GARDEN HOUSES 171 



coming. Therefore, should suggestions be sought for 

 garden ornaments, should architectural features be wanted 

 such as shadow houses, sundials, weather-vanes, fountain- 

 heads, we go for choice, not to modern art, but to those 

 carefully planned and well executed ones which remain 

 to us either in old pictures or in gardens. 



Let us turn for inspiration to those most delightful 

 rooms sometimes to be found near old country houses, 

 survivals of past days. When large dinners were given 

 to tenants who lived remote from other excitements, and 

 thus drove from miles around to attend these festivities, 

 undaunted by heavy roads, snowdrifts, or wind-swept 

 sleet, provision had to be made for their entertainment. 

 Often we find a long gallery or well-shaped room detached 

 from the stately red-brick Georgian house where could 

 be given ample accommodation to eighty or more guests. 

 Thus, these guests need not necessarily be admitted to 

 the state-rooms, but could enjoy themselves feasting 

 upon venison and wonderful pastry creations of the chef's 

 art, until speeches commenced or tables and chairs were 

 cleared away for dancing. 



Easy access was provided by a covered way to the 

 kitchen and stables, and the whole pleasure-party could 

 be carried on without interruption to the even tenor of 

 the big house. It is only occasionally that we come 

 across such rooms, yet how useful they are for country 

 fairs. Red Cross meetings, or boy scout inspections. One 

 house in Sussex, built by its owner to represent a perfect 

 copy of an Elizabethan manor-house, possesses such an 

 "annexe," which goes by the name of "The House 

 of Entertainment." 



