A HABITABLE HOUSE.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Volume 2, Issue 57, 2 November 1878, Page 3

A HABITABLE HOUSE.

1 dissent from the conclusion that " man wants but little hero below." If he is black, and never troubles a tailor. perhaps be can content himself with little; but in proportion as he gets away from savagery, he wants a good deal more than a little, especially in the manlier of house accommodation. There was a time in the history of this colony when we were in a condition of factitious savagery, and had no time, however much inclination we might have had, to build anything much better than huts and cottages. In fact, it was looked upon a.s a luxury when a man changed his tent for a slab hut. I remember once a gentleman in (his city saying to be he did not think there was a house in the colony where a party of fifty could be entertained. But it is not so now. During the last fifteen years, a good many houses have been built, some of them worthy to be called mansions, but although a few of these have been decorated and furnished in reasonable good taste, a great many more have not. Th-y have, indeed, had plenty of money spent on them, both in the way of painting, papering, and furnishing ; but although the expenditure has greatly gratified the owner, and perhaps most of his friends, it lias often horrified those ■who possess-d either a natural or a cultivated art-taste. And such a wast- of money is easily accounted for, seeing that it has been the rule for wealth to bo mire mpauicd by that sort of education which developes the perception oi the really beautiful. 1 think there is a steady improvement in this direction. Our wealthy men have become travelled men. They have seen what, money in alliance with art-knowledge Ims accomplished in the old country, and there has come into their minds a wish, tu spend some of their money in the procurement of habitable hov.se; in the land which is their homo. And the other day I went to look at a house, which is being decorated and furnished in this spirit. It i- at Toorak ; it is named " Athelstane," and it is owned by Mr. Joseph Clarke, whom, I suppose, everybody knows so well that it is ipiite unnecessary in introducing him, to do more than mention his name. 1 cannot tell you how many rooms there are in this house, nor how large they are ; 1 am not sure if I could remember how they arc arranged, or in what order I inspected them, liut when I came away, after seeing them, 1 felt as 1 have sometimes felt after listening to enthralling music or after rending a poem like Moore's " Lall.ih Itookh," or Byron's " Island," or looking at some rare sunset, full of wondrous shapes and harmonious colours ; or I could have persuaded myself 1 had iusl awoke from a pleasant dream. For, in truth, this house, "Athelstane," is a concert of revelant shapes and colours; or it is a poem of chromatic rhythm and symmetric forms, or it is an art-glow, whose beauty changes, but does not lessen, with every movement of the eye ; or, if you like, it is a dream, the memory of which comes buck with a joyous fitl'uluess of recollection. For it seemed that, on a sudden, from being in the cold outer air of a wintery afternoon, I was in the entrance hull of a palaco, made beautiful by the cunningest of art-magicians. Looking upwards the eye rested upon a ceiling panelled in rich dark brown, black, and gold ; and, as the eye wandered further downwards, it lighted upon a painted frieze, which told the story of Europa and tlio bull, of Diana and Britomarte, Mcloager, Dictynna, Ersa, Eudyniiou, [phigoiua, and Alphetts. These were seen to bo pictures painted, not in the hard manner of a mere artificer, but paintings from the band of a veritable artist, and according to the antique fashion, in use when Apelles wrought such designs, having the name of each figure quaintly attached in the body of the composition. Below this frieze the walls were found to be curiously painted of an olive green, so a.s to imitate the sheen of silk. Then came a dado of stamped Venetian leather in ruby and gold. (Of course you know what a "dado" faP) And below the dado you came to the floor of marble, tenderly contrasted and covered in the centre with a real Persian rug, such as you sometimes see in museums ; but upon which not often, or perhaps never you had trodden, And even the panels of the doors were relieved of their flatness by a running leaf-pattern in gold, and the columns supporting the roof had their appropriate enrichment of gold, and the furniture of dark oak helped the soft ([iiiet effect of the whole, which softness was still further increased, by hangings of rich crimson Utrecht Velvet, which divided the first entrance from the inner hall. No\v hero alone, you see, was art enough to give character to a. house, but you aro only on tlio threshold, of what ihero is yet to see. In truth, there is such a flood of heauly, Hint the old allunoii.il' emharms des licatMM almost inevitably occurs to you. You cannot take it aII in at one*. You aro like an unini-

prisoned '"'p. let l**** 6 into a garden of honey-laden Bower* Let us ua, thtn, t>> tlii> end of the dining-room, ball, draw-ing-room, and conservatory. It is true

