CONSERVATORY. 



45 



all other working departments connected with it, as 

 well as the proper place for the living rooms and dor- 

 mitories of the servants. — Ed. 



Conservatory. — Among the various appendages 

 which it is desirable that a mansion-house should pos- 

 sess, none is more important than the conservatory, 

 which, when happily j^laced, may be regarded as an 

 extension of the drawing-room, or at least, if it is in 

 the vicinity of the house, and properly connected with 

 it, it is of admirable convenience as a place of walking 

 and of recreation in all kinds of weather. If possible, 

 it should be contiguous to some one of the public rooms 

 or the corridor ; if the drawing-room can be made to 

 open into it, or communicate with it by a short corri- 

 dor, so much the better; but it is most desirable that 

 it should be easily accessible by the family without 

 their leaving the house, or doing more, at most, than 

 passing along a glazed passage or veranda. "When the 

 conservatory enters into the original arrangements, 

 one or other of these expedients may generally be 

 practicable ; but if it is entirely an after-thought, it 

 sometimes happens that a suitable site for it cannot be 

 obtained. It has wants of its own. It requires free 

 air and open sunshine, and would be rendered useless 

 were it shaded by the house. It obviously cannot 

 stand on the northern side of the mansion ; and if the 

 drawing-room has a central position in that direction, 

 it is evident that no immediate connection can be estab- 

 lished between them. There is nothing, however, in 

 itself, to prevent it from occupying such a site on any of 

 the other three sides as will harmonize with the other 

 buildings of the house, or will suit the internal arrange- 

 ments and communications. In general, it is easier to 



