The Sun.
London, England, 1849-12-04 00:00:00

BEST ROOMS.

BY ELIZI COOK.

Among all the follies prevalent in the middle classes,
that of sacrificing family comfort and convenience to
the absurd desire of having a " best room," is one of
the most ridiculous. Let it not be inferred that we
consider gcod furniture, elegant curtains, and hand-
some carpets as superfluous luxuries for ropie in
piebian state—far from it. Consistent taste and pru-
dent display are to be as much admired in the house
of a commoner as in the saloons of a nobleman ; but
when a room is tet apart in a small domicile as the
mere receptacle of company, and all in that room held
sacred to frigid ceremony and ostentatious pretensions;
when the chairs are cased in Holland jackets, and the
carpet puts on its pinafore of the same material for
months together, when the apartment is literally
" shut up," indicating that family comfort lies dead
within it, then may the " best room" be condemned
as worse than useless.

For cur own part we think there is something per-
fectly terrifying, in
,being asked into a fine, stately
drawing-room—the polished bars shining with un-
natural brightneaf,---Hthe fire-irons arranged in stiff
angles, eVidently never apPidpriated to their purpose
—the tables most geometrieally studded with glossy,
unread volumes of rubbish, 'and the besilked and
betasselled sofas, looking as if they were intended for
anything but sitting on. We give an involuntary
shudder as we are left to gaze upon costly chimney•
ornaments and japanned screens, while the lady of the
house is, most probably, making a rush to execute
the metamorphose of dress and cap. We would much
rather have been introduced to the common parlour,
where we should have beheld some signs of social
vitality and thawed ourselves into good-humoured
cheerfulness; but then and there we might have seen
a basket of stockings and socks undergoing the pro-
ergs of repair, the youngsters might have been
lugging the chairs about, and left a tailless horse and
wheelless cart in the foreground. We might have
formed suspicions that bloaters had been among the
matin condiments, and oh! most dire of all! we might
have found the mistress in a somewhat rumpled
morning wrapper and a " fright of a cap ;" still we
should greatly prefer the risks of breaking our neck
over Noah's ark, sitting down on a heap of undarned
hose, and encountering a fifth-rate head-gear, to the
petrifying, spirit-damping fifteen minutes we are
often sentenced to in a "best room."

Wry trying things are these " hest rooms," espe-
cially where the lady proprietor is " excessively
particular," and walks round it with her laced
cambric, which she insinuates into every crevice, to
ascertain if the unhappy housemaid has done her duty
efficiently. Heaven preserve us from a hostess who
is devoted to a " best room !"

The children, if there happen to be such huma-
nizing things in the establiihment, look upon the
walls with a sort of religious awe. They never
" play" in the " best room ;" they never dream of
clutching at the splendid bell rope; they never have
the most remote idea of making Lord Mayors'
coaches of the embroidered footstools; they rover
think of playing at "80-pcep" behind the richly-
fringed damask drapery; they never dare to speculate
alto whether, with a stint pin, they could pick out the
eves of the queer little man on the Indian card-box;
mirth and rnischief are thoroughly mesmerised, and
the little darlings Fit or stand as though their life-
tide had been suddrnly manufactured into the "best
starch."

