HOUSES AND GARDENS 



buildings, and suggest a basis for a scheme which would be quite satisfactory, 

 both artistically and practically, for the holiday house, and in all the details 

 of the house safety from ugliness may be found in eschewing as far as possible 

 the products of the town factory. 



The simplest type of holiday dwelling is the tent, which, although only 

 suited for use by hardy people, in favourable weather at least, brings one 

 closer to Nature than any more permanent habitation. And what possibilities 

 of beauty are to be found in the artistic treatment of the tent. One may 

 imagine it striped in shades of green, showing as some strange tropical growth 

 in a meadow, or in some dainty little encampment one may catch a glimpse 

 of gay banners. But, beautiful as the tent may become, it is essentially a 

 fair-weather dwelling. For permanent dwellings of the simplest kind, one 

 may try to realise some of the primitive types of human habitations. The 

 huts of savage races may be studied as examples of how it is possible to 

 achieve a romantic beauty in the simplest kind of structure. 



And for those, in these material and commercial days, who still dare to 

 "think nobly" of the home as Malvolioof the soul it may be possible to 

 realise in the dim recesses of some woodland such a dainty dwelling as to 

 some chance wanderer from the town might seem to sum up and express 

 the very spirit of the forest. 



At the seaside, it must be remembered, you cannot count on that natural 

 weathering and vegetation of the exterior which helps to harmonise the 

 house and its surroundings in country districts inland, and so, instead of 

 painting the coast red with bricks and tiles, it will generally be better to 

 adopt the formula of white walls and green slate roof. In chalk districts, 

 the local use of flints may be noted and adopted, or walling may be constructed 

 of beach-stones. 



In the smaller kinds of holiday houses, however, a wooden structure, 

 which is so designed that it can be readily moved, may meet the demands of 

 those who are content to dispense with material comforts in a temporary 

 shelter from the elements. Here the roof may be formed of prepared canvas, 

 and the dwelling represent but a slight improvement on the tent or the 

 gipsy's caravan. The whole of the appointments of such a little dwelling, 

 modelled on those of the yacht, should be compact and serviceable, and it 

 might well be fantastically adorned with brightly painted chamferings. 



Of the four designs for holiday houses illustrated, the first has been 

 described in the Studio for July 1 904. 



One of the disadvantages, from an economical point of view, of the house 

 which consists of one storey only, is that much space is often wasted in the 

 roof, especially in cases where the use of tiles makes it desirable that this 

 should^ be high-pitched. In the plans for the country cottage illustrated, it 

 has been arranged that the roof-space should be fully occupied by making 

 the bedrooms partly on the ground floor and partly as attics in the roof, 

 while in the hall the inclusion of the roofing in the room gives a constructive 

 character which it is difficult to obtain in a room with a flat ceiling. The 

 hall thus appears to be, indeed, the house itself, and not a mere compartment. 

 Q 109 



