THE CHEAP COTTAGE PROBLEM.
[To THE EDITOR Or THY "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Editors, like ladies, have the privilege of the last word; but, none the less, permit me respectfully to protest against your recent admission of error, which to us who, week by week, study and admire your writings seems a work of supererogation. Like the Pontifex Maximus making pro- nouncement ex cathedra, you justly claim infallibility ; and in this matter of cheap cottages your nomenclature has been, as always, incontrovertibly correct. "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet," and the kitchen, be the kitchener never so shiny, or the oven never so oniony,—though it be termed a dining-room, a refectory, or a salle-a-manger, will do the same :— " You may call it or name it whatever you will, The scent of the cooking will hang round it still." No, Sir, beyond the bare necessities of accommodation every cottage home needs a private room—you may term it a parlour (or, to use the original phrase, a with-drawing room), or a guest room, or a best room, only it must be a room set apart—an kortus inclusus, secure from the incursions of dogs or eats or children or chickens, or even, in Ireland, from the cosy familiarity of the " gintleman who pays Coe rint,"—it must be a shrine, a chapel of ease, dedicate to the Penates of the poor. Fortunately the resources of economy are not yet exhausted, and for a modest sixpence per week of additional rent full provision may be made for the housewife's proper pride.—I am, Sir, &c., ARNOLD F. HILLS. Broomfield Hall, Sunningdale, Berks.
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