Heather Cottage

In the plan of this little house and garden on a hillside, the levels or the ground formed the most important factor. It is long and low, but while at one end it consists of merely a ground-floor room with attic over, at the other the sloping ground has changed it into a house of practically two storeys. To the north the hill rises considerably and helps to shelter the house. It serves, indeed, as a practical illustration of the principle of placing a house, not on the highest point in the site, which is so often done, but at an intermediate level, which gives both shelter and view. In the garden the pergola is a notable feature, serving to screen the drive from the lawn, of which it forms the northern boundary. One of the objections sometimes raised to the pergola is that the flowers of the creepers which clothe it are all outside, and not seen from the inside, where the effect, save for such flowers as may bloom in the borders, is mainly one of light and shade. This suggests the placing of the pergola so that its exterior may also form a garden feature, and in this case its sunny side comes into view both from the drawing-room window and the lawn.o In the house, the dining-hall, with its open timber roof and wide ingle, is the central and dominant apartment. The dining-table is placed at one end across the room. The drawing-room is small and low, and over it the study forms a little attic-room with its private stair and gallery overlooking the hall. The arrangement of the bedrooms allows of the treatment of the dressing-room as a second bathroom, with comparatively little extra cost in plumbing, while a third little staircase gives access to servants’ room over the kitchen. At the time of writing this house is in process of construction, and drawings must replace photographs in its illustration. These at least admit of some suggestion of the colour, in which the heather, from which the house takes its name, is a notable feature.