Houses for the middle class differ from those of the working community in so marked an extent that an entirely different system of planning is necessary. Even in the smallest middle-class house the work of the house is done by a servant, who, though closely supervised and probably assisted by her mistress, lives apart from the family. Such a house, however cottage-like it may be in appearance, is consequently a dual dwelling, essentially different from the cottage proper, in which all the work is done by the housewife.

The family require at least two sitting-rooms, one for meals and the other for recreation, while the servant lives in the kitchen. Even very small houses of this description need four bedrooms, one having to be given to the servant, while a separate bathroom on the bedroom floor is a necessity to modern life, with hot and cold water service.

Such was the problem - one which is constantly being met with - which Messrs. Parker & Unwin set themselves to solve for Mrs. Rawnsley, at Appelthwaite in Cumberland, on a site which fell from north to south, with the principal views ranging from south-east to south-west, but the road, and almost necessarily the entrance, on the north-west.

For the sake of economy it was desirable that there should be one simple main roof, and the plan took a long narrow form in consequence, with the two sitting-rooms in the best position to secure sunlight and views, one of them breaking out as a gable to make it large enough for the requirements of a dining-room. The kitchen also needed a window which sunlight might enter at some period of the day, and this was put on the south-east, with the result that the room would not become unbearably hot during summer.

With these essentials to work upon, the plan, with its clever compactness and well-considered details, was gradually evolved, for it will be already understood, from what has been said about workmen's cottages, that a really good plan, even for a simple building, is not devised without much painstaking. The front door enters from a covered porch into a square hall, just large enough to contain an angle cupboard or hat-stand, and the living room (corresponding with what is generally called the drawing-room), the dining-room and the kitchen all open directly out of it, while down a few steps, under the stairs, is a passage to the e.c, under cover, well screened, and yet provided with proper fresh-air disconnection between two doors.

In a small house the little things of planning go so far to ensure comfort that they need a great deal of attention. The way in which doors should open, their positions in the wall, and the corresponding positions of fireplaces and windows are all matters of real importance. In the house which we are now considering it will be noticed with what care the space round each fireplace has been screened from draught, while at the same time it is well lit, for reading or working in the sitting-rooms, and for cooking in the kitchen. The large recessed hearth-fire in the living room would, too, be pleasant to look upon; and in the dining-room great pains has been taken to so place the fire that it may give direct radiant heat over almost all the room, while it is not too close to the back of anyone who may be seated at the dining-table.

Service from kitchen to dining-room would take place through a small pantry, and both coals and larder can be reached under cover in the open air, the larder being on the north-east - the coolest - corner of the house.

The first floor contains four bedrooms and a bathroom, so placed that the waste water from the bath and lavatory basin may discharge over the same gully, and thence to the same sump or soak-away, as the wastes from the sinks in kitchen and pantry below. Several cupboards are provided, and a special recess for the hot-water cylinder. The house has been built of rough blocks of green slate from the local quarries.

The first-floor plan is printed on a flap of tracing paper to illustrate how sketch plans are first prepared in an architect's office. Often several flaps of tracing paper are used, one for each floor, pinned on to the drawing board by two pins each on the upper edge, and each somewhat larger than the one below. The ground floor is planned on the drawing paper underneath, and the other floors each on a flap which can be thrown back at any moment and work resumed on the lower floor plan.

This method of working is capable of a good deal of extension, and enables the designer to obtain a grasp of his building as a solid entity which is impossible in any other way without making a scale model of it.

The house for Mr. Conrad North in Argyllshire, from the designs of Mr. E. G. Walker, which is illustrated in Fig. 41, presented a very similar problem, both in accommodation, aspect, and prospect, though somewhat larger rooms were required, and a comfort-

Fig 40.