HOUSES AND GARDENS 



most suitable position for his retreat seems to be in the attics. Here a pic- 

 turesque and attractive room can be formed with little expense. With a good 

 roof, boarded and felted under the tiles, such a room will not be greatly 

 affected by extremes in external temperature, and it will be sufficiently remote 

 to ensure him an absolute quiet. 



If, however, the study adjoins the hall, it may be separated from it by a 

 solid wall, and possibly by double doors. It is in the development of the 

 master's room that the special plan chiefly consists. For the literary or 

 scientific man it will require a complete isolation from noise, and its constant 

 use will justify the appropriation on its behalf of a somewhat greater portion 

 of the house space than would otherwise be allotted to an individual member 

 of the family group. For the artist it will expand into a studio, for the medical 

 man into a consulting room, and perhaps a waiting-room, with their separate 

 entrance. In the case of the artist, especially when a somewhat large room 

 is desirable as a studio, under economic restrictions the central hall may per- 

 form this function during the day, when the other members of the family are 

 engaged either in their own special retreats or outside the house, and thus this 

 central hall will become the family room in the evening. 



CHAPTER SEVEN 



THE CHILDREN'S ROOMS 



HE full complement of children's rooms required for the 

 family will, besides the sleeping apartments, consist of three 

 the day-nursery for the younger children, the schoolroom 

 and playroom for their elders. It is unfortunate that 

 incomes do not vary directly with the size of families, and so 

 the streets of a town often present the anomalous condition of large 

 houses occupied by small families and small houses overcrowded with 

 large ones. On a winter's night in London, for instance, one may 

 observe the tenements of the poor crowded to overflowing with their 

 occupants, while the streets, too, are occupied by those who have not even 

 these apologies for homes ; and yet there are thousands of empty rooms in the 

 larger houses untenanted. 



Restricted means make it necessary to substitute a single apartment for 

 the night and day nurseries, in which case, if possible, the beds should be 

 placed in a recess. Or, again, a single room may fulfil the functions of play- 

 room and schoolroom. More rigorous conditions will demand that the elder 

 children prepare their lessons in the hall, and will deprive the children of their 

 private apartment, as it has already deprived the parents of theirs. It is still 

 maintained, however, that these successive deprivations should be faced in the 

 reduction of the plan, rather than the household be cramped by making the 

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