HOUSES AND GARDENS 



the interior without destroying its repose, or making it unduly subject to the 

 changes of the external temperature. With the large window will also be 

 banished all its trappings and the Venetian blind, and the rest of the uphol- 

 stery with the cumbrous poles and rings will be replaced by a simple curtain 

 blind, on a light rod of brass or iron. 



Many people who regard the window mainly as a means of prospect 

 demand the large sheet of glass. Such a demand can, however, be generally 

 met by concessions introducing a larger pane of plate-glass to comniand a 

 particular view. Windows can be made large enough to meet such require- 

 ments without any serious drawbacks, but there are those who find a peculiar 

 pleasure in the prospect afforded by the smaller pane. The leaded line 

 becomes a bar of shade which seems to enhance the beauty of the landscape 

 it conceals, and yet reveals. Imagination, which is foiled by the bald com- 

 plete revelation of the plate-glass window, has here a chance to play its part, 

 and to weave a beauty of its own out of the actual facts partially displayed, 

 and the window becomes a picture gallery of separate scenes, each with its 

 own little frame. The type of window most suitable, at any rate in the 

 country and suburbs, is the casement opening outwards like a door. It is 

 the simplest to construct, and least likely to get out of order. As it enlarges 

 it increases horizontally in the low room, and in higher apartments it increases 

 vertically by one or more rows of lights separated by horizontal bars. The 

 long low type of window has a practical advantage which is not always 

 recognised. On a south aspect it may be left uncurtained without fear of 

 the direct rays of the sun raking the whole room. The sash window is more 

 suitable in the town than in the country, though it is a necessary part of the 

 house which is based on Georgian traditions. It is better adapted for lofty 

 rooms than low ones, and is not suited for the horizontal type of window 

 which is advocated for the average house. In its modern form it has been 

 much debased by the thinness of its cross-bars, but when these are of reasonable 

 thickness, and well moulded as in its earlier forms, it is more acceptable, but 

 it never achieves the simple constructional appearance of the casement. 



In the small house the casement window will, on economical grounds, be 

 constructed in wood, but in larger houses stone will be admissible, and this 

 building of the window-frame with the leaded glass let into the stone, 

 reduces the openings to their simplest structural form. There is no external 

 woodwork to require painting, and the whole exterior of the house will look 

 capable ot standing the weather. Stone window-frames are specially suitable 

 in the stone house of a stone district, and especially in bleak exposed 

 positions where woodwork often has a flimsy appearance. Casement window- 

 frames of both wood or stone should be simple and solid in their construction, 

 and should appear to be fully capable of carrying the wall over them without 

 the addition of concealed lintels or arches. The wooden casement is most 

 happily at home in the house framed in half timber, where its mullions 

 appear part of the general framing. 



In order to secure the feeling of enclosure from the outside world it is 

 desirable that the window sill should not be too near the floor, and to 



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