DOI Artikel:
Scott, Mackay H. Baillie: Small country houses and cottages
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41879#0015
SMALL COUNTRY HOUSES AND COT-
TAGES. BY M. H. BAILLIE SCOTT
THE increasing cost of building in recent years has brought
into corresponding prominence the economical aspect of the
question in the realisation of our ideals in the form of a small
dwelling. How far, it may be asked, must financial limitations
necessarily obstruct and frustrate our desires ?
If we look around us at the ordinary small houses of the suburbs, the
prospect is not truly an encouraging one. It would seem inevitable
that the small house must of necessity be mean and sordid, and even
in the later developments of the garden suburbs, as they are called, a
certain impudent pettiness seems to be the main characteristic of the
buildings there. And yet there have been times in the world when
comparative poverty has found a way to express itself graciously and
nobly ; and there are still to be found, in many an old village, cottages
which puttoshametheirmorepretentious modern neighbours. When
Thoreau constructed his woodland home it cost him nothing but the
labour of his hands, and yet we may well believe that it did not lack
that dignity and sincerity of aspect which belong to all work which
is rightly done.
One of the most persistent delusions of the world we live in is that
merit is acquired by ostentatious and elaborate ways of living, de-
manding for their expression an equivalent elaboration in the house ;
and the main reason for the meanness of modern small houses is that
they nearly always represent adesperate attempt to achievetheaccom-
modationand qualities of larger houses. They will never frankly accept
the facts, or allow that they are cottages ; and, rather than have no art
in their composi-
tion, they will ad-
mit the cheap and
spurious art of the
shops.
All this is no doubt
dueto the lingering
traditions of Vic-
torian building, for
the Victorian house
was the symbol of
the peculiar cant
and snobbery of that
age. Our immedi-
ate heritage in
house planning de-
rives fiom the days plans of house near woking (page 2)
■ FLAN ^ FIRST* FLOOR •'
3
TAGES. BY M. H. BAILLIE SCOTT
THE increasing cost of building in recent years has brought
into corresponding prominence the economical aspect of the
question in the realisation of our ideals in the form of a small
dwelling. How far, it may be asked, must financial limitations
necessarily obstruct and frustrate our desires ?
If we look around us at the ordinary small houses of the suburbs, the
prospect is not truly an encouraging one. It would seem inevitable
that the small house must of necessity be mean and sordid, and even
in the later developments of the garden suburbs, as they are called, a
certain impudent pettiness seems to be the main characteristic of the
buildings there. And yet there have been times in the world when
comparative poverty has found a way to express itself graciously and
nobly ; and there are still to be found, in many an old village, cottages
which puttoshametheirmorepretentious modern neighbours. When
Thoreau constructed his woodland home it cost him nothing but the
labour of his hands, and yet we may well believe that it did not lack
that dignity and sincerity of aspect which belong to all work which
is rightly done.
One of the most persistent delusions of the world we live in is that
merit is acquired by ostentatious and elaborate ways of living, de-
manding for their expression an equivalent elaboration in the house ;
and the main reason for the meanness of modern small houses is that
they nearly always represent adesperate attempt to achievetheaccom-
modationand qualities of larger houses. They will never frankly accept
the facts, or allow that they are cottages ; and, rather than have no art
in their composi-
tion, they will ad-
mit the cheap and
spurious art of the
shops.
All this is no doubt
dueto the lingering
traditions of Vic-
torian building, for
the Victorian house
was the symbol of
the peculiar cant
and snobbery of that
age. Our immedi-
ate heritage in
house planning de-
rives fiom the days plans of house near woking (page 2)
■ FLAN ^ FIRST* FLOOR •'
3