In country houses built twenty or thirty years ago, and subjected to various repairs and additions, nothing is more common than to find the offices placed at the wrong end of the house, or perhaps partly at one end, and partly at the other. There is a positive loss of the labour of the domestics in this arrangement; nor can they, when this is the case, be considered as under the full command of the master and mistress, because they cannot be expected to hear the bells, when the offices are divided, unless there were two sets, one on each side; while there is a constant passing and repassing of the entrance front, or probably of the lawn front, by persons having business in the kitchen or stable-court The seclusion of the lawn front, in cases of this kind, is totally destroyed; and neither the living-rooms of the house, nor the walks in the pleasure-grounds, can be said to possess that complete privacy which is generally considered to be one of the greatest luxuries of a residence in the country.

An example of this kind of house was noted by us, some years ago, in the neighbourhood of Chertsey, at Lyme Grove; and, as we were on a visit for upwards of a fortnight to the family who at that time occupied it, we had ample opportunity of studying its incon-veniences. The house is beautifully situated in the midst of grounds much diversified by nature, not badly planted, and extending so far on every side, that the boundary is nowhere seen; but the house, though it contains some spacious rooms, has great faults: the store-room and bath-room (a, b, fig. 214.) can only be entered through the dining-room (c) or drawing-room (d); while the offices (e), by being at the wrong end, occasion the road to the kitchen-court (f) to pass across the lawn before the garden front (g). Had the general arrangement been reversed, as shown in fig. 215., and the bath-room and store-room been put on the side next the offices, the latter might have been conveniently entered without coming within sight of the house; and the privacy of the lawn front would thus have been complete.

Among the petty evils of a mal-arrangement of this kind are, the number of gates, and the extent of fencing which it requires; and, though these make little appearance in the description of a place, or in its plan on paper, yet, in its actual working (so to speak) by the occupier, they are important items. The difference between a bad arrangement of fences and walks, and a good one, may occasion the opening of a gate or gates fifty times a day, instead of five times; increasing the risk of admitting cattle, pigs, or poultry, where they ought not to be admitted, in a corresponding ratio.