WHATEVER the style of the exterior may be, the interior of a house should be adapted to the uses of the inhabitants; and, whether the house be Grecian or Gothic, large or small, it will require nearly the same rooms for the present habits of life, viz. a dining-room, and two others, one of which may be called a drawing-room, and the other the book-room, if small; or the library, if large: to these is sometimes added, a breakfast-room; but of late, especially since the central hall, or vestibule, has been in some degree given up, these rooms have been opened into each other, en suite, by large folding doors; and the effect of this enfilade, or vista, through a modern house, is occasionally increased, by a conservatory at one end, and repeated by a large mirror at the opposite end*. The position of looking-glasses, with respect to the light and cheerfulness of rooms, was not well understood in England during the last century, although, on the Continent, the effect of large mirrors had long been studied in certain palaces: great advantage was, in some cases, taken, by placing them obliquely, and in others, by placing them opposite: thus new scenes and unexpected effects were often introduced.
*[Where there are two or more rooms, with an anti-room, it is always better not to let the dining-room open en suite. These rooms may be called libraries, saloons, music-rooms, or breakfast-rooms: but, in fact, they form one large space, when laid together, which is more properly denominated the living-room, since the useless drawing-room is no longer retained, except by those who venerate the cedar parlour of former days.]
