November, 1923 
51 
THE HOUSE af GARDEN BULLETIN BOARD 
T he two pages of Christmas gift suggestions that 
appear in this issue are only an appetizer for 
seven more to come in December. 
December, did we say? Here we are writing of 
December when September has scarcely begun, 
thinking of the Christmas Gifts Number while the 
flowers still bloom. And when December arrives, 
with its snow and ice, we’ll be thinking in terms of 
April and flowers! That’s where an editor has an 
advantage over other people—he experiences two 
waves of Christmas spirit, one in late summer and 
one in late December. And we are genuinely excited 
about this December issue because it will contain 
so many unexpected features. 
There will be the seven pages of gift suggestions 
mentioned above, and articles on period furniture 
and Oriental rugs about which we are running series 
and in the decorating series Miss Fakes will write 
on color schemes for hallways. These you’d natu¬ 
rally expect. But you will find something very 
unusual in the article on private chapels for country 
homes, a subject never considered, so far as we 
know, by a popular magazine. You’d be amazed 
at the number of country houses that are equipped 
with chapels. There is also an unusual side to the 
boat model article: it tells you how to make one; 
all the parts and processes are shown and explained. 
The subject of imitation flowers and when one can 
legitimately use them also has its unusual aspect. 
In addition to these we are quite sure you will find 
more than passing interest in the greenhouse article, 
in the description of a remodeled New York City 
home, in the garden of varying levels, designed by 
Prentice Sanger, in the illustrations of quoins, in the 
three houses that are grouped together and in the 
Little Portfolio of good Interiors. 
In fact, as we turn the imaginary pages of this 
Christmas Gifts Number we have a feeling that 
people will want to keep that issue, keep it for its 
beautiful illustrations, for its wealth of practical 
suggestions, for the things found here that are not 
to be found elsewhere. 
This issue will be coming to you on the 30th of 
the previous month, instead of the 25th as hereto¬ 
fore. The slight change in publicatiort date, we 
hope, will not confuse you at first. It should only 
add a sharper edge to the appetite. 
E ach year we find more and more people who 
become convinced that a crowded city is no 
place in which to live. And when we hear them 
express their new-found convictions we think of 
what George Gissing once wrote: “I should like 
to add to the Litany a new petition: For all in¬ 
habitants of great towns and especially for all such 
as dwell in lodgings, boarding houses, flats or any 
other sordid substitute for home which need or 
foolishness may have contrived. . 
Q uaintness has been the curse of much of 
the architecture of the last twenty years. The 
cottage idea has had the most baneful effect on 
the modern mind. Too many of the younger genera¬ 
tion have been brought up to believe that the best 
architectured house is the house with no architecture 
at alt, the country cottage that has just spon¬ 
taneously grown out of the ground. 
The sophisticated imitation of unsophisticated 
work has led to the horror of quaintness. The same 
spirit which induces confectioners to call their 
refreshment room “Ye Olde English Bunne Shoppe” 
causes builders to put up little chaotic houses, all 
nooks and crannies, with microscopic windows and 
an inordinate roof, and induces other misguided 
people to inhabit them. 
Of recent times there has, however, been a certain 
reaction away from the quaint towards a more 
definite, a more consciously artistic and (in the 
truest sense of the word) classical style of archi¬ 
tecture. 
A S this is the House Planning Number, it is 
natural that its pages contain a great deal of 
architectural material. It comes from quite a 
variety of sources. The work of no less than 
eighteen architects is shown. Those whose houses 
illustrate the article on “Why English Houses Are 
English”, of course are British architects. The 
same is true of Charles W’ade whose garden is 
shown on pages 56 and 57. Of the others, Aymar 
Embury II, Patterson-King, A. R. Hennell, Lewis 
Bowman and Prentice Sanger practice in New York; 
R. Brognard Okie in Philadelphia, and Koch & 
Armstrong in New Orleans. Mrs. Olive W. 
Barnewall, who contributes to the Little Portfolio, 
is a New York decorator. W’adley & Smythe, who 
designed and executed the rock path shown on 
page 59, are also in New York. The photographs of 
balconies on pages 65, 66 and 67 were collected by 
Harold Donaldson Eberlein. 
A nyone who has sniffed the sweet fragrance of 
. nicotiana or stocks in the dusk of a summer 
evening must feel that there is something cleansing 
and health-giving in sweet smells. So thought old 
John Evelyn, the famous i6th Century gardener 
and author of “Sylva” and other horticultural 
writings. He had a plan to make London the 
healthiest as well as the happiest city in the world 
by surrounding it with borders and hedges of sweet 
briar, jasmine, lilies, rosemary, lavender, musk 
and marjoram. 
T here is undoubtedly a popular bias in favor 
of furnishing the small country house with 
farmhouse furniture. It is generally believed that 
antiques must be obtained at all costs, since the 
right atmosphere can only be conveyed by a com¬ 
plete equipment of old Colonial pieces or reproduc¬ 
tions of them, Toby jugs, brass warming pans and 
old glass. 
It is easy to see how this convention has devel¬ 
oped. The first owner of a countrj^ cottage doubtless 
saw Colonial furniture, jugs and old glass galore 
in the kitchens of the farmhouses around, and 
immediately decided to furnish in similar style. 
He forgot, unfortunately, that the circumstances 
which had evolved the typical farmhouse interior 
might not apply in his case, and that a room which 
was in every way right for the ev’ery-day use of a 
country farmer might be less suitable for the 
enjoyment of a city man transplanted to the coun¬ 
try. This passion for the primitive gets a bit tiring 
after a time. 
In some respects country precedent may be 
safely followed. Farmhouse furniture has for 
centuries been made for hard wear, and is durable, 
simple and beautiful with the beauty of perfect 
fitness for its purpose. The owner of a modern 
small country house will find that, for him also, 
furniture that requires the minimum of attention, 
is necessary, and, as far as the essential pieces are 
concerned, he cannot do better than follow on 
farmhouse lines, leaving the decorative features to 
be suitably filled in as need arises. 
On the other hand, not all our small country 
houses belong to the Colonial era. Many date from 
the Neo-Greek revival, 1800-1850. Primitive 
Colonial furniture looks out of place in them. 
W'hy not try the simpler Directoire pieces or furni¬ 
ture of the Normandy farmhouse type? It is quite 
refreshing now and then to find a remodeled or 
restored old country house that is furnished with 
English oak, late Italian or Directoire pieces. 
A FREQUENT error made by prospective house 
builders is to give insufficient attention to the 
design prepared by the architect before getting 
estimates from builders and starting work. There is 
no more ruinous course than to tinker with a house 
while it is being built. The only wise policy is to 
study the design carefully before a brick is laid and 
to discuss with the architect everj" detail not exclud¬ 
ing the arrangement of windows and doors so as to 
get as much light and air as possible, and the 
fittings, which should be of good design. 
The great temptation which besets the builder of 
a small house is first costs. A house is intended to 
last not for months, but for many years, and cheap 
things as a rule soon wear out. A well-built and well- 
equipped house is an investment which does not as 
a rule depreciate in value. Cheapness, on the other 
hand, usually results in a heavy bill for repairs year 
after year and when the cheaply built house comes 
to be sold, the owner generally finds that he has been 
indulging in extravagance. 
