DOI article:
Scott, Mackay H. Baillie: Small country houses and cottages
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41879#0016
SMALL COUNTRY HOUSES AND COTTAGES
when it was the fashion to assume that a house was primarily a place
for the entertainment of visitors, and its principal apartments were
therefore known as reception rooms. In a gentleman’s residence,
and all houses were—or tried to appear—gentlemen’s residences, at
all costs, it was held that there should be a carriage sweep or drive
wherever possible, and, just as the possession of reception rooms
did not necessarily imply the existence of visitors, so the possession
of a drive did not connote the existence of a carriage. The polite-
ness of an age which ignored such necessary and vulgar things as
kitchens and pantries and hid them underground, was willing to
overlook the absence of a fashionable vehicle if only its hypothetical
existence was properly recognised and provided for. And since the
drive must not be sullied by base feet, a tradesman’s entrance, duly
advertised as such, was also essential. In every detail of the Victorian
bouse the same desire to hide the actual vital facts by a spurious “make
believe ” was to be observed, and the only place where some directness
and simplicity ofconstruction were admissible was in the back premises.
In looking back at the elaborate system of superstitions on which the
Victorian house was based, one is inevitably reminded of the irrational
taboos of some savage tribe, and these superstitions still brood like a
miasma over our suburban areas.
Of all the arts practised in the modern world the art of building is
probably the least understood. There is no school or college which
includes this extremely vital branch of knowledge in its curriculum,
and the most highly educated persons are often quite unconscious of
the wonderful possibilities of expression which lie in the arrangement
of brick and timber on the earth. We shall have to look back to the
time when this art of building was well understood and habitually
practised to realise that quite small cottages can be full of comfort and
charm, and that it is only when we begin to follow base ideals that our
small houses become mean. For all buildings are symbols, and express,
without our knowledge, more than we know of our own true selves.
They constitute a remorseless and inexorable handwriting in which
we all unwittingly betray the innermost qualities of our souls. The
old cottage delights us mainly because it is the visible expression of joy
in work ; the cottage of the speculative builder disgusts us mainly
because it stands primarily for greed of gain. We do not seem to
realise that the mere utilities of building, the commoner everyday
things, can be raised to a higher power, and themselves become trans-
fused with a warmth of human life by sympathetic handling, and that
the fundamental problem of building consists in idealising utility and
not in disguising and concealing utility with artistic trimmings.
The gradual process of specialisation which has taken place in the
functions of the individual in the modern world in which the “original
4
when it was the fashion to assume that a house was primarily a place
for the entertainment of visitors, and its principal apartments were
therefore known as reception rooms. In a gentleman’s residence,
and all houses were—or tried to appear—gentlemen’s residences, at
all costs, it was held that there should be a carriage sweep or drive
wherever possible, and, just as the possession of reception rooms
did not necessarily imply the existence of visitors, so the possession
of a drive did not connote the existence of a carriage. The polite-
ness of an age which ignored such necessary and vulgar things as
kitchens and pantries and hid them underground, was willing to
overlook the absence of a fashionable vehicle if only its hypothetical
existence was properly recognised and provided for. And since the
drive must not be sullied by base feet, a tradesman’s entrance, duly
advertised as such, was also essential. In every detail of the Victorian
bouse the same desire to hide the actual vital facts by a spurious “make
believe ” was to be observed, and the only place where some directness
and simplicity ofconstruction were admissible was in the back premises.
In looking back at the elaborate system of superstitions on which the
Victorian house was based, one is inevitably reminded of the irrational
taboos of some savage tribe, and these superstitions still brood like a
miasma over our suburban areas.
Of all the arts practised in the modern world the art of building is
probably the least understood. There is no school or college which
includes this extremely vital branch of knowledge in its curriculum,
and the most highly educated persons are often quite unconscious of
the wonderful possibilities of expression which lie in the arrangement
of brick and timber on the earth. We shall have to look back to the
time when this art of building was well understood and habitually
practised to realise that quite small cottages can be full of comfort and
charm, and that it is only when we begin to follow base ideals that our
small houses become mean. For all buildings are symbols, and express,
without our knowledge, more than we know of our own true selves.
They constitute a remorseless and inexorable handwriting in which
we all unwittingly betray the innermost qualities of our souls. The
old cottage delights us mainly because it is the visible expression of joy
in work ; the cottage of the speculative builder disgusts us mainly
because it stands primarily for greed of gain. We do not seem to
realise that the mere utilities of building, the commoner everyday
things, can be raised to a higher power, and themselves become trans-
fused with a warmth of human life by sympathetic handling, and that
the fundamental problem of building consists in idealising utility and
not in disguising and concealing utility with artistic trimmings.
The gradual process of specialisation which has taken place in the
functions of the individual in the modern world in which the “original
4