DESIGN 179 



needs of the small town residence, then as now. And 

 in the restricted area of a town plot, the country dwell- 

 er's desire for a compactness which meant convenience, 

 was superseded by the wish to expand as far as possible 

 — to leave as much land about the house free and un- 

 obstructed as might be, and to remove the odors of the 

 stable yard to as great a distance from the house as the 

 size of the plot would permit. 



Hence we have the house at one end — right on the 

 street line usually — with the outbuildings, under one 

 roof very often, at the extreme other end. If there was 

 a garden or small family orchard, it of course lay be- 

 tween. This is the arrangement which we usually see 

 now ; in only one respect in fact have our present towns 

 and suburban districts altered this earliest plan — and 

 this change is not a change in plan, in the sense of de- 

 sign. But in the old days the garden wall was an 

 essential part of the scheme, north, south and between. 

 No one would have thought of omitting it, any more 

 than he would have thought of omitting the bolts on 

 his front door. Within this wall lay the individual's 

 own world, a place whose boundaries were jealously 

 marked and guarded. Public highways harbored very 

 real dangers long after the wilderness beyond the town 

 had ceased to be wilderness; a high and sturdy wall 

 was an actual protection, therefore, and from much 

 more than prying eyes. 



