest 

 things in doors, fireplaces, or windows, but the simplest and most rational 

 type of these, and its beauty will largely depend in the omission of much 

 which is vulgar, unnecessary, and expensive in the ordinary house. In gloomy 

 weather, it must provide an interior in which one will not find it irksome or 

 unhealthy either for mind or body to be confined, and a haven which will go 

 far to compensate for sunless days. 



If, with a view to secure these good ends, the family unit is subjected to 

 analysis it will be found to be capable of division into two factors, the family 

 and the servants representing two alien communities to be sheltered under the 

 family roof. No longer do the early conditions obtain which made it possible 

 for these to co-mingle, and for the comfort and wellbeing of each it will be 

 well that they should each have a certain degree of privacy. Again, the 

 family itself is divisible into parents and children, and outside the family itself 

 the claims of the visitor must be considered. It is, indeed, the claims of the 

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