moving the door from the end into a corner of the long side. But when the fire is in that side it is difficult to avoid it and to retain room to sit between the fire and the door, unless the room is long. Doors should open so as not to show the whole room when they are ajar, though it is sometimes necessary to vary this.

Size of Rooms.-The commonest of all sizes for the principal rooms in moderately large houses, of the class of good rectories for example, is 24' x 18', and in somewhat larger houses 27 x 20. And that is certainly a better proportion than 3 to 2, except for a dining room; though it does not follow that 24 × 18 is not better for that than any other proportion which gives the same area of 432 sq. feet, because a dining room narrower than 18′ is inconvenient; and if it is shorter than 24 the loss of length is not compensated by the increased width. Anything beyond 21 feet in width from the fire at the side of a long dining room is useless, and only tends to magnificence. A dining room or drawing room 22 × 33 or more may be called a grand one, if proportionately high, i.e. about 15 feet. Greater height than that only makes the room look smaller, and is of no advantage whatever and makes going up stairs harder work.

Libraries are of all sorts of shapes, very large ones being almost necessarily long, and sometimes very narrow. In fact from its nature a large library ought to be a very long room, as great width cannot be usefully occupied, or lighted unless it is a good independent room, like some public libraries, lighted on both sides. They also in old times always had the windows at a considerable height, with the book cases under them; and much the best light that is, when you do not want to look out of the windows. The smaller rooms of a

house must in some measure take their chance, as the walls and height are determined by the large ones. Though the word 'large' is almost as indefinite when applied to a house as to a stone, we may say that for a large house short of a very grand one, the drawing room will contain from about 600 to 750 square feet, the dining room 600 to 660, and the library, considered as a study and not a great collection of books, 500 to 560; but as I said, it may be much more. It should be remembered that high book cases against library walls diminish its size very sensibly, even if they are only 6′′ deep, which is enough for the upper shelves; and those should always be less than the lower ones, so as to leave a shelf to put a candle or odd books upon, about 3 ft. from the floor. Low book cases holding only 2 or 3 rows of books have not that effect of making the room look smaller, and they form a sort of table on their top, which is very convenient for use, or suitable for carrying what people call ornaments.

A room containing less than 225 feet, or 15' square, is too small to sit in for any considerable time and not fit for any sitting room or bed room in what would be called a good house. A billiard room is considered to require not less either way than 24 × 18, and a good kitchen for a moderately large house about the same, or say 400 square feet clear of the fireplaces.

So many persons confess that they have just spoiled their houses by making the rooms a foot too small one way or both, though it saved very little in the cost, that these figures may be useful. Others discover when it is too late that they have made the offices or servants' rooms too small for the house, and occasionally the other way, when they have to rebuild old offices on a larger scale. The size of a servants' hall

Serving Shelf to Dining Room.

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again depends very much upon the habits of the house as to receiving company, and its distance from a town. It need not be more than 15 or 16 feet wide, but it is prudent to make it from 20 to 24 long in a somewhat large house, and in very large country houses it must be more. In small ones the servants often prefer dining in the kitchen, and the small servants' hall (if there is one) is used for other purposes, such as brushing clothes, &c.

In any house above quite a small one care should be taken to make room for some kind of shelf or table outside the dining room wide enough to put dishes on; though it need not be more than about 20′′, otherwise the dishes and covers are put down on the floor and kicked. Grand houses have what is called a 'serving room' for that purpose: but grand houses are always left to architects and I am not writing for them. Such a small matter as this may affect the whole plan of a house, as I know by experience. No one who has not had experience in designing would guess what small things. do sometimes affect the whole arrangement either of a house or a machine. I need not say that a back door towards the kitchen from any good sized dining room is desirable. A hatch or opening in the wall for dishes can seldom be possible where a door is not, for it should not open directly into the kitchen or it will let in kitchen smells as well as dishes. But a hatch from the kitchen into the passage, or a divided door, like those in colleges from which bread and butter are served out, are sometimes convenient. They are sometimes made as a mere shelf to let down across the open doorway.

Windows. There are various points connected with what some people call the 'fenestration' of a house, which I should advise any one who is building to attend to for himself. First, as to their position in the room.

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Windows, arrangement of.

They are obviously better in the side than the end, wherever there is much difference between them. But this ought not to prevail over the value of a good aspect or prospect, especially the former. Some persons appear to have a prejudice against cross lights, which is quite unfounded, provided you take care not to overwindow the room thereby, which is too often done; and in that way you can sometimes get the advantage of a south window or a good view besides the general lighting being in the side which is otherwise best. In some such cases it is better to have the chief lighting at the end, with a single window at the side, opposite the fire, as where the end looks south or over a good view, but the room is too long to be well lighted from the end only. But whenever a room is chiefly lighted from the end, and à fortiori from the side, it is essential to the good and pleasant lighting of the room to have one window in the middle. As the end of a room is seldom wide enough for three distinct windows, where one is not sufficient the right way is to have a threelight window, composed of one of ordinary width and two narrow ones beside it, or all combined into a very wide one of whatever kind may suit the style of the house. The effect of a dark piece of wall, in the middle of the side where you look out is always disagreeable. I have seen good rooms quite spoilt thereby. Somehow or other, wherever you sit you feel always looking at the wall instead of the window, and the light does not fall on the table in the middle.

Bow or Bay Windows.-So far as there is any difference between these terms, I suppose a bow' means a rounded bay, and a 'bay' a polygonal bow, or what is called in Gothic building an 'oriel.' Round ones have very rightly gone out of fashion. For it is impossible

Polygonal Bays best.

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to build them strongly and so as not to crack, or at any. rate not to be always trying to crack, unless they are very thick and built of large through stones. In church apses with only narrow lancet windows they may stand, if the walls are pretty thick. But those also should be always tied with plenty of hoop iron. Moreover all the woodwork is more difficult and expensive to make and keep in good condition, and the glass of the windows awkward to manage. If it is straight there must be a disagreement with the circle of the bow somewhere. An attempt to make the whole window on the curve is worse, and it is not easy to get a window mended. On every account therefore round bows are to be eschewed.

There are no such objections to polygonal ones. The commonest of all, and in most cases the best, consists of three sides of an octagon with angles of 135°. In that case each side is 414 of the square width of the octagon, and the depth of the bay 293, and the area 707 x 293 or just over one fifth of the square containing the octagon. Thus if such a bay is 20' wide its area is 82 square feet. But this kind of bay, when beyond 20 feet wide inside, makes the windows and the sides of the bay look too large and sprawling; or else they are not enough to light the room. I have seen the middle side made wider and with two windows, with only one in each of the others, but the effect is not very good. That shape is better treated in the Gothic way, with one very wide mullioned window for the middle bay, making the side ones of the same width as each of the spaces between the mullions, but I shall say more of them presently.

A 24 ft. bay being too wide for only three windows, I adopted a fivesided one for the house of which the plan was given at p. 126, though I never saw one like it in a room before. This is exactly the same size as one