HOUSES AND GARDENS 



was called the butt and the reception end the ben, and where a visitor was 



invited to " come ben." 



It helps to preserve that wholeness of the plan which is so helpful in 

 securing beauty in the home. Such a form of drawing-room I prefer to call 

 the " bower," which admirably suggests its daintiness of treatment, and later 

 on will be found an example illustrated and described. Open as it is to the 

 hall it shares in its spaciousness, and in the warmth of the central fire, and its 

 occupants do not feel that sensation of confinement which makes the small 

 room so oppressive. It bears indeed the same relation to the hall as the 

 verandah or garden room does to the outside world. 



It has already been pointed out that the hall itself during the hours of 

 the more formal calls will probably be unoccupied, and so the visitors in the 

 bower need not be entertained in a separate apartment, while those more 

 intimate friends who may pay a later visit require no isolation from the 

 family circle in the hall. 



In the larger establishment the drawing-room may be considerably increased 

 in size, though the wholeness of the plan may still be retained by the use of 

 sliding doors dividing it from the hall, giving on special occasions a large 

 apartment. Or again it may become specialised as a reception room, so 

 constantly used that it no longer fulfils its function as a private sitting-room 

 for the mistress of the house. And so a boudoir is added to the plan for this 

 purpose, and in special cases the germ of the bower develops into a series or 

 state reception rooms, till the whole establishment becomes given up to the 

 guests, and the family take refuge in a private suite of apartments. 



CHAPTER SIX 



THE STUDY 



AVING considered the mistress's withdrawing room from the 

 central hall, we must now deal with the master's withdrawing 

 room the study or "den." In the first instance, considering 

 the smallest kind of house, to what extent, it may be asked, 

 is this a necessary extension of the plan ? To the average 

 occupant of the small house, who spends his days away from home and 

 his evenings in the room occupied by the family, the study is not always 

 necessary and would probably be seldom used. It would be, at any rate, 

 worth giving up to secure a central apartment of ample size. If we 

 assume a house already shorn of its drawing-room, with the bedroom of its 

 mistress appropriated as partial sitting-room, where shall the master of the 

 house betake himself on those occasions when he desires privacy and solitude ? 

 With the special retreats already provided for the other members of the 

 household he may possibly claim the hall itself on these occasions, but the 

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