HOUSES AND GARDENS 



carpets are also of great beauty, and have been so long associated with 

 Western furnishings, that they do not seem to demand an Oriental character 

 in the treatment of the rooms they occupy. 



This is not the case, however, with many other traditional types of carpet, 

 which are only possible in rooms furnished in the traditional styles. 



Cheap carpets may be obtained of jute, but when dyed these are rarely to 

 be relied upon, and, if used, it is better that they should be undyed, and this 

 natural " string colour " will form an excellent floor covering for a cottage- 

 like room. 



Some allusion has been made to that silent tyranny which inanimate things 

 have the power of exercising over their possessors. This tyrannical attitude 

 is chiefly noticeable in the carpet, and to reduce it to a proper subjection a 

 yearly beating with rods is necessary. In the case of rugs, this annual 

 drubbing is not demanded, and an occasional shaking is all that is required. 

 In most cases it is therefore desirable that carpets should not be universally 

 used in the house, and that they should be easily removable. 



CHAPTER THIRTY ONE 



THE HOUSE IN RELATION TO ITS SITE 



If God has made the country, then may God 



At least complete the country house; 



So let the humble artist stand aside, 



Prepare the canvas and the palette set 



For those sure hands 



Which touch by touch add purple to his roofs, 



And clothe his walls with woodbine and with rose. 



HE success of the artist in house-building will largely depend 

 on his faculty for recognising the demands of the genius loci. 

 Robert Louis Stevenson, in his " Gossip of Romance," has 

 shown how the aim of the writer of fiction should be to fit to 

 a particular place its appropriate story, to make the right thing 

 lappen in the right place, and so satisfy the imagination of the reader. 

 And so the architect must try to express in his building the spirit of the 

 country-side. So far from forming the blot on the scene which the modern 

 country house or cottage so often is, it must be, if possible, an added beauty, 

 appearing to interpret and explain the character of the surrounding country, 

 and supplying that human note without which its appeal would be less 

 intimate. 



To explain this relation between the house and its surroundings, one must 

 turn to the old buildings, and think first of some village in Kent or Surrey, 

 with its cluster of purple roofs ana timber-framed walls. There is no 



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