HOUSES AND GARDENS 



The broad and low passage which crosses the building from front door to 

 garden-room serves the artistic purpose of providing at the threshold a 

 fine vista effect as the first impression on entering the house, and the grey- 

 brown of its homely timbers, the creamy white of its plastered surfaces, and 

 the subtly varied shades of grey in its stone-flagged floor form a frame to 

 the brightness of the court beyond and the sun-flecked pavements and posts 

 of the pergola, while a hint of the hall is conveyed through the panes of dim 

 greenish glass in the screen. 



Practically this passage serves to disconnect the kitchen premises from 

 the rest of the house and to provide a ready means of access to the garden. 

 A small staircase, which does not attempt to assert itself as an artistic feature 

 in the plan, and which is concealed by the panelling on the passage wall, 

 gives access to the gallery which overlooks the hall and the servants' bed- 

 room over the kitchen. At the opposite end of the house, on the 'ground 

 floor, is the principal bedroom, with bathroom adjoining, and a second little 

 stair gives access to two attic bedrooms over these. An enlargement of the 

 plan, where more bedrooms were required, might consist of an extension of 

 this wing, and this might suggest the use of the principal bedroom as an 

 additional sitting-room, opening with a wide doorway into the hall, and thus 

 adding to the general floor-space of the house. 



In this little house it will be noted how structure everywhere replaces 

 superficial decoration. The modern tradition of house-building, which 

 strives to make of each room a rectangular box, lined with smooth plastered 

 surfaces, and which then proceeds to decorate these surfaces with superficial 

 materials covered with patterns, is here set aside in favour of the decorative 

 claims of mere building. Such decoration as is included in the scheme is 

 introduced mainly for some definite purpose, and thus the ornament on the 

 walls of the dining-recess gains in richness of effect in contrast to the relative 

 plainness of the hall itself, and helps to deepen the shadow under the beam 

 over this little alcove. 



The plan for the garden shown in connection with this country cottage is 

 submitted mainly as an illustration of certain principles of design in garden- 

 making. It is not suggested as a suitable scheme for any site, for each will 

 demand a special treatment. And in such treatment much will depend on 

 the due recognition of the possibilities of local features. In a cottage which 

 is only occupied for certain portions of the year, it is important at least for 

 those for whom the economical aspect of the matter cannot be ignored, that 

 both the building and the garden should be able to take care of themselves, 

 and the house and garden, as usually designed and furnished, may often prove 

 in this respect a costly incubus, demanding for its maintenance considerable 

 labour in repairs of the structure as well as much clipping and grooming 

 and weeding in the garden. 



As far as the house is concerned, it is not a difficult matter to make it 

 self-sustaining. It is. only necessary to apply those principles which have 

 already been dwelt on, and to omit all those cumbrous and useless fabrics 

 and furnishings which demand so much attention in the average house, 

 no 



