Fie. I. 



The inevitable 



terrace plan. 



HOUSES AND GARDENS 



probably be enriched with all kinds of coarsely designed and mechanically 

 executed mouldings. Here, again, the same principle will lead us to avoid 

 any scheme of painting which emphasises these features by special colours for 

 the mouldings, or different shades of colour for panels ; and here again 

 disapproval of features of this kind can best be shown by painting all the 

 woodwork one uniform tint. Such a principle will, however, hardly serve us 

 in dealing with such important features as fireplaces, for instance. The more 

 important grates, which one may almost safely assume will be cast iron 

 coarsely designed and finished in shiny black, with a few highly ornamental 

 tiles let in the sides, and the overmantels, white enamelled probably, in the 

 drawing-room with all sorts of niches and shelves, must, if possible, be 

 removed to an attic, and a better and simpler fireside arranged, 

 so that it can be easily removed if necessary, and the old one 

 replaced when the house is given up. If, however, the house 

 is an older one, even if it belongs to the much-abused Early 

 Victorian period, the mantels may be of that simple type which 

 was almost universal, and thus possess a sort of negative virtue 

 in being at least not artistic ! Here it will be necessary to 

 remove the grate only and to fix above the shelf a small over- 

 mantel designed mainly as a background for ornaments. 



In many cases a few slight structural alterations may be 

 managed with an indulgent landlord. The house, if it is in 

 a terrace, at any rate it may be assumed, will be of the plan 

 shown in Fig. i. It is the recognised formula. From the 

 porch or vestibule, passing through the inner door with its 

 leaded glass, of which the least said the better, one enters the 

 narrow hall where the hat-stand is, and one looks beyond to 

 the long flight of stairs, with possibly a varnished pitch-pine 

 newel-post, which is as much too large as the balusters above 

 it are much too small, and which seems to have absorbed the 

 whole art of the stairs. Here, the first step in improving 

 the plan will be to remove the partition between the narrow 

 hall and the front sitting-room the opening being spanned 

 with a beam behind which a curtain is fixed. The hall 

 now becomes a recess in the front room which may be 

 screened with the curtain when required. The dismal passage 

 has disappeared. 



A further improvement may be made by forming a ceiling of wood panels 

 perhaps on fibrous plaster and wood at a low level to this recess, for its 

 ugliness as a passage even is much increased by the excessive ceiling height, 

 for in the suburban villa the height of its largest room is the height of its 

 narrowest passage. 



The staircase will also be shut off by another low opening with its beam 

 and curtain or even by a door. 



On entering from the porch of such a house, we are at once in a recessed 

 portion of the hall or house-place, with its liberal suggestion of space and 

 92 



FIG. 2. 



The above plan 

 modified as sug- 

 gested. 



