The Osceola times., 1882-12-23
LONDON HOUSES.
Some Pecuiiarities Of the Homes of the
Great City.

London Cor. New York sun.
One London house differs from anoth-
er London house only in point of size, for
the same plan is followed, whether you
inhabit a mansion at 81 800 year or
villa at eco. No glazed portico or COW
cred entrance protects the street door.
Even at the Mansion House on gala days
here strips of red bunting and scattered
saw-dust, suggesting the entrance to a
circus, offer dolcful protection TO those
who leave their carriages on the slippery
pavement and stand in the rain till the
hall doors are opened to receive them.
The wind rushes past you straight into
he dwelling rooms as no inner vestibule,
placed at convenient angle, offers any
impediment to the onslaught of the
draught, and the outer air expires at last
on the first landing, after sweeping up
the stairs, which invariable face the front
entrance. Winter and summer, whether
three hundred guests are hidden to
feast which costs thousands or whether
the old and delicate return from their
daily airing, no shelter is offered them.
Wherever the gathering of carriages or
the lantern Of the linkman proclaims
social assemblagc, little avenue Of hui
man beings forms itself on the sidewalk,
and with trailing velvet skirts and satin
shoes get besmirched in the transit, their
wearers must listen to the coarse and
stupid comments of roughs and street
loungers who vie with each other in
personal remarks.
After ascending the stairs, which are
steep and generally narrow, with the old
hideous iron balusters and mahogany
railings, you rome to landing on which
open the two or three doors of the recep-
ton rooms, and you behold that abomi
nation yclept double drawing room
not suit of apartments opening into
each other facing the same light, and
having the same proportions, but con-
structed in the shape of a grand piano,
broad in the front and narrow i'm the
back. The smaller compartment gives
upon news blank walls, or hideous
prospect, which has to be strictly ex-
cluded by stained or unpublished glass,
curtains and window conservatories ad-
ding their quota of gloom to the prevail
ing darkness Except where the shad-
ows have been intensified by painting
chocolate and dark red Pompeian interi-
ors, or where Burne Jones has painted
lilies and sunnowers in stiff, sad vases,
or Morris inaugurated peacocks walking
around friezes of green gold, the general
decoration and furnishing of these houses
are ponderous and heavy. The dining
room must above all be massive Any
attempt to introduce light and air is con-
sidered AS a trait of unbecoming levity,
and the pompous butler would refuse to
oficiate at ia sideboard that did not weigh
couple of tons. When during six weeks
at time, London lies shrouded in i'm
penetrable fogs, the moral effect of these
highly respectable intersors is inexpres-
siby depressing and it seems as if last
heavy pail had been ruthlessly stretched
on the ordinary funeral trappings.
Our bedrooms are mostly incenven-
lent, small and meanly furnished. As we
have made it criminal offence to throw
open the doors ofour sleeping apartments
to our friends, we do not deem it neces-
sary to lavish any pains or expense on
their decoration and furnishing. They
are all done on one pattern; tidied in the
same way by the upper housemaid. No
comfortable chairs, books, writing ma
terials, no traces of feminine occupation
or presence, gave any clue to the tastes
and habits of their occupants. The nur-
series are relegated to the top of the
house, and form startling, painful con-
trast with the gorgeous rooms below.
Nothing is too bad for the children.
They may toll with their weary little
feet up numberless flights Of stairs; for
them are the sloping attics, so cold in
winter, 80 close fin summer, with the mar
row, high windows, out Of which they
cannot even catch glimpse Of the square
underneath. They herd day and night
with the servants, listening to their lu-
dicrous talk and witnessing their unre-
fined habits. What if they are brought
down to dessert in unimpeachable cos
tune for twenty minutes every night?
= Bachelors rooms are proverbially
the worst, even in spacious country
| places, where hospitality alone would
! dictate the choice of a filter apartment
for hidden guest. But the single man
is asked unblushingly to occupy the
meanest, shabbiest closet, unworthy the
acceptance Of gentleman, while he is
expected to tip the servants as handsome
ly ON leaving as if he had been treated
like favored guest.
: All this does not rebound TO the credit
of English hospitality, common sense,
and appreciation of the fitness of things.
Much less does il Justify our pretensions
; TO being the only judges ofcomfort in the
civilized world. No houses are colder
and draughtier during the inclemcnt sea-
! snn, or nine months out of the twelve;
:. none 50 close and sultry in the twelve
weeks, which by courtesy are called sum-
mer. They are inefficiently heated by
means of badly ventilated stoves, and
not substantially built A furnace room
is a thing unknown, and coils Of hot air
or water act Improperly when merely an
afterthought of the architect. The gas is
: poor, smoky, constantly affected by at
mospheric changes and by the greed of
the gas companies. The water supply Is
$ limited, lifts are luxury not yet i'm
ported, and for maximum of ontlay you
: get q minimum Of convenience. The
vexetl question of drainage asserts itself
unpleasantly every now and then, and
the hieroglyphics traced in the walls by
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