Pot-pourri from a Surrey garden

It is a serviceable and clean plan to sew strips of holland or chintz, which can be removed and washed, on to the edge of the mattresses ; this prevents the house- maid's hands from dirtying them. I remember the day when all beds were covered with what are called counter- panes, which were even left on at night. But these now are universally acknowledged to be unwholesome, and, for the daytime, they have been superseded by some coloured coverlid. I like this coverlid, which keeps the blankets clean by day, and is folded up by night, to be the hand- somest feature in the room, though its material may vary from the cheapest twill or cretonne to the richest needle- work or damask- silk, old or modern. The walls can FURNISHING 287 always be covered gradually by framed pictures, photo- graphs, or prints of all kinds. In a nursery, the choice of these photographs may make an impression for life, artistic or the contrary. A young man once said to me that in travelling in Italy one of the chief joys he felt in visiting the famous galleries was the recognition of a picture that had been an old familiar friend as a framed photograph at home. He added that, if ever he had children, he thought one of the best decorations for a nursery would be a dado made of photographs, of various sizes, of some of the masterpieces of the world. The difficulty of this would be that nurseries must be easily cleaned and renewed, and I think the photographs to form the dado would have to be stuck on to thick pasteboard or thin wood. I would allow all young people, both boys and girls, as much as possible to do the decorating and furnishing of their own rooms, limiting them, of course, to the sum intended to be spent. Taste in decorating, as in all else, is a constant cause of difference, and what every person objects to most is what is to them old-fashioned — that is, what has immediately preceded their own day. f A detail of family life, but not at all an unimportant one in my estimation, is the providing of a large, firm, folding table in the general sitting-room. It can be kept outside or in a corner of the room, and should never remain open during the day, but be brought out nightly when the lamps are lit and the curtains are drawn. This plan enables every member of the family to have room for separate employment. Everyone knows how crowded the permanent tables become in an habitually used sitting-room. The use of an empty table was first suggested to my mind by some remarks made by Goethe to Bckermann in the 'Conversations.' He strongly recommends bringing out any good books 288 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN or pictures that you may happen to have to show your guests. It is impossible to do this with any comfort without a good roomy table on which to spread them . Showing books to children of different ages often provides an excellent topic for conversation, and even, I might say, for instruction ; only this, I am afraid, sounds so very priggish.