XXXVIII. The Holiday House

The term holiday house is here used to include all those dwellings which are adapted to life in the country or at the seaside during a holiday, when the formal routine and conventionalities which have to some extent dictated the plan of the permanent home are set aside for a freer and less restricted existence. The possession of a little holiday house in some favourite summer resort has many advantages, especially for those who do not wish to occupy it during the popular period, when it may be let. A house for this purpose should be as compact and simple as possible. Its windows should all be provided with solid shutters, so that it cannot be easily damaged when unoccupied. Its furniture should also be of the simplest kind, without carpets, curtains, and other unnecessary fabrics, so that even the most ruthless tenant of the furnished house will be unable to injure it.

Such a house should contain one large sitting-room, as well as four or five bedrooms, bathroom, and the usual kitchen premises, reduced to their simplest form, while a verandah or garden-room is an important feature in the holiday house.

In the general scheme of the house and its decoration, a wider scope for fancy is admissible in a dwelling only occasionally occupied, which should be adorned in a holiday mood. The general characteristics of the exterior should be governed by locality, and here the seaside house demands a special treatment, widely differing from that of the country cottage set among trees, and local traditions of building should in all cases be carefully considered, so that it does not appear as an importation of the town into the country. There is something essentially illogical in following the common practice of choosing some country site for its beauty, and then deliberately defacing that beauty by the erection of a cockney villa, which calls itself a cottage; or perhaps constructing there one of those galvanised iron “artistic bungalows,” lined with match-boarding, as per catalogue. One finds these charming structures gravely discussed in magazine articles. For a few pounds extra a barge-board or a finial are added as an artistic finish, or esthetic quality is imparted by “breaking the line of the ridge.” Or, again, one is shown how a dwelling may be made out of three railway carriages, and various schemes are illustrated for enlarging and disfiguring old country cottages. Mr. So-and-So has constructed a tin bungalow of horrible aspect in the sacred solitudes of two, he will probably make the recognised concessions to the claims of art involved in the addition of finials perhaps to the roof. And yet it is so easy to construct the simplest kind of dwelling without offence to the artistic sense, and the best course is to follow the local customs of the district, to employ local labour and local materials. In many parts of the country tarred weather-boarding, with roofs of pantile or thatch, are used for farm buildings, and suggest a basis for a scheme which would be quite satisfactory, both artistically and practically, for the holiday house, and in all the details of the house safety from ugliness may be found in eschewing as far as possible the products of the town factory.

The simplest type of holiday dwelling is the tent, which, although only suited for use by hardy people, in favourable weather at least, brings one closer to Nature than any more permanent habitation. And what possibilities of beauty are to be found in the artistic treatment of the tent. One may imagine it striped in shades of green, showing as some strange tropical growth in a meadow, or in some dainty little encampment one may catch a glimpse of gay banners. But, beautiful as the tent may become, it is essentially a fair-weather dwelling. For permanent dwellings of the simplest kind, one may try to realise some of the primitive types of human habitations. The huts of savage races may be studied as examples of how it is possible to achieve a romantic beauty in the simplest kind of structure.

And for those, in these material and commercial days, who still dare to “think nobly” of the home—as Malvolio of the soul—it may be possible to realise in the dim recesses of some woodland such a dainty dwelling as to some chance wanderer from the town might seem to sum up and express the very spirit of the forest.

At the seaside, it must be remembered, you cannot count on that natural weathering and vegetation of the exterior which helps to harmonise the house and its surroundings in country districts inland, and so, instead of painting the coast red with bricks and tiles, it will generally be better to adopt the formula of white walls and green slate roof. In chalk districts, the local use of flints may be noted and adopted, or walling may be constructed of beach-stones.

In the smaller kinds of holiday houses, however, a wooden structure, which is so designed that it can be readily moved, may meet the demands of those who are content to dispense with material comforts in a temporary shelter from the elements. Here the roof may be formed of prepared canvas, and the dwelling represent but a slight improvement on the tent or the gipsy’s caravan. The whole of the appointments of such a little dwelling, modelled on those of the yacht, should be compact and serviceable, and it might well be fantastically adorned with brightly painted chamferings.

Of the four designs for holiday houses illustrated, the first has been described in the Studio for July 1904.

One of the disadvantages, from an economical point of view, of the house which consists of one storey only, is that much space is often wasted in the roof, especially in cases where the use of tiles makes it desirable that this should, be high-pitched. In the plans for the country cottage illustrated, it has been arranged that the roof-space should be fully occupied by making the bedrooms partly on the ground floor and partly as attics in the roof, while in the hall the inclusion of the roofing in the room gives a constructive character which it is difficult to obtain in a room with a flat ceiling. The hall thus appears to be, indeed, the house itself, and not a mere compartment. The broad and low passage which crosses the building from front door to garden-room serves the artistic purpose of providing at the threshold a fine vista effect as the first impression on entering the house, and the grey-brown of its homely timbers, the creamy white of its plastered surfaces, and the subtly varied shades of grey in its stone-flagged floor form a frame to the brightness of the court beyond and the sun-flecked pavements and posts of the pergola, while a hint of the hall is conveyed through the panes of dim greenish glass in the screen.

