276 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN 



FUBNISHING 



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

 houses — New and second-hand furniture — Curtains verstcs blinds 

 — White paint — Bookcases — Bed-rooms — -Bath-rooms — ^Bedding 

 — Useful tables — Eain-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 modem furnishing. 

 One pubUshed 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 wUl 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 



