The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1885-04-12
A Glance at the Interior OF
the EngliShman's Castle.
UNCHEERING DECORATIONS.
Where the Englishman Builds his
Castle Furniture and Arrange
ment of the Rooms Generally.

OI MS lie ana OF MS interests. HIS
house is usually of red brick and of two
stories, with high wall all around it.
An Englishman likes to be shut in.
The sea shuts him in, and he is there
ore born to it. The best part of his
house is at the back. His drawing-room
and dining-room front back. In all the
houses where 1 have been, except. per-
haps, two very modern ones the front
of the house is taken up with the
kitchen or offices of the house, such as
buffers pantry and lavatory. Most
suburban and country houses are
square, with a central hall and rooms
arranged around it. The doors are
small, and indeed, the windows and all
openings are small. The rooms are
larger-larger than in this country or
IN France or Germany. In the middle
class house there would be drawing
room, dning-room, sitting room, and
perhaps billlard-room ON the first floor,
besides large space given to kitchen
and pantries. The outside of the house
is almost uniformly without architecture
al decorations. The dizziness of the
climate is seen in the somberness of the
furniture and the decorations of the
house.
cannot say L admire the inside of
most English houses, for they are dull
and uncheery. 1t is perfectly true, as
the French say, that nothing screams"
and 1t is also perfectly true that moth
ing sings" There is no joy, no Eight
and sweetness in the color, form, and
expression of the house. Matters are
mending, and the more modern, or
rather the quite recent fashions in house
decoration, are of lighter and more
brilliant tones; Up to within five years
the woodwork was all dark, usually
grained in walnut or very dark oak,
and the furniture was mahogany, of
very heavy and ungainly construction.
This, however. must be said, that the
chairs were for use, and were very COM
Portable. There is spirit of comfort
about an English home that is very
marked-that is if one can only dissoci-
ate the idea of art from that of COM
fort. The sofa Is easy and big, and just
the thing to lie down upon. There is a
sofa cushion and sofa rug or wrap;
the cushion is soft and the wrap is
warm, and the whole arrangement is
snug and inviting to rest and ease. But
the cushion and the wraps are almost
sure to be offensive to the eve of art. |
Tho colors are almost sure to be atroci- |
Gus. Nine times in ten there will be a
dash of lavender and of purple in both. |
The common people of England have |
no sense OF proportion or of color The |
Weather classes have more taste, but |
the nation has more pronounced merits |
that esthetic ones.
All English houses that remember |
to have seen are papered. The walls |
are never painted, as in this country
and on the continent. The papers used
are very dark and of very large pat
terms. The colors used IN upholstering
are dark, and the effect therefore, of the
room is heavy and in fact. gloomy. The
heavy skies and dull atmospheres
should suggest, one would fancy, light
colors and CHEEKY decorations, but in
stead of being masters of the climate
they are slaves TO it. The massiveness
Of the furniture is its prime and most
noticeable characteristic. This is pecu-
iarly so of the furniture of the dining
'oom. The sideboard is always a most
enormous and unwieldly affair, and I
lpon it is set the affections and the am
,itions of its family. 1t is quite usually !
he most expensive piece of furniture
n the house. and it is not only very
zig, very high, very wide, and very long, '
,ut 1t is carved and ornamented with /
,rass trimmings. 1t is in some sense, @
he symbol of hospitality. The biscuit s
,ox is always standing upon it, and the :
lecanter of spirits and wines are always
It hand. The papering of the dining
DOM is always dark, and on its walls
re to be found most of the oil paintings
belonging to the family. The tables
nd the chairs are of a kind with the
ideboard-very large and very heavy.
The drawing-room is almost always
t the back of the house and looks out
pon the garden, for it must be known
hat, however large the grounds, the
ouse is built quite near the road and
here is little or no front garden; and
here is almost sure to be quite high
all at the front, so as to shut off the
ouse and grounds from the gaze and
yes of the common herd. Many houses
ldeed all through the provinces, have
ates In these high walls with bells, and
he servant comes from the house to the n
inside gate to answer the bell. The II
apering of the drawing is of
lighter color than that of the v
ther rooms. The furniture is also less
Iassive, and has Just a tendency to
ecoration and art. The line is strictly
rawn at water-color paintings upon the
ais. In no well-ordered English
mily does one ever see an oil painting Q
! the walls ola drawing-room. 1 have D
ever been able to fully take in the
asen for this custom. conjecture,
owever, that the walls of the drawing
'om being lighter and of more expen-
We papering that it is deemed bad taste
cover them up with great pictures
Id frames. Water-colors, moreover, Fc
e more in keeping with the lighter
ne of the room. So it is; you never, ~
lder any circumstances, see oil paint -
gs in the salon of an English house.
The bedroom furnishings are of a like
,aYy sort with the rest of the house. =
ne brass bedstead has taken the place
the old 'four-poster," but the canopy
retained. The curtains are drawn for
e night when the bed is opened Day
verings and pillow shams'' for the
d are things unknown in England. 1t
always delIciously clean, and with its
etenne or muslin hangings looks neat
ID tidy. In many houses the fea Their
d is still the thing, and is always used
ION all bedsteads in winter. =,
1t may be truthfully said that in all ~
lddie-class families of England the fC
ning-room is the living room of the :.