tb ire un thing new in such a sequence of apartments, but you probably never looked along Bach a vista as this. The v lour -■■■ mis to be of every kind ami shade, and there are forma of every kind, but they arc all in true relation. You experience a sootningoffect of 00-ordin-ateuesa and unity. The eyo rests upon nothing that is not agreeable, and if you take i-.-i'-h of these divisions oE tlio vista separately, you will Bnd that they respond with equal satisfaction to tlio most .i-'U-il xiiimiium of thi'ir details., Tims in the dining-room there is an oakpanelled dado, curiously carved; walls liuug with richly-stamped leather, a frieze painted with sporting scenes in the olden days. Von will see that the ceiling is panelled in oak and gold, and that the chiluuoypiece is oaken also, reaching high up towards the ceiling. Above the mantleshelf there are cupboards, and lielow these there are tiles and brass ornamentation and polished steel, and all the suggestiveness of a line blazing tiro, and. better still, nothing to remind you of the irritating conventionality ot' the modern furniture warehouse. And so of the tables, chairs, sideboard, ami clock. They are of their own kind ; solid, substantial, and vet of a rare nit-work. With the clock" especially you will be delighted. It is a tall six feet long (dock, such a one in shape as you may many a time have seen in the farm houses of the old country. But as this clock of Mr. Clarke's cost £l5O, its resemblance to the farm house chick ends with the shape. The windows are curtained with costly silk, having dados and friezes of Utrecht velvet, and the lloor is polished, and has an Indian carpet in the centre only. There is a feeling of warmth and comfort and habitableness in the room. It does not seem a room only for show, for all that everything is so rich and so thorough. We will pass through the hall into the drawing-room. Here the walls are hung with a sort of tapestry silk of an indescribably delicate and tender olive given. I am afraid to say how manv pounds a card this silk cost. I: has on it apatt-n. of darker green I .', ■ :ei so.tlv i flowers. Tin- da lo is ;.. ;, r ■ embroidery. Here, ton, the ceiling is panelled and tinted in harmonious colors, punctuated with gold. All the furniture is of satin wood, and of this alone a long description might bo given. The chairs are covered with turquoise silk, and the window curtains are of the same mat-rial and the carpet, which is l'ersian. is of a fabulous price, being of imperishable camels' hair. The conservatory at the end, looks like a large diamond ilia rich .setting. The inner hall, whirl, is slumbrously curtained from the outer, is as well-balan-ced in ils particulars as the entrai -hall and only in degree is it a little less ill richness. Over the doors and archways in the tw.p halls there are inscriptions, a concomitant of decoration which greatly helps the home-likeness of the house. The giaud staircase merits ils name, but is not only grand, but picturesque. It is broad and easy of ascent, and all the forms and colours which distinguish it are agreeable and satisfying. In the frieze, a good use is made of the classic brick red ami black ; the walls are of a calm olive green, and the dado is of a rich ruby tint. The hand-rail is covered with Utrecht velvet, and on the wall opposite to the hand-rail, there is a rail of brass, parallel 'to which, upon the wall, there is a baud of velvet, as if with the intention of balancing the hand-rail opposite. Before going into the bed-rooms, wo will look'into' the bathroom. A bath hewn out of a solid piece' of marble ; the walls lined with tiles, upon which, hand painted, is a representation of water, with mermaids, lishe;, and swan., vari lusly therein engaged. All these creatures are outlined with wonderful vigour and humour. Above this dado of painted tile*. there is the represent at ion of pillars, as if these suppoited the roof, and between the pillars there are sky, dowel's and birds so that the imagination may readily conceive a bath standing by itself in a flower garden. Two of the bedrooms are inconceivably luxurious sleeping places, such as houris might repose in. In one there seems to be a roseate atmosphere; in the other you are conscious of an ethereal ell'ect from the judicious distribution of a, blue tint. In both there is an indefinable sensation of softness, smoothness and absolute repose. The senses cannot help being soothed in such I'uoms, You would fall asleep and dream of soft music. And the other bed-rooms, if less ornate, are all distinguished by an extreme of comfort, and the dressing dressing-rooms are veritable bowers of elegant luxury. Going down stairs again, you como to the " morning room," or if you like, you shall call it the Indian room. I venture to say there is not another room like it in all Australia. The colours would bo startling if they were not in such absolute complementary relation ; and the design would seem capricious and overfanciful if it were not BO poetically worked out. Willi the help of a very little imagination, you could easily suppose yourself to be in a temple in a forest. For around you are stone arches, and heavily, hanging, darkened eurUiiiiH, while above is a Persian " prayer-cloth," upon which are inscribed legends from the Korau. Between the curtains and the silked ceiling, you see sky, and (lowers, ami birds. The windows si thus to be almost, superfluous. Ncverth-les\ these are I hung with Indian embroidery, and inI diim embroidery covers table, chairs, and

eonohtt, and the carpel is Lilian aha It seems an inconsistency, in such a room, not to dresn in soft Bowing Indian garment*- and be waited upon by beautiful slaves. But there is yet the spacious billiard-room to be visited, and the '•den" which you may translate into liliiary. Also there i- a little room at the end "i the inner hall, hidden by a screen of softly diaphano-chromatie glass. This Is a lavatory wheru you almost inevitably expect to bath your hands in Persian rosewaler. One might till a large book with the description oi this house. What strikes you so especially is tie- variety and yet entire agreement of tic ornamentation. Nothing conflicts, nothing jars, nothing wearies yon. It is not, as many expensively appointed houses are, only an orderly arranged upholsterer's warehouse. It is a practical essay in art furnishing, a poem ia colour, a treatise in form ami grouping. Such a house as Mr. Joseph Clarke's is, then, an admirable lesson in tastes to those wiio are privileged to s it, and 1 cannot conceive of any one living in it being other than refined and gentle, and art-cultured. It do.'-credit to Mr Clark's taste and liberality, and it is a monument of which Mi --r-. Gillow and Co., of London may be very proud. If 1 were a rich man, Mr. East should have profitable occupation enough to make it impossible for him over to wish to have this colony, and it' I were a dictator ! would make him direc, ir-ahsolute of decoration both in puhlii ami privato buildings.—J. E. N. in the Australasian.