Practically this passage serves to disconnect the kitchen premises from the rest of the house and to provide a ready means of access to the garden. A small staircase, which does not attempt to assert itself as an artistic feature in the plan, and which is concealed by the panelling on the passage wall, gives access to the gallery which overlooks the hall and the servants’ bedroom over the kitchen. At the opposite end of the house, on the ‘ground floor, is the principal bedroom, with bathroom adjoining, and a second little stair gives access to two attic bedrooms over these. An enlargement of the plan, where mor-e bedrooms were required, might consist of an extension of this wing, and this might suggest the use of the principal bedroom as an additional sitting-room, opening with a wide doorway into the hall, and thus adding to the general floor-space of the house.

In this little house it will be noted how structure everywhere replaces superficial decoration. The modern tradition of house-building, which strives to make of each room a rectangular box, lined with smooth plastered surfaces, and which then proceeds to decorate these surfaces with superficial materials covered with patterns, is here set aside in favour of the decorative claims of mere building. Such decoration as is included in the scheme is introduced mainly for some definite purpose, and thus the ornament on the walls of the dining-recess gains in richness of effect in contrast to the relative plainness of the hall itself, and helps to deepen the shadow under the beam over this little alcove.

The plan for the garden shown in connection with this country cottage is submitted mainly as an illustration of certain principles of design in garden-making. It is not suggested as a suitable scheme for any site, for each will demand a special treatment. And in such treatment much will depend on the due recognition of the possibilities of local features. In a cottage which is only occupied for certain portions of the year, it is important at least for those for whom the economical aspect of the matter cannot be ignored, that both the building and the garden should be able to take care of themselves, and the house and garden, as usually designed and furnished, may often prove in this respect a costly incubus, demanding for its maintenance considerable labour in repairs of the structure as well as much clipping and grooming and weeding in the garden.

As far as the house is concerned, it is not a difficult matter to make it self-sustaining. It is only necessary to apply those principles which have already been dwelt on, and to omit all those cumbrous and useless fabrics and furnishings which demand so much attention in the average house.

I lO And in the garden it might be suggested, in view of the labour required in weeding, to decide to give up that unequal conflict and to have a garden composed entirely of triumphant weeds. But in order to do this it will be necessary to choose a site where the right kind of weeds grow. There are many such country places where the flowers which grow naturally and quite untended might well form the basis for a wild garden in which the skill of the gardener would be shown mainly in recognising and accentuating the natural characteristics of the place, for it is easy to spoil natural beauty by the introduction of sophisticated plants and shrubs. But where it is not possible to obtain a site which possesses natural advantages, there are still many types of garden suitable for the occasionally occupied house, and labour in maintenance may be reduced to a minimum by the substitution of an orchard for the lawn, and by the use of paved paths instead of gravel walks. In referring to the garden illustrated by the plan, one may note first of all the importance attached to vistas—vistas arranged with definite terminal effects. One may also observe the usefulness of shade in the garden as well as light, and how embowered paths may be contrasted with the brightness of open spaces.

The most important of these vistas is the one which, beginning at the garden gate, extends through the passage which crosses the house and beyond across the open courtyard to the pergola, where it is terminated in a garden seat, and a glance at the plan will show how much it depends for its effect on such vistas, and how widely it differs in this respect from those gardens full of winding paths which never fulfil the promise they seem to convey of some vision of the beyond. On the other hand, the defect of the formal treatment often lies in a certain barrenness, a lack of mystery, and those surprises and dramatic effects of light and shade which are such essential attributes of the garden. Open flower gardens are best approached through dim and shady alleys, and everywhere broad and open sunlit spaces should be contrasted with the shade of pergolas and embowered paths. In passing through these enclosed ways one loses all conception of the garden scheme till, at the intersection of a path, one suddenly perceives through vistas of roses and orchard trees some distant garden ornament, or perhaps a seat or summer-house; and so one becomes conscious of a scheme arranged to secure definite and well-considered effects. As in a dramatic entertainment, apartments of the garden full of tragic shade are followed by open spaces where flowers laugh in the sun; and by such devices the art of man arranges natural forms to appeal in the strongest way to the human consciousness.

In the treatment of the exterior of this country cottage, a simplicity of form has been adopted which conveys something of that air of repose which belongs, as a matter of course, to old farm-houses and cottages, but which may be sought in vain in the average modern country dwelling.

The second design for a holiday house is especially adapted for a seaside site, where its simple roof-plan and long low eaves-line would seem to harmonise with somewhat bleak and wind-swept surroundings. Here the use of slates for the roof permits a low pitch, so that, although the whole accommodation is provided on the ground floor, there is little space wasted in the roof.

The central feature of the plan consists of the large hall, or living-room, a portion of which can be screened off if required. Access to the front door and the bedrooms can be obtained from the kitchen premises without passing through the hall itself. Under a slight extension of the roof is also included a verandah or garden-room.

The treatment of the garden in such a seaside house might well include all those flowers and shrubs which flourish by the sea. The feathery foliage of the tamarisk, the blue-greens and purples of the sea-holly, the puce-pink flowers of the sea-thrift, the sea-lavender, the sea-poppy, and many other seaside flowers, would combine to make an interesting and unique garden. Here, too, might be grown that group of plants which, originally dwellers by the sea, have been trained to live in inland gardens, and all these plants would not present that air of protest which one often seems to discern in flowers removed from their proper home, but would seem to rejoice in the salt air and sea-breezes.

The third plan for a holiday house was originally designed to meet the demand in a special case for rather more than the usual number of bedrooms, some of which are placed on the ground floor.

The form of the plan, while giving a wide outlook from the hall by placing the little terrace to the south between the protecting wings on each side, shelters it from cold winds and makes it a trap for the sunlight.