The Country Mansion 



NDER the head of "Country Mansions" may be grouped a number of houses which 

 are smaller in size than the great palace. It would be a mistake to imagine that 

 the largest houses are alone of interest. As a matter of fact, their size may be the 

 single quality which attracts attention to them, and it is quite possible for the smaller 

 house to be more carefully designed and to be a more important work of architecture than 

 its more pretentious neighbor. At all events, it is the lesser house which will be the typical 

 country house of the future; for the palatial house must always be the exceptional one, since 

 millionaires, notwithstanding their increase, are likely always to remain in the minority. 



But one does not need to be a millionaire to possess a beautiful country home, nor is 

 size an element essential to the interest of a country residence. The smaller house is often 

 very charming, beautifully designed, admirably built, richly furnished, and thoroughly com- 

 plete in all its appointments and surroundings. Two or three examples of houses of this type 

 will make clear the fact that the real architectural interest of any house is summed up in its 

 artistic qualities. If a house be good and true and beautiful, the question of its size — and of 

 its cost also, it is well to note — is of no moment. 



The House of Price Collier, Esq., at Tuxedo, New York. 



Mr. Price Collier's house, at Tuxedo, New York, is a case in point. It is charmingly 

 placed on a mountain side, on one of the beautiful sites for which Tuxedo is famous. It is 

 built of red brick with white trimmings. Its mass is agreeably broken into projections and 

 wings which have a definite relationship to the plan, and the high pointed roof is a dignified 

 crowning member, that has been treated in a masterly way. If the front of the house be that 

 at which a guest descends from his carriage, then, paradoxical as it may seem, the front of this 

 house is at the back. The plan, in truth, is exceedingly clever; for the house, standing on 

 a hillside, required that the main porch should overlook the valley by which it is approached. 

 To make this porch the entrance porch would have destroyed its privacy. The porte-cochere, 

 therefore, is carried to the other side, where it is built before the door by which the house is 

 usually entered. 



Here is the entrance hall, with the stairs to the upper floor. Large folding doors admit 

 one to a larger hall which opens directly on to the main porch overlooking the valley. On one 

 side are the drawing-room and study, the latter entered from the entrance hall; on the other is 

 the dining-room, with a nursery behind, and a passage connecting with the kitchen, pantry, 

 and servants' hall, all of which are placed in the farther wing, quite separated from the Hving 

 portions of the house. 



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