MR. URBAN AND A COUNTRY HOUSE. 287 



" I am tired of the gloom of north exposures," he 

 writes ; " wood-fires are very well, but the blaze of 

 them is not equal to the blaze of sunshine. Do what 

 you will with the north side, but the parlor must look 

 to the south, and the library (of course) and the din- 

 ing-room, and without going up-stairs there must, 

 if possible, be a billiard- room and a bed-room, looking 

 the same sunny way. In brief, my notion is, to have 

 a house with plenty of room, and no north side to it. 

 Can the problem be solved ? 



" I don't care for shape, if it be only picturesque, 

 and meet the wants I have named above. A con- 

 siderable slope of the land toward the west upon the 

 locality I have chosen, (keeping all the old charming 

 views in leash) will admit of an airy basement at the 

 western end, and full windows (two of them) to the 

 south. This would furnish a good spot for billiards, 

 if you can contrive a respectable stairway down from 

 the hall ; and if the billiard-room opens out west- 

 wardly into a special conservatory, where one can 

 smoke his cigar to kill the red spiders (or green ones, 

 I forget which), all the better. 



" What on earth you will do with the north side 

 of the house under this ruling of windows and wants, 

 I don't know. I should say a long picture-gallery, 

 if I had pictures. What if it were to be a blank 

 wall with ivies growing over it ? But then there's 



