"THE HOME I WANT."
[To THE EDITOR Or TER " SPECTAT01."3 Fte,—In your review of Captain Reiss'e book, The Home I Want, in your issue of April 12th I was glad to see the archi- tectural aspect of our future houses given special prominence. External appearance has been neglected far too long, and, I fear, in spite of Captain Reiss'a excellent classification, "health, convenience and comfort, and (most of all) economy" are still likely to overshadow mere " appearance." Of England I know little, but in Scotland, and more partiCularly in the Highlands, a modern house, be it mansion, villa, or cottage, is almost certain to be ugly in externals, and consequently totally out of harmony with the natural beauty of its surroundings. As an example, could anything be more out of place than the recently built village at Kinlochleven, shoddy and ostentatious—a per- petual eyesore in one of the most beautiful spots in the High- lands? It should be a matter of great anxiety to all true High- landers, and to that great army of people who count themselves " lovers "of the Highlands, to see the hillsides and glens so per- etaneutly. disfigured. What is suitable for Letchworth, or even for the garden suburbs of Glasgow, is emphatically not suitable to the Highlands, such as the merely " pretty, rose-clad, red- tiled, gabled cottage" of Captain Reiss's back-cover. Environ- ment surely requires more sympathetic consideration than it has heretofore been allowed, and it behoves those responsible for house-building in the future to give it that consideration. With this object in view, An Comunn Gadhealach (the High- land Association) have just issued an illustrated booklet (price ad.) on Housing in the Highlands—a Plea for the Appropriate, to which Dr. Neil Munro has contributed a Foreword. It can he obtained from the Secretary of the Association, at 108 Hope Street, Glasgow, by all interested, and will amply repay
Previous page
