HOUSE AND GARDEN 
ECEMBER, I90Q 
191 
door-knob, with the wire running 
to the back of the beflowered 
hall and ending in a coil of wire 
and large brass bell ? Let’s have both. 
And then, as we enter, we are de¬ 
lighted with the sweet incense of the 
rose jar, which seems to come from 
every corner; and then the delicate 
Adam hat table, presided over by 
the old gilt mirror with the curved 
and broken pediment, and the flam¬ 
boyant eagle seems to reflect our 
pleasure. 1 often wondered, as a boy, 
why that eagle looked so happy and 
yet never moved. 
Then there must be the staircase 
with the double twist in the newel 
post, the dark mahogany hand-rail 
— such a delightful sliding place, a 
charming portrait of a lady with head¬ 
dress and cashmere shawl, a sampler 
or so, and the stern forbidding old 
gentleman with his forefingers stuck 
in the breast of his high-necked coat. 
We might continue to My Lady’s cham¬ 
ber floor, or wander through the din¬ 
ing-room, open up the slatted shutters 
fora little light, so that we may see the 
conch shells on either side of a befluted 
mantel, china dogs, white with iridescent black spots, and always 
staring straight ahead at the other dog on the opposite end of the 
mantel. 1 always thought the old ship model, with its stiff Ameri¬ 
can flag on the poop, rather frightened them and kept them apart. 
Come into the library. We don’t care much for the parlor. 
In the house of dreams this room is going to be opened up at all 
times, and not only for weddings and funerals. But we must not 
miss the library; books behind glass doors reaching to the ceiling, 
in Chippendale cabinets of mahogany, and leather — smelly book 
leather—and we must have a Franklin stove with brass balls and 
spread eagles—but we do really want that sort of thing. Now 
please tell me why,—or shall 1 repeat what I have already said ? 
That type of house represents dignity, education, cultivation and 
home, as no other style devised by man can do. It is the apogee 
of civilized domestic architecture. Your kiddies will grow up 
here with respect for the truth and an admiration for gentle culti¬ 
vation. You the mother and you the father will go about your 
“ Westover ” is one of the finest and best preserved examples of the Southern Colonial 
several duties with the assurance of being properly garbed for 
all occasions, and you will welcome the coming and sigh with the 
parting guest. Is this not your dream? 
The man’s house — his castle — where his kiddies have the 
measles, and his daughter marries (not in the parlor), and his 
son grows to college years, and carries away with his grit, along 
with his sister, the memory of home. Imagine, if you dare, 
this being done with that monstrosity, the so-called, misnamed 
“Mission” with its wooden walls, wire-lath and stucco. 
I cannot think of any other fit style for a house, except Eliza¬ 
bethan, which has much of the classic — enough to save it, and the 
Tudor, which also leans in a most suggestive manner toward the 
same influence. There are, of course, no French domestic styles — 
and what have you left? 
There are two dominating types of the classic in this country, 
though they overlap and slip the one into the other in the most 
interesting manner. Each district or township has its peculiari- 
A Mclntire garden arch in the 
Pierce-Nichols garden 
In New England the materials used were clapboards and shingles in 
contrast to the Southern brickwork 
A beautifully carved doorway in 
the Oliver house, Salem 
