Pot-pourri from a Surrey garden

which is a real danger, they soon feel the heat, and that warns them to keep away from the hearth. But it is essential that the hearth should be wider than is usual, both for appearance and safety ; and if a finish is thought desirable between the tiles and the floor, a flat band, three or four inches wide, of brass or iron looks very well — but it is not necessary. The fire-irons should be on a stand apart, or put against the chimneypiece on hooks, or in a hoop of iron or brass. Nothing, of course, supersedes the high wire fender for safety in nurseries and schoolrooms. White tiles as a lining for the sides, grates, and hearths of fireplaces are not often used, but to my mind they are far prettier than dark tiles, if the chimneypiece is made of light-coloured marble or white wood, as is so common. The adapting and improving of what we find in builders' houses is one of our modern difficulties. Mr. Morris is severe on pianos, and it must be admitted they are very ugly, but great attention is now being given to improving them. One simple inexpensive way of doing so is to have the case very plain ; the music-desk plain bars, instead of ornamental fret-work ; and the whole left absolutely without varnish or polish. The housemaid's rubbing only improves the marking on the grain of the wood. In London everything ought to be sacrificed to sweet- ness and light. Let no one put on their walls or their floors that which they cannot afford constantly to renew. In an ordinary London house, merely keeping things clean one year with another, inside and out, adds a con- siderable sum yearly to the rent. I have found it very clean and useful to wash the corners and sides of the window-panes with Sanitas, especially in the country in spring. It destroys the eggs of flies and insects of all kinds, and in no way injures the paint. It saves waste to lay on the Sanitas with a brush. FURNISHING 281 In London nowadays the houses of the young are freshly done up and clean and healthy. Where I find the greatest sanitary neglect is in the homes of the middle- aged, especially those who have lived long in one place. Even in the houses of rich and well-to-do people, in London, the dirt in the upstairs rooms and passages is inconceivable. The mistress of the house is lazy or in- different ; and as we get older, the years run on so quickly it is impossible to realise how long it is since the last cleaning; nothing is ever looked over, replaced, or renewed. A favourite economy, and one to which the best of housekeepers have a tendency, is to put old carpets out of dining-rooms or drawing-rooms into bed- rooms of boys and girls, often without even going to the expense of having them cleaned. The painted floor and a small piece of new drugget, clean and sweet, would be infinitely more healthy and more appropriate. Another constantly neglected corner is what is called the house- maid's closet. In houses where servants are not much looked after, and even where they are, this is often the glory-hole of dirt. I recommend the use of the white enamel slop-pails, which are so infinitely easier to keep clean than the old painted tin ones, though they, too, are quite clean if they are only repainted often enough. The whole system of living and housekeeping in England is still sacrificed far too much to show — large sitting-rooms, small bed-rooms, and unclean attics.