VI. The Study

Having considered the mistress’s withdrawing room from the central hall, we must now deal with the master’s withdrawing room—the study or “den.” In the first instance, considering the smallest kind of house, to what extent, it may be asked, is this a necessary extension of the plan? To the average occupant of the small house, who spends his days away from home and his evenings in the room occupied by the family, the study is not always necessary—and would probably be seldom used. It would be, at any rate, worth giving up to secure a central apartment of ample size. If we assume a house already shorn of its drawing-room, with the bedroom of its mistress appropriated as partial sitting-room, where shall the master of the house betake himself on those occasions when he desires privacy and solitude? With the special retreats already provided for the other members of the household he may possibly claim the hall itself on these occasions, but the most suitable position for This retreat seems to be in the attics. Here a picturesque and attractive room can be formed with little expense. With a good roof, boarded and felted under the tiles, such a room will not be greatly affected by extremes in external temperature, and it will be sufficiently remote to ensure him an absolute quiet.

If, however, the study; adjoins the hall, it may be separated from it by a solid wall, and possibly by ‘double doors. It is in the development of the master’s room that the special plan chiefly consists. For the literary or scientific man it will require a complete isolation from noise, and its constant use will justify the appropriaition on its behalf of a somewhat greater portion of the house space than would otherwise be allotted to an individual member of the family group. For the artist it will expand into a studio, for the medical man into a consulting room, and perhaps a waiting-room, with their separate entrance. In the case of ithie artist, especially when a somewhat large room is desirable as a studio, under economic restrictions the central hall may perform this function during the day, when the other members of the family are engaged either in their ow n special retreats or outside the house, and thus this central hall will become the family room in the evening.