HOW TO ARRANGE COUNTRY PLACES. 167 



want of forethought and plan, regarding the location of what ir. 

 called the kitchen offices. By this, we refer, of course, to that wing 

 or portion of a country house containing the kitchen, with its store- 

 room, pantry, scullery, laundry, wood-house, and whatever else, more 

 or less, may be included under this head. 



Our correspondent, Jeffreys, has, in his usual bold manner, 

 pointed out how defective, in all cases (where the thing is not im- 

 possible), is a country house with a kitchen below stairs ; and we 

 have but lamely apologized for the practice in some houses by the 

 greater economy of such an arrangement. But, in truth, we quite 

 agree with him, that no country house is complete unless the kitchen 

 offices are on the same level as the principal floor containing the 

 living apartments. 



At first thought, our inexperienced readers may not see precisely 

 what this has to do with laying out the grounds of a country place. 

 But, indeed, it is the very starting point and fundamental substratum 

 on which the whole thing rests. There can be no complete country 

 place, however large or small, in which the greatest possible amount 

 of privacy and seclusion is not attained within its grounds, espe- 

 cially within that part intended for the enjoyment of the family. Now 

 it is very clear, that there can be no seclusion where there is no 

 separation of uses, no shelter, no portions set apart for especial pur- 

 poses, both of utility and enjoyment. First of all, then, in planning 

 a country place, the house should be so located that there shall be 

 at least two sides ; an entrance side, which belongs to the living, or 

 best apartments of the house ; and a kitchen side (or " blind side "), 

 complete in itself, and more or less shut out from all observation 

 from the remaining portions of the place. 



This is as indispensable for the comfort of the inmates of the 

 kitchen as those of the parlor. By shutting off completely one side 

 of the house by belts or plantations of trees and shrubbery from the 

 rest, you are enabled to make that part more extensive and complete 

 in itself. The kitchen yard, the clothes-drying ground, the dairy, 

 and all the structures which are so practically important in a country 

 house, have abundant room and space, and the domestics can per- 

 form their appointed labors with ease and freedom, without disturb- 

 ing the different aspect of any other portion of the grounds. There 



