FLORA 



AND SYLVA. 



Vol. II. No. 19.] 



OCTOBER, 1904. 



[Monthly. 



GARDEN ROOMS AND LOGGIA. 



Outdoor summer life is agreeable to all, 

 but owing to the hard-and-fast ways of 

 our English architects its enjoyment is 

 made much more difficult than need be. 

 If they would travel in Italy, Austria, and 

 other countries, they might see how easy 

 it is to plan part of a house so that in it 

 we may enjoy the free air, warmth, and 

 shelter at the same time. In our country 

 one often has to get quite away from the 

 house to find any such comfort in warm 

 weather or grateful sunshine in winter. 

 True, in gardens of size there are ar- 

 bours or summer-houses, mostly too far 

 from the house for frequent use, rarely 

 quite dry, often overgrown, uninviting, 

 and for the most part abandoned to spi- 

 ders and other insects. Then there are 

 seats and lounges also, often beneath 

 trees of dense cover, and therefore open 

 to risk of chill in passing from the outer 

 warmth into the cooler currents that play 

 around such centres. The British dwel- 

 ling is often set down in its grounds, 

 four-square, ugly, and uncompromis- 

 ing; the house stops short dead, and you 

 must either be wholly in or wholly out, 

 the utmost concession being a draughty 

 porch — open to all comers, French win - 

 dows — which cannot be opened with- 



out cooling the entire house, or the con- 

 servatory in whose damp atmosphere one 

 cannot sit. What is wanted is a shelter 

 from immediate glare or treacherous air- 

 currents, which is pervaded freely by the 

 genial glowof surroundinglightandair; 

 it should also so form part of the house 

 as to allow of basking in the sun between 

 whiles, even on days of broken weather. 

 The value of such " sun-traps" as an aid 

 to health can hardly be overrated. It 

 should be easy to plan a loggi or "gar- 

 den-room" as part of the house upon its 

 sheltered side. It would be best on the 

 ground floor, but might also be made 

 (as it often is abroad) on the first floor. 

 One gain in this would be that the ser- 

 vants could get to it as easily as to any 

 other part of the house. In our country 

 it is unpleasant for them — as for others 

 — to cross grass or damp paths upon wet 

 days, whatever it maybe in fine weather. 

 This open-air room should be part of 

 e*/ery house. And when we make gar- 

 den-houses away from the dwelling, in- 

 stead of the "fuzzy" " summer-houses" 

 that are deserted after a few years, such 

 shelters should be built solidly to face 

 all weathers, the 4 £ rustic-work" of which 

 they are so often built beginning to rot 

 assoonasputup. Letus build, therefore, 



