HOUSES AND GARDENS 



may be as wide as can be obtained, and of varying sizes, with a simple 

 capping, which in some cases may develop into a shelf. The ordinary 

 stained and varnished dado of V-jointed match-boarding of depressing 

 regularity is an example of the most degraded use of good material. The 

 V-joint represents a clumsy attempt to hide the opening of a joint, due to 

 the shrinkage of the timber, which deceives nobody. 



In the use of great planks of varying widths and somewhat roughly 

 finished, the timber still suggests in a far-off way the beauty of the wood- 

 land, and still in the varied planes of its surface retains something of its 

 individuality and tells of the workman and his tools ; and all this interest 

 should only be given up in the case of a material which, like mahogany for 

 instance, demands a higher finish to bring out its beauty. The wall above 

 this woodwork may either be the stone of the structure or perhaps brick- 

 work whitewashed or finished with trowelled plaster, or if some more 

 superficial treatment is adapted, the plaster may be modelled or stencil 

 decoration may be introduced. All these should, however, possess a real 

 beauty. They should be unique and individual, and few of the superficial 

 decorative materials of commerce will have the same claim to our regard as 

 the structural beauty they conceal. 



Apart from economical considerations probably the best superficial 

 material for the walls of a room is tapestry. A wall peopled with dim 

 figures, with trees, with fruit, flowers, and flowing streams, illustrating, 

 perhaps, some legend of " the supreme Caucasian mind," or of the Knights 

 of King Arthur, or, better still, some story entirely local and peculiar, will be 

 indeed well lost for such adornment, and on entering such a room one will 

 become a member of its goodly company, wandering in imagination by stream 

 and grove in a land where flowers always bloom and fruit hangs ripe on the 

 bough. 



Such surroundings are, however, only for those who having the means 

 have also the wit to choose such company for their life, and these are few 

 indeed. 



A simple form or wall hanging, and one which will be within the means 

 of the majority, is canvas unadorned. Specially suitable for a house by the 

 sea is the ruddy brown of the sails of fishing-boats, with above, perhaps, 

 a stencilled or modelled frieze of flying sea-gulls in white, grey and blue. 



Canvas of its natural undyed colour is also an excellent basis for 

 decoration, or if gilded it forms an excellent background for pictures 

 merging into the gilt of the frames connecting the pictures with the wall, 

 and absorbing them as it were into the decorative scheme, instead of 

 emphasising that detachment from their surroundings which makes the 

 picture too often appear an alien in the decorative community. 



A warmer scheme may be inaugurated with canvas dyed a dull red and 

 decorated with stencilling in dim gold, or green and blue canvas may form 

 a basis for cooler arrangements of colour. 



If wall papers are adopted the quality of texture must be given up to 

 some extent, though some of the plain ingrain papers with their rough 

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