Part 24 (1/2)

Glazed chintzes ht shi+nes through the flowers, ood effect Chenille curtains of soft rich colours are appropriate for the modern bedroom

Madras muslin curtains will do for the s, but are not heavy enough for portieres

There are hangings ing, which give aa furnished look, without intercepting the light Loooden tables painted red, tables for writing materials, brackets on the walls for vases, candlesticks, and photograph screens, a long couch withbook-shelves,--these, with bed and curtains in fresh tints, make a pretty room in a country house

If possible, people who entertain uests, so that no one need be turned out of one's roouest

Brass beds are to be recommended as cleanly, handsome, and durable

Many ladies have, however, found fault with them because they show the under mattress, where the clothes are tucked in over the upper one

This can be re a valance which is finished with a ruffle at the top, which can be fluted, the whole tied on by tapes

Two or three of these in white will be all that a housekeeper needs, and if made of pretty colouredti-room, where the wash-stand, wardrobe, bath-tub, box for boots and shoes, box for soiled clothes, and toilet-table, perhaps, can be kept In the new sanitary houses in London, the water cistern is placed in view behind glass in these roo is the matter with the water supply, it can be remedied immediately However, in old fashi+oned houses, where dressing-rooms cannot be evoked, screens can be so placed as to conceal the unornamental objects

A toilet-table should be ornalasses, little bows, shelves for bottles, devices for secret drawers for love letters, and so on Ivory brushes with the owner's -cases, silver-backed brushes and mirrors, buttonhooks, knives, scissors can be neatly laid out

A little table for afternoon tea should stand ready, with a tray of Satsue, and a copper kettle with alcohol la of water, a trivet should be attached to the grate, and a little iron kettleforever on the hob Ornamental ottomans in plush covers, which open and disclose a wood box, should stand by the fireplace Cha-fisher stems are pretty on the mantel-piece, which can be upholstered to match the bed; and there may be vases in arant flowers or growing plants should be allowed in a bedroom There should be at least one clock in the room, to strike the hour with uest should be asked if he prefers hot or cold water, and the hour at which he will have it If a tin hat-bath, or an india-rubber tub is used, the e it in this manner: first lay a rubber cloth on the floor and then place the tub on it Then bring a large pail of cold water, and a can of hot Place near the tub a towel-rack hung with fresh towels, both dath Turkish towel be added it will be a great luxury If the guest be a gentleed the night before, with the exception of course of the hot water, which can be left outside the door at any hour in thewhen it is desired If it is a stationary tub, of course the matter is a simple one, and depends on the turn of a couple of faucets

Some visitors are very fussy and dislike to be waited on; to such the option ht your own fire, to turn on your bath, to ht o'clock and do it for you?” Such questions are often asked in an English country house Every facility for doing the ould of course be supplied to the visitor

The bedroouest should stay in it as much as possible, if he or she find that the hostess likes to be alone; in short, absent yourself occasionally Do your letter-writing and so in your room Most people prefer this freedo

At a country house, gentlemen should be very particular to dress for dinner If not in the regulation claw-haarentleht jacket of black cloth, which goes ith either black or white cravat; but with all the _laisser aller_ of a country visit, inattention to the proprieties of dress is not included

A guest o provided with a lawn-tennis costureat consolation of our rising generation No doubt the hostess blesses the invention of this great ti out to the ground, under the trees This suggests the subject of out-of-door refreshaff, the fresh cider, and the thousand and one throat-coolers, for which our Aenius seems to have been inspired to meet the drain of a very dry climate, and which we shall consider elsewhere

ENTERTAINING IN A COUNTRY HOUSE

We who love the country salute you who love the town I praise the rivulets, the rocks overgroith htful country And do you ask why? I live and reign as soon as I have quitted those things which you extol to the skies with joyful applause, and like a priest's fugitive-slave I reject luscious wafers; I desire plain bread, which is reeable than honied cakes--HORACE, _Ode_ X

Poets have been in the habit of praising a country life since the days of Homer, but Americans have not as a people appreciated its joys As soon as a countryest city near him, presumably New York, or perhaps Paris The condition of opulence, ested at once the greater convenience of a town life, and the busy work-a-day world, to which most Americans are born, necessitates the nearness to Wall Street, to banks, to people, and to the town

City people were content forive their children six weeks of country air, and old New Yorkers did not move out of the then s to the country to live for pleasure, to find in it a place in which to spend one's e Arowth Perhaps our climate has much to do with this People bred in the country feared tocold winter of the North, which even to the well-to-do was filled with suffering Who does not re, which must be broken before even faces ashed?

Therefore the furnace-heated city house, the companionshi+p, the bustle, the stir, and convenience of a city has been, naturally enough, preferred to the loneliness of the country As Hawthorne once said, Americans were not yet sufficiently civilized to live in the country When he went to England, and saw a different order of things, he understood why

England, a small place with two thousand years of civilization, with admirable roads, with landed estates, with a s, horses, and well-trained servants, was a very different place

It reeable as it is in England We have to conquer cli in America Those so fortunate as to be able to live in a climate like that of southern California can certainly quote Horace with syreat city as to command at once city conveniences and country air and freedost the fortunate of the earth And to hundreds, thousands of such, in our delightfully prosperous new country, the art of entertaining in a country house assumes a new interest