The Studio yearbook of decorative art (1915)

SMALL COUNTRY HOUSES AND COTTAGES

is quite different.
Those who have
tried know how diffi-
cult it is to find the
ideal small country
housein an accessible
position without
much land, at the
right price. When
such a house is found
the alterations in-
volved in bringing it
up to the modern
standard of health re-
quirements, the new
windows, doors, and
drainage, the reconstructed roof and improved domestic offices, are
likely to bring the total cost to such a figure that it would have been
just as profitable to build a new house.
The subject of house building has produced a literature of its own
during the last few years, and it is only necessary to go through a few of
the volumes of The Studio and The Studio Year Book to realise that
the lessons taught us by the old work have not been in vain; and it
would not be too much to claim that as far as domestic work is con-
cerned a great advance has been made in re-establishing architecture
upon a sound, logical, and rational basis. As we are dealing exclusively
in this article with the smaller country houses we are fortunately able
to adhere to our national traditional architecture to a greater extent
than is the case with our larger houses that owe so much to foreign
influence and tradition ; and it is therefore to the small and homely
farmhouses and cottages that we must turn to find our best and most
distinctively national models. What is it that gives to the old farm-
houses and groups of
cottages in Kent, Sus-
sex, and Hampshire
such a homely ap-
pearance, and im-
parts such a degree
of quiet beauty to our
villages and hamlets ?
It is therambling out-
lines of the buildings,
their sense of fitness
plan of “ linton,” fittleworth in proportion, scale,



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