its common use as a thoroughfare by all
members of the family. It is not a place of prolonged occupation, and
may therefore properly be without the luxury and ease of lounges and
lounging-chairs. But as long as it serves both as entrance-room to the
house and for carrying the stairways to the upper floors, it should be
treated in such a way as to lead up to and prepare the mind for whatever
of inner luxury there may be in the house. At the same time it should
preserve something of the simplicity and freedom from all attempt at
effect which belong to out-of-door life. The difference between its
decoration and furniture and that of other divisions of the house
should be principally in surface, and not in colour. Difference of
surface is secured by the use of materials which are permanent and
durable in effect, such as wood, plaster, and leather. These may all be
coloured without injury to their impression of permanency, although it
is generally preferable to take advantage of indigenous or "inherent
colour" like the natural yellows and russets of wood and leather. When
these are used for both walls and ceiling, it will be found that, to
give the necessary variation, and prevent an impression of monotony and
dulness, some tint must be added in the ornament of the surface, which
could be gained by a forcible deepening or variation of the general
tone, like a deep golden brown, which is the lowest tone of the scale of
yellow, or a red which would be only a variant of the prevailing tint.
The introduction of an opposing or contrasting tint, like pale blue in
small masses as compared with the general tint, even if it is in so
small a space as that of a water-colour on the wall, adds the necessary
contrast, and enlivens and invigorates a harmony.

No colour carries with it a more appropriate influence at the entrance
of a house than red in its different values. Certain tints of it which
are known both as Pompeiian and Damascus red have sufficient yellow in
their composition to fall in with the yellows of oiled wood, and give
the charm of a variant but related colour. In its stronger and deeper
tones it is in direct contrast to the green of abundant foliage, and
therefore a good colour for the entrance-hall or vestibule of a
country-house; while the paler tones, which run into pinks, hold the
same opposing relation to the gray and blue of the sea-shore. If walls
and ceiling are of wood, a rug of which the prevailing colour is red