HOUSE AND GARDEN 
278 
November, 
1914 
Several problems were involved in the site, which is on a steep western hillside, with a roadway at the top. These were met by backing the house to the entrance 
with the front to the west, and building low and snug along the ridge with native materials 
British contemporaries, too, owe not a few of their felicitous forms 
of expression to Norman origins. 
Nearly all the way around the house, except at the gable ends, 
a small part of the back and the middle portion of the west front, 
the slope of the roof descends to the first floor, contributing there¬ 
by to the general air of repose. The arrangement by which all the 
dormers are countersunk with only their low-arched hoods pro¬ 
jecting above the surface of the roof is most admirable, and elimi¬ 
nates the fussy restlessness that dormers almost invariably create. 
Fortunately, the roof has been let severely alone, and in the 
course of two years sun and weather have had chance enough to 
warp and stain, so that texture and tone are good. Red earthen 
pots surmounting the square, white chimneys lend a welcome bit 
of color diversity, which is further harmoniously increased by the 
fascinating green-blue of the doors and shutters. 
The broad step before the house-door is made of the undressed 
flat sides of picked building stones laid randomwise. A rounded 
hood above, reminiscent partly of Germantown and partly of 
Queen Anne's Gate or Grosvenor Road, joins forces with the 
broad-paneled doors and shutters, the arched dormer heads and a 
long, straight, six-light transom in the living-room to represent the 
full extent of the structure's architectural affinity with early 
Eighteenth-Century modes. Crossing the threshold, one comes 
into a vestibule, and then up two steps into a barrel-vaulted, tile- 
paved gallery that extends across the front of the house and ends 
at the living-room door. “Wee House," as its name implies, is not 
large, but this broad, sunny gallery, lighted by three wide French 
windows that open on the terrace, gives an impression of ampli¬ 
tude and space and dignity that many a far larger dwelling com¬ 
pletely lacks. This bit of arrangement is truly ingenious, and, 
small as the house is, the space occupied can be readily afforded. 
One great secret of the ground-floor plan which makes this gal- 
lerv both possible and convenient, a luxury and a necessity at one 
and the same time, is that no unnecessary rooms have been in¬ 
cluded in the design. There is a kitchen, a pantry, a dining-room 
and a living room, and, if one wishes to escape to privacy and 
quiet, they can take refuge in the master's snug little study in the 
northwest wing. 
The gallery walls are rough sand-finished in their natural tone, 
but in the rectangular recessed panels over the radiators a de¬ 
lightful bit of color is introduced that stands out all the more 
(Continued on page 321) 
