WAY-SIDE HINTS 



presided over by that wonderful host who so 

 quickened the story-teUing humors of the 

 Canterbury pilgrims of Master Chaucer? 



Then again, in our time, if one were to peel 

 away the verandas and the exterior corridors 

 from our vast watering-place hostelries, what 

 an arid baldness of wall and of character 

 would be left ! All sentiment, all glowing mem- 

 ories, all the music of girlish footfalls, all 

 echoes of laughter and banter and rollicking 

 mirth, and tenderly uttered vows would be 

 gone. 



King David, when he gave out to his son 

 Solomon the designs for the building of the 

 Temple, included among the very first of them 

 ( I Chron. xxviii. 1 1 ) the "pattern of a 

 porch." It is not, however, of porches of Shit- 

 tim-wood and of gold that I mean to talk just 

 now — nor even of those elaborate architec- 

 tural features which will belong of necessity 

 to the entrance-way of every complete study 

 of a country house. I plead only for some lit- 

 tle mantling hood about every exterior door- 

 way, however humble. 



There are hundreds of naked, vulgar-look- 

 ing dwellings, scattered up and down our 

 country high-roads, which only need a little 

 deft and adroit adaptation of the hospitable 



III 



