XX. ABSTRACT OF PROCEEDINGS. 



to members of other communities. The earliest may be 

 classed as permanent, temporary or portable, the necessi- 

 ties of agriculture developing the permanent and thus 

 supporting Xenoplion's assertion that "Agriculture is the 

 Mother of the Arts." Passing to the sources of our infor- 

 mation, we have, besides actual remains, the evidence of 

 modern uncivilised peoples, of tombs and burial urns, of laws, 

 charters, customs and traditions. The earliest form prob- 

 ably the round, like a wigwam. 'Beehive' huts of stone 

 covered with a mound of earth are found in Greece and 

 Britain and are still in use in the Hebrides. The round form, 

 being inconvenient, disappeared as a usual dwelling-house, 

 but from its survival as the 'lire-house ' of the tribe and 

 then of the homestead and its connection with hearth 

 worship, its form was taken in Rome by the circular temples 

 of the Hearth-goddess. The rectangular form probably 

 derived from the use of 'forks' or pairs of inclined poles 

 supporting a ridge. Confining our attention to the dwell- 

 ings of Aryan races we may take first those of the pre- 

 Hellenic Greek, which may be broadly denominated ' My- 

 cenaean.' The general arrangement is based on an open 

 court or farmyard with the dwelling opposite the entrance 

 and stables, etc., on either side. In Hellenic Greece the 

 court-yard plan became, in town houses, the ' Peristyle ' 

 with rooms around. The women were secluded in apart- 

 ments lying beyond, in large houses round a second court. 

 The Etruscan house was originally a single room with a 

 square opening in the roof as exit for smoke. The Roman 

 adopted the Etruscan 'Atrium ' and the Greek 'Peristyle,' 

 and generally built a second story over part of the ground 

 floor. In Rome houses were generally let in 'flats,' and 

 were of four or perhaps more stories, always a result of 

 the limited space in walled cities. When we turn to our 

 Saxon and Scandinavian ancestors we find the hall the 

 nucleus of the dwelling ; shared by the Saxon farmer with 



