House and Garden 
of the rural homes in great pro¬ 
fusion, and often a species of 
cherry tree is trained to spread its 
branches out flat and fan-like on 
the house surface. This greenery 
is a great help in blending the 
dwellings harmoniously with their 
surroundings. -They lose their 
artificiality and establish such 
close relations with the earth and 
its growths that they seem to have 
originated as much with nature 
as with man. 
The windows in the older 
houses do not match each other 
in size, shape, or placing. They 
have small leaded panes, often 
diamond shaped, that are delight¬ 
fully quaint and pleasing. These 
windows do not slide up and down as do 
ours, but they open outwards on hinges as 
casements. Their attractiveness is heightened 
by a strip of lace curtain hung across the 
lower half, and there are usually side curtains 
also, or a curtain that lets down from the 
top. The last was, in my experience, a 
nuisance; for the contrivances which manip¬ 
ulated it were nearly always irritatingly 
feeble or absolutely decrepit. Another 
feature of the window is a wide inside sill. 
The house walls are substantial and some¬ 
times approach two feet in thickness; so 
there is ample window-sill space for plants, 
or shelf-room, or a seat. 
A COTTAGE IN THE NEW FOREST 
COTTAGES AT SWAY, HANTS 
Few country houses have a cellar, and the 
kitchen is almost certain to be paved with 
stone, brick or tile. Not infrequently the 
other apartments on the ground floor are 
similarly paved. The kitchen often has no 
ceiling save the beams and boards of the 
floor above, and such simplicity of construc¬ 
tion helps to make its aspect very interest¬ 
ingly ancient. 
Nearly every house has great old-fashioned 
fireplaces, and these are so built into the 
walls that they could not be removed with¬ 
out large expense and damage. The result 
is that people have let these old caverns 
remain, but have filled in the lower half with 
masonry in which is built what 
is a cross between a small fireplace 
and a stove. An open grate oc¬ 
cupies the middle of the space, 
flanked on one side by a water- 
tank and on the other side by an 
oven. There are homes that 
have American stoves, but you 
do not find them often, and 
most of the women have the im¬ 
pression that these stoves are very 
difficult things to manage. 
The open grates burn a great 
deal of coal for the amount of 
heat they give out, and in the 
dull, chilly days of winter the 
houses are at times very uncom¬ 
fortable. This discomfort is due 
in part to the loss of heat up the 
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