And let us confev, that we experience no inconsi-
derable sense of misery ourselves in such a situation.
It may be that a trace of the gipsy blood is in our
veins, or that some natural disqualification for " gen-
tility," equally ignoble, marks us, but we certainly
are never quite comfortable in a room that is only
occupied on " grand occasions."
We remember being once put into a " best room,"
in order that our devotions to Apollo might be undis-
turbed. It was, doubtless, a considerate and gracious
condescension on the part of our entertainers, but
never shall we forget the shudder that came over us
as the door closed, and we stood alone amil all the
" pomps and vanities" of a domestic Iceland. The
room was large enough for all needed comfort and
agreeable " elbow space," but perfectly apoplectic
with upholstered repletion. Every article of furni-
ture was mathematically placed; every chair and
ottoman was as p:im and proper as a row of young
ladies during the first hour of an evening party. The
chandeliers and candelabras were " done up " in
sombre-looking garments, and the curtains and
sweeping draperies assumed the same sullen frigidity.
Not a tint of the carpet could be seen, scarce a ray
of light was admitted through the closely-blinded
windows, and we stood transfixed between a gorgeous
" console" in book muslin, and a grand " divan in a
brown Holland " Taglioni," with our inspiration
oozing out rapidly.
IVe had conceived a notion of some " Stanzas on
the Autumn Sunshine," but as we glanced around
on the formal arrangement of disguised splendour,
we lost all the elixir of poetry, and became as bard,
worldly, and common place es a penny-piece on a bar
counter; our copybook (we always indite in a copy-
book, gentle reader) was flung down on the richly
inlaid table, with an air of offended pride and
wounded sensibility. How could we gather
" thoughts that burn," in the vicinity of sofas that
looked liked sepulchre stones ? or find " words that
breathe," where everything was close, muffled, and
choked? No ! our spirit revolted, and we stood in
sulky silence, remembering with invidious contrast
the snug family apartment we had occupied the day
before. That coney room had its well-worn carpet;
its broad, soft, old-fashioned couch; its chintz-
covered, really easy chairs ; its cheerful bit of fire,
though it was only the end of September ; its ancient
fender, on which you might put your feet ; its
friendly looking woollen table cover, with a gain or
two of ink and wine on it; its quaint old pictures of
a venerable grandfather, in a snuff-coloured coat and
powder, and a respected grandmother, in ruffled
sleeves and "toupee," and had its mantelpiece loaded
with china shepherds and shepherdesses ; and above
all, it had its pleasant little bay window,
where a pet myrtle was supported by a couple of
choice geraniums. We had been quite at home
in this cotey room, and had managed to get through
a very fair "effusion," despite the thousand and-
one interruptions we were liable to. It is true, that
a privileged spaniel and pugnacious kitten startled
us every now and then with symptoms of " fire-eyed
fury ;" that a mysterious discussion was ever and
anon resumed between three wool-working girls, on
the point of " shades in Berlin ;" that a stalwart
youth broke up a sublime line in our third verse, by
hunting in a corner closet for a shot-belt; and that a
curly-headed urchin in petticoats, whose respect we
had lost for ever by allowing him to bowl us out at
cricket, had the impertinent audacity to peep over
our shoulder and stigmatise certain inspired hiero-
glyphics as being " very funny." Yet we got on
famously, for we were happy and content with social
homeliness about us ; and were we to undertake an Epic
to morrow, we would prefer attempting the glorious
task amid a confusion of household noises in a "family
parlour," especially including t • start kittens and
impertinent children, to working at the same in a
solitary " best room," where the warmest strings of
our harp must turn into stalactites.
We confess we have a strong natural predilection
for the " free and easy" mode of existing; and some-
how we find, that people who pride themselves on
" exclusively best rooms," generally expect a degree
of ceremonious caution and physical restraint to be
exercised in these said rooms, which materially
interferes with our simple notions of happiness.
We observe that these rooms are generally only in
" use" on some specific occasion, when those invited
are scarcely as cold and stiff as those who invite;
and many a time have we oscillated between a smile
and a sigh, to see the " lady of the house," who was
really a very amiable being in the " general parlour,"
grow into something of a strange and fish-like cha-
racter, as she strained herself into a bearing and
tone which she thought adapted to the "best room."
How we have pitied her as we have seen her give the
last becoming arrangement to her rich satin dress, and
with a step of nervous anxiety enter the sacred pre•
cinct to see if all were right, previous to the recep-
tion of the illustrious Browns and the wealthy
Joneses ; and let us add, we have mischievously en-
joyed the agony expressed in her face, when some
thoughtless young man, in his utter listlessness of
yawning vacuity, has rested his heavy head, most
redolent of " bear's grease," on the splendidly-papered
wall. Spirit of Christian Benevolence, forgive our
wickedness; but we thought it a just punishment for
setting up idols, that could not he approached with
confiding worship.
We have seen much to confirm our affection for
" common sitting-rooms," and have a vulgar propen-
sity to nestle ourselves among every day chairs and
tables, where a litter or a noise may be made at plea-
sure ; and one determination, founded on suffering
experience, we mean religiously to
.abide by, which
is, that whenever we indulge in the poetic improba-
bility of having a house of " our own," be it in Port-
man-square or Pump-alley, there shall be no " best
room" in it.—Eliza Cooks Journal.

EXTRA TRANSMISSION OF NEW,PAPERS PER I
HAIL.—The Post-office autliutities contemplate, after
the s:h of January, rendering the five o'clock P.m. ex-
press train en the North-Western line available for the
postal transmission of newspepers. At present letters
only are forwarded in the Pest-office department of that
conveyance.— Weehly Chrunie'e.
[ADVERTISEMENT.
]—ililious Complaints, Indiges-
tion, Flatulency, and Affections of the Liver may be Cured by
Holloway's Pills. _symptoms indicative of these disorders are
a feeling of nausea, distension and spasmodic pain in the
stomach, sense of oppression and sinking after eating, want of
appetite, heartburn, langour, dejection of spirits, and general
debility. The removal of the cause of complaint is the most
important step, for which have recourse to Holloway's Pills, as
they possess such cleansing and renovating properties that the
action of the liver is speedily corrected, the redundancy of bd.s
carried off, the stomach strengthened, the spirits revived, and
the patient is restored to perfect health.—Sold by all Drug-
gists, and at Professor Holloway's Establishment, 24.1, Strand,
London.