276 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN 



FUENISHING 



Books on furnishing Smoking Morris's 'Lectures on Art' London 

 houses New and second-hand furniture Curtains versus blinds 

 White paint Bookcases Bed-rooms Bath-rooms Bedding 

 Useful tables Kain-water. 



I MUST give you a few of my views about furnishing, 

 especially as I cannot say to you, ' Get such-and-such a 

 book, and you will know all I know.' I can name no book 

 that seems to me at all satisfactory on modern furnishing. 

 One published in 1887 and called ' From Kitchen to 

 Garret,' by J. E. Panton, has gone through many 

 editions, and contains useful and practical hints, but I do 

 not at all agree with a good deal that it says. It recom- 

 mends what I call upholstering far too much, and the 

 overcrowding and decorating of rooms, and is not nearly 

 simple enough. I should say to any young housekeeper, 

 * Get the book and learn what you can from it, but reserve 

 to yourself a very keen judgment about many things that 

 it advises.' As an example, I will mention that the 

 author grudges a man, as a matter of expense (!), his 

 cigarette and cigar. I know no one single thing that 

 gives a woman half the pleasure that smoking gives a 

 man ; so, as an economy, many things in a house might be 

 given up first. If smoking is supposed to be bad for a 

 man, persuade him to smoke less ; and I believe there is no 

 better way of inducing him to do this than to allow him to 

 smoke in every room in the house drawing-room, dining- 

 room, mother's bedroom, nursery. There is no greater 



