ENGLISH HOMES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 234, 3 October 1931, Page 15

ENGLISH HOMES.

THROUGH THE CENTURIES.

We would not be true to our. trust, said Mr. Reginald C. Ford last evening, when speakmo: before the members of the Art Society and Institute of Architects, if we did not insist on beauty in our homes, and he suggested that the Art Society should encourage crafts, for the house, "and furniture making, and thus remain true to the tradition of the wonderful English home. It was not recognised as it should be, he said, that the British people led the way in domestic architecture and that they had a great sense of beauty, which had come down to them from medieval times. The kitchen was the centre of the home life in the Middle Ages, and it had need to be, for, as Mr. Ford showed, in the huge fireplaces, loft long and 7ft high, meals were cooked for two hundred people. The kitchen indeed was the centre of family life. These meals comprised regular menus and each course had from 20 to 30 dishes. There were many kinds of fish dishes, and meats in profusion. That did not mean that the medieval folk were given to gluttony, but that there was provided a number of dishes so that all could have something they liked.

The Middle Ages. Many of the ideas about the life of the Middle Ages were not founded on fact. The notion that it was dirty and lacked ceremony was not borne out byevidence, for, although Erasmus had written that when he went over to England he found that the 'rushes on the floors were not changed, but only new ones thrown down, another celebrated doctor had written that he found the people very clean —and he was a Dutchman. That the people did not over-eat was shown by another doctor who had put it on record that one meal a day was enough for a "still" man and two for an active man, and that the man who ate more lived a. beastly life. Medieval halls were very beautiful, said Mr. Ford, for they were gorgeously painted. Even the roofs and the chimneys were decorated with heraldic devices, and the hangings were of tapestry. Dr. Bord wrote in 1540 that the panelled rooms kept warmer than others, and, strangely enough, some recent experiments which had been carried out with plaster, panelling, and other materials, for warmth, had proved the medieval writer correct.

Medieval Homes. Another sidelight was thrown on the lives of the English of the Middle Ages when the lecturer showed the dog gates at the foot of the staircase in the Elizabethan houses, for, as he said, the dogs might be allowed in the great hall, but they were barred from the bedrooms of those days. One writer, commenting on what was etiquette in those times, said it was not right to allow the dogs to jump on the table. That was the period when women's costumes reached the highest pinnacle of absurdity and costly richness, but the homes of the better class people had great beauty. Mr. Ford showed a splendid example of a house for a middle-class trader, a house which, although built right on the street, along with others, was lovely, and dignified in appearance. That life was as cultivated as ours was shown by the recipes for the beautifully scented soaps, made by the family of course, and the tooth pastes, which had come right down to the present day. Even bathrooms were known then, although manners were slightly different, for the lecturer showed a picture of a lady sitting up to her neck in her bath, with her knight sitting on the edge entertaining her. The baths were different in shape from ours, and all had a coverin" of wrought iron over them, of which the use was a little difficult to underMr.' Ford, who was introduced by Dr. E B. Gunson, president of the Art Society, showed a splendid collection of pictures of British architecture, from the v»ry earliest time, and made the subject very interesting and clear to nontechnical listeners.