HOUSES AND GARDENS 



When the dinner is being laid the curtains which screen the recess from 

 the room may be drawn across the opening, the table being laid from the small 

 serving-room adjoining the dining recess, and so it is not necessary for the 

 servant to pass through the hall at all. When the dinner is ready one may 

 imagine the curtains drawn, displaying the table bright with dainty glass and 

 flowers, lighted by a central hanging lamp or candles against the dark back- 

 ground or the seats. And so, apart from the obvious practical advantages, 

 the effect would be far more artistic than the ordinary arrangement of the 

 dining-table, which lacks focus, and from any point of view hardly composes 

 pictorially. There would be something also specially charming from the dimly 

 lighted hall, in the effect of the suddenly parted curtains, and that suddenly 

 revealed brightness of glass and silver. Not only is an internal effect gained 

 in this way, which is more interesting than the ordinary arrangement of the 

 dining-table, but everything may be worked with a minimum amount of labour 

 and with that quiet orderliness which may have been felt to be an impossibility 

 in the cramped conditions of the small house. The position of the recess 

 would be such as to allow of ample ventilation, and the serving would be done 

 from the front unoccupied side of the dining-table, while, if on special occa- 

 sions the recess proved too small to accommodate the guests, it might be 

 supplemented by an additional table in the hall. 



In seeking so to satisfy the claims of the imagination as well as the 

 practical needs, one is tempted to take a step further in the process, and to 

 dream of a table thus arranged, further adorned with piles of luscious fruit 

 and nuts, rather than with steaming joints. 



Vegetarianism, in a meat-consuming world, is yet for most of us a counsel 

 of perfection. It is only those cast in heroic mould who can accept what Mrs. 

 Earle, in her fascinating book, describes as " servants' cheese " as a substitute 

 for tempting dishes. The non-meat eater at the board is in much the same 

 position as the non-cannibal at a feast of " long pig ;" but as it has been possible 

 to wean the cannibal from preying on his fellow-man, so it may also be pos- 

 sible to wean the civilised man from devouring his fellow-animal, and the 

 dining-table of the future household will no longer be disfigured by the family 

 joint, or the streets of the future town by the butcher's shop. 



In the further development of the dining-room as a separate apartment, it 

 may appear as a room adjoining the hall, and preferably connected with it by 

 a wide doorway. It should be so placed that service can be effected from the 

 kitchen without passage through the other parts of the house. If it is still 

 occasionally used as a sitting-room, a recessed fireplace is a desirable feature, 

 especially when the room is not very large. The fire will not then scorch the 

 backs of those seated at the table, and an ample space will be provided for a 

 fireside circle. 



Professor Kerr has insisted that a dining-room should be of northward 

 aspect, and he has characterised a dining-room with a southern aspect as "oven- 

 like." This dictum is largely due to the tradition of over-windowing rooms, 

 which is still so much practised, for if the south dining-room is oven-like, all 

 other southern rooms demand the same description. This matter will be 



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