DESIGN 
179 
needs of the small town residence, then as now. And 
in the restricted area of a town plot, the country dwell¬ 
er’s desire for a compactness which meant convenience, 
was superseded by the wish to expand as far as possible 
—to leave as much land about the house free and un¬ 
obstructed as might be, and to remove the odors of the 
stable yard to as great a distance from the house as the 
size of the plot would permit. 
Hence we have the house at one end—right on the 
street line usually—with the outbuildings, under one 
roof very often, at the extreme other end. If there was 
a garden or small family orchard, it of course lay be¬ 
tween. This is the arrangement which we usually see 
now; in only one respect in fact have our present towns 
and suburban districts altered this earliest plan—and 
this change is not a change in plan, in the sense of de¬ 
sign. But in the old days the garden wall was an 
essential part of the scheme, north, south and between. 
No one would have thought of omitting it, any more 
than he would have thought of omitting the bolts on 
his front door. Within this wall lay the individual’s 
own world, a place whose boundaries were jealously 
marked and guarded. Public highways harbored very 
real dangers long after the wilderness beyond the town 
had ceased to be wilderness; a high and sturdy wall 
was an actual protection, therefore, and from much 
more than prying eyes. 
