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Page 37
In dealing with this subject, I shall perforce be chiefly speaking
of those middle-class dwellings of which I know most; but what I
have to say will be as applicable to any other kind; for there is no
dignity or unity of plan about any modern house, big or little. It
has neither centre nor individuality, but is invariably a congeries
of rooms tumbled together by chance hap. So that the unit I have to
speak of is a room rather than a house.
Now there may be some here who have the good luck to dwell in those
noble buildings which our forefathers built, out of their very
souls, one may say; such good luck I call about the greatest that
can befall a man in these days. But these happy people have little
to do with our troubles of to-night, save as sympathetic onlookers.
All we have to do with them is to remind them not to forget their
duties to those places, which they doubtless love well; not to alter
them or torment them to suit any passing whim or convenience, but to
deal with them as if their builders, to whom they owe so much, could
still be wounded by the griefs and rejoice in the well-doing of
their ancient homes. Surely if they do this, they also will neither
be forgotten nor unthanked in the time to come.
There may be others here who dwell in houses that can scarcely be
called noble--nay, as compared with the last-named kind, may be
almost called ignoble--but their builders still had some traditions
left them of the times of art. They are built solidly and
conscientiously at least, and if they have little or no beauty, yet
have a certain common-sense and convenience about them; nor do they
fail to represent the manners and feelings of their own time. The
earliest of these, built about the reign of Queen Anne, stretch out
a hand toward the Gothic times, and are not without picturesqueness,
especially when their surroundings are beautiful. The latest built
in the latter days of the Georges are certainly quite guiltless of
picturesqueness, but are, as above said, solid, and not
inconvenient. All these houses, both the so-called Queen Anne ones
and the distinctively Georgian, are difficult enough to decorate,
especially for those who have any leaning toward romance, because
they have still some style left in them which one cannot ignore; at
the same time that it is impossible for any one living out of the
time in which they were built to sympathise with a style whose
characteristics are mere whims, not founded on any principle. Still
they are at the worst not aggressively ugly or base, and it is
possible to live in them without serious disturbance to our work or
thoughts; so that by the force of contrast they have become bright
spots in the prevailing darkness of ugliness that has covered all
modern life.
But we must not forget that that rebellion which we have met here, I
hope, to further, has begun, and to-day shows visible tokens of its
life; for of late there have been houses rising up among us here and
there which have certainly not been planned either by the common
cut-and-dried designers for builders, or by academical imitators of
bygone styles. Though they may be called experimental, no one can
say that they are not born of thought and principle, as well as of
great capacity for design. It is nowise our business to-night to
criticise them. I suspect their authors, who have gone through so
many difficulties (not of their own breeding) in producing them,
know their shortcomings much better than we can do, and are less
elated by their successes than we are. At any rate, they are gifts
to our country which will always be respected, whether the times
better or worsen, and I call upon you to thank their designers most
heartily for their forethought, labour, and hope.
Well, I have spoken of three qualifications to that degradation of
our dwellings which characterises this period of history only.
First, there are the very few houses which have been left us from
the times of art. Except that we may sometimes have the pleasure of
seeing these, we most of us have little enough to do with them.
Secondly, there are those houses of the times when, though art was
sick and all but dead, men had not quite given it up as a bad job,
and at any rate had not learned systematic bad building; and when,
moreover, they had what they wanted, and their lives were expressed
by their architecture. Of these there are still left a good many
all over the country, but they are lessening fast before the
irresistible force of competition, and will soon be very rare
indeed.
Thirdly, there are a few houses built and mostly inhabited by the
ringleaders of the rebellion against sordid ugliness, which we are
met here to further to-night. It is clear that as yet these are
very few,--or you could never have thought it worth your while to
come here to hear the simple words I have to say to you on this
subject.
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