No matter how elaborately the rest of the house is furnished, the appointments of the morning-room should be plain, comfortable, and capable of resisting hard usage. It is a good plan to cover the floor with a straw matting, and common sense at once suggests the furniture best suited to such a room: two or three good-sized tables with lamps, a comfortable sofa, and chairs covered with chintz, leather, or one of the bright-colored horsehairs now manufactured in France.
Sa triste amante abandonnee
Pleure ses maux et ses plaisirs.
FRENCH BOUDOIR, LOUIS XVI PERIOD.
(FROM A PRINT BY LE BOUTEUX.)
PLATE XLI.
XI
GALA ROOMS: BALL-ROOM, SALOON, MUSIC-ROOM, GALLERY
European architects have always considered it essential that those rooms which are used exclusively for entertaining—gala rooms, as they are called—should be quite separate from the family apartments,—either occupying an entire floor (the Italian piano nobile) or being so situated that it is not necessary to open them except for general entertainments.