LE NID 



IN modern times the house of the average citizen is necessarily a somewhat 

 prosaic affair. It has been my endeavour to show how far some quality 

 of romance may be introduced into its scheme, so that the man who is justly not 

 content with bread alone may find in his home some solace for the imagination 

 some stuff of which dreams may be made. 



In the dwelling, which it is now my purpose to describe, less rigorous 

 restrictions have made possible a fuller expression of decorative ideals. To 

 describe it I must transport the reader to a dim pine-wood in Roumania, 

 a wood such as that of which Swinburne sings : 



Far Eastward and Westward the sun-coloured lands, 

 Shine bright as the light on them smiles, 

 While fairer than temple uplifted by hands, 

 Tall column by column the Sanctuary stands, 

 Of the pine-forest's infinite aisles. 



There is surely nothing in Nature quite so architectural in character as a 

 pine-wood. Under foot is the brown carpet of the pine-needles, and around 

 in endless perspective the tall columns of the trees, while above one catches 

 glimpses of dusky orange branches set in sombre green. The air is heavy 

 with the incense of the trees, and no tangled undergrowth obstructs the floor 

 save where the pale green of bracken shimmers in a misty light amidst the 

 purple trunks. 



If in such a wood one were to seek a dwelling, surely one would expect 

 to find, as Psyche did, the " hostelry of a god," or at least the woodland 

 retreat of some goddess of the groves. 



It would not seem unfitting that these columns should support such 

 a structure perched like a nest under the vaulting of the spreading branches. 



It is in such a wood that " Le Nid " is built. The floors of its chambers 

 are formed by horizontal pine-trunks secured to the trees enclosing a some- 

 what irregular space. Its walls are of a like rustic character, and its roof 

 of dark-toned thatch, so that the whole structure seems in harmony with the 

 trees which support and surround it. 



But while this general roughness and rustic character seems essentially 

 appropriate in such a situation, it will be necessary to explain that it differs 

 materially from those arrangements of squirming and tortured branches 

 which have so corrupted modern rustic work with evil associations. The 

 columns which support the roof and the balcony, which partly surrounds 

 " Le Nid," present the subtle vital curves of healthy unobstructed growth, 

 and not the contorted and bizarre convulsions of trees stunted and blighted 

 by unfavourable surroundings. 



On reaching this balcony, poised so high above the earth, it seems inevit- 

 able that the mystic influences of the dim incense-breathing wood should 

 suggest Rossetti's lines : 



The blessed damosel leaned out 

 From the gold bar of Heaven. 

 138 



