34 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
In the French palaces the ‘‘salle des fetes’ and dining- 
room were one and the same room, the fact of their being 
used for serving food being only one of their many usages. 
The meal was preceded by receptions and followed by music, 
by dancing and other performances. ‘This was the custom 
both at Versailles and kontainebleau. Likewise the banquet- 
ing halls, with their high ceilings and galleries, of the earlier 
days of the great English manor houses, were employed in 
an entirely different manner from the modern rooms where 
the family proper generally assembles for its meals several 
times a day at regular hours. 
From the ‘‘dining-parlor” of the later Elizabethan period 
our dining-room has gradually evolved. It is interesting to 
note that the later Elizabethan dining-rooms, as well as the 
earlier French rooms, were all so treated in materials and 
design that they might easily be cleaned. In the English we 
find, at least along the lower surfaces of the walls, large sur- 
faces of wooden paneling, and first six or seven feet above 
these the rough plaster and solemn rows of family portraits. 
In the French the paneling is delicately painted in white, 
grays or light greens carried all the way up to the ceiling, the 
broad surfaces of the paneling ornamented either with paint- 
ings of appropriate subjects like flower pieces, fruit, game, 
fish, etc., or the paneling itself decorated with similar appli- 
cations. Mirrors are generally omitted and wisely, as even 
the vainest find it trying to see themselves every time they 
look up during the meal. The French dining-rooms of the 
eighteenth century, like those of the Chateau de Rambouillet 
and of Marie Antoinette in the Petit Trianon, are thoroughly 
admirable and adapted to their purpose, and even if their 
style and magnificence place them entirely out of considera- 
tion for the ordinary housebuilder, still they are full of ex- 
cellent suggestions for the person who is desirous of weigh- 
ing the problem in even the most modest manner. 
The artificial lighting of 
the dining-room should be 
considered from the first. 
In this room, in opposition 
to others, diffused light 1s 
not desired, but concen- 
trated. Side brackets may 
truly be used in the panels 
or pilasters or surfaces of 
the side walls, to light the 
room, but only in a secon- 
dary capacity. The focus 1s 
the table, and around or 
above or on it the light 
should fall. The huge 
metal or even crystal chan- 
delier suspended in several 
tiers from the ceiling and 
centering as nearly as pos- 
sible on the mahogany slab 
has luckily to a great extent 
passed. ‘The hostess knows 
how unbecoming it is to her 
room, her dinner, and her 
guests. Placing your light 
directly on the table, that is, 
using candles, is unquestion- 
ably the most successful 
method of lighting — suc- 
cessful to the service, the 
table ornaments, the flowers 
and the women. ‘The can- 
dles, if properly shaded, 
throw the light down upon 
the silver and porcelain, and 
January, 1909 
do not obstruct the general view or reflect light directly in 
the faces of those surrounding. 
In the lighting, as in the other problems presented by the 
room, the table becomes the general governing factor. Even 
its outline will be found to modify to a certain extent the 
general pleasing or inharmonious effect. A round or oval 
board will always, if widely extended, look best in an oval 
room, and the correspondence should be similar in a rect- 
angular one. The table is the keynote of the design, as well 
as of the hospitality, the sociability and the intimacy of the 
builder. 
It must be apparent, therefore, that many other things 
than architectural exigencies influence and determine the de- 
sign of the dining-room. No room in the house is so power- 
fully affected by unarchitectural conditions and matters, and 
in no room do so many different things have determining 
weight. The.fact is the dining-room must be begun at the 
beginning of the house building. Its requirements are not 
only somewhat exact, but they are absolutely rigid, and in 
no other room is a departure from the essentials attended 
with such disaster. 
It is, therefore, quite impossible to apportion such and 
such space to the dining-room without a most intimate 
and careful study of all the conditions. One can not even 
definitely determine the dimensions best suited to one’s own 
dining-room if the house is intended for prolonged occu- 
pancy. ‘The use that may be continuous for a few years, and 
which may seem to be always available, may quite suddenly 
prove to be inadequate, and the utmost discomfort may arise 
from a restricted area that, in the beginning, may have 
seemed quite adequate. 
One can not foresee such contingencies, and it may seem 
unreasonable to suggest them, but at least they point the value 
of giving as large an area as practicable to the dining-room. 
A richly furnished and decorated dining-room 
