ENGLISH COTTAGE GARDENS 337 



wr } te Ditchfield's " English Cottages and their Doorway Gar- 

 dens." It is full of beautiful photographs. But every time I put 

 one hand over the cottage, its garden shrinks enormously in interest. 

 The soul of it is gone. Old cottages in England are always 

 either beautiful or picturesque, but on the practical side they are 

 invariably deficient. 



For instance, thatched roofs are dreams of beauty, and once 

 upon a time they were economical in England, but in America 

 they cost too much, and even in England it is against the law in 

 some districts to thatch new cottages. Small window panes are 

 poetic, but hard to clean. Rambling structures may be lovable, 

 but they multiply steps and waste a woman's strength. Crooked 

 stairs may be romantic, but they are dangerous. High roofs mean 

 a waste of room. 



The English cottage which nestles so sweetly among the ever- 

 blooming roses was developed before people knew anything about 

 germs and before the importance of ventilation and sunlight was 

 understood. Picturesqueness is almost invariably associated with 

 dirt, and dirt breeds disease. Dearly as I love the picturesque 

 I would not buy it at the cost of healthfulness. It hurts me to 

 say so, but pictures queue ss always means increased cost, both for 

 construction and maintenance; and it usually means unsanitary 

 conditions. (See plate 108.) 



Indeed, we enormously overrate the value of the picturesque 

 as contrasted with the beautiful. The traveller finds the former 

 more entertaining, but for living purposes the latter wears best 

 (contrast the beautiful and picturesque on plate 109). Now 

 the beauty of English cottages is chiefly due to the national quality 

 in their architecture. But this grew out of their conditions 

 climatic, economic and historical not ours. For instance, the 



