"It must be useful.   It must work dependably.   It must be beautiful.  It
must last.   It must be the best of its kind." Alfred Dunhill's maxim,
1907 
<p no=1>
The idea of a specially designed dolls' house for Queen Mary, the wife of
King George V, was first conceived in the spring of 1921 by a first cousin
of the King, Princess Marie Louise.   Born in 1872, the Princess was the
youngest daughter of Queen Victoria's fifth child, the Princess Helena and
her husband Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein.   Although at the age
of not quite two, her maternal grandmother described her as " Poor little
Louise very ugly", photographs show that she was not an unattractive
woman.   However, her private life was not a happy one and her early
marriage ended in annulment.   Her chief satisfaction was to come from the
friends she later made from the worlds of music, art and literature. 
<p no=2>
The Princess was a childhood friend of the Queen and a firm favourite with
King George V.   Her family's home was Cumberland Lodge in Windsor Great
Park, and it was here, after visiting the King and Queen at Windsor during
the Easter of 1921, that she watched her mother and sister assembling a
collection of miniature furniture for the Queen. 
<p no=3>
By the 1920s Queen Mary's mania for collecting had become well known
throughout her family and the British Empire.   Her methods of acquisition
ranged from chance discoveries and bargain purchases in shops to
point-blank admiration of other people's possessions, which found some
owners parting with their treasures as gifts, while others hid their
bibelots when it was known that a visit from the Queen was imminent.   She
was an enthusiastic if somewhat undiscerning collector of antiques, but it
was a genuine love of "tiny craft" that filled endless rooms and corridors
with specially lit glass cabinets of miniature objects. 
<p no=4>
All this went through Princess Marie Louise's mind, and on impulse she
suggested to her family that she should ask her great friend, the
architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, to design a dolls' house for the Queen's
personal pleasure.   At the private view of that year's Royal Academy
Summer Exhibition she met the architect and put the proposition to him. 
<p no=5 segment_break>
"The Queen writes she is nervous as to how the Dolls' House opens and
asks questions about the hall door." Letter from Sir Edwin Lutyens to Lady
Emily, 17 August 1921 
<p no=6>
The Queen's worry as to how the Dolls' House opened was a perfectly
reasonable one.  The plans showed over forty rooms and vestibules on four
elevations, with two staircases, two lifts that stopped at every floor,
hot and cold running water in all five bathrooms, water closets that
flushed, electric light, a cellar, a garage and a garden. 
<p no=7>
Lutyens solved the problem with the simple device of a closely-fitting
outer shell that could be raised and lowered over the inner fabric of the
house from machinery installed in its roof space. 
<p no=8>
Lutyens had been using classical detail in some form or other since his
earliest years as an architect.   His chief inspiration came from
Christopher Wren, and by the early 1900s this influence in Lutyens's work
was paramount: he called it his "Wrenaissance". 
<p no=9>
The outer shell of the Dolls' House is in classical "renaissance" design
with the main facade on the north side.   The use of real stone would have
made the shell too heavy to move, and so carved and painted wood to
represent the creamy white of Lutyens's favourite Portland stone was used. 
<p no=10>
Built on a scale of 1 to 12, the house is 102 inches long on the main
north and south fronts, 58 1/2  inches from east to west at ground floor
level and is five feet high at parapet level.   It stands on a base 39
inches high measuring 116 inches by 72 inches.   On the north and south
sides, the base is divided into a sub-base 24 inches high, each side
containing 104 interchangeable cedar-wood drawers 11 inches long and 3 1/2
inches wide and deep to store the contents when necessary.   The upper 15
inches of the base on the north side hides the machinery for the lifts,
the electrical gear, and the tank for the water wastes, a system which no
longer functions.   On the south side a corresponding basement is hidden
by a drawer flap which, when pulled down, reveals the cellar with its
groined roof. 
<p no=11 segment_break>
There are many useful accessories available which will give curtains a
professional finish.  They include brackets which enable two separate tracks
to be used together (or a pole and a track) giving good clearance between the
two sets of curtains.  Extension brackets project the track out to avoid
protruding window sills and radiators.  Recess brackets enable a pole to be
used within a window reveal and replace end finials.
<p no=12>
Cording sets incorporating overlap arms are available to fit certain straight
tracks as an optional extra.  An alternative to a cording set is a draw rod,
which is a simpler and cheaper method of operating curtains without handling
them.  It is a slim wooden rod which slips into the first ring of each curtain
on the leading edge and, when not being used, hangs out of sight.
<p no=13>
Fabric and corded tie bands need to be attached to hooks, and these are
available in a range of designs.  Curtains can also be elegantly draped back
over specially designed curtain-holders.
<p no=14>
Essential technical hardware used in making up curtains includes a variety of
curtain hooks of varying strengths, made of plastic or metal, which can be
sewn on, slotted into pockets on special tapes, or pinned into hand headings.
<p no=15>
Weights will improve the hang of curtains.  They can be bought either as
small, round discs, which are sewn into the corners of curtain hems, or in
strip form, to be inserted along the whole length of the hemline.  This is
sold by the metre in three weights - light, medium and heavyweight.
<p no=16 segment_break>
"... My old, dear and intimate friend Princess Marie Louise, who
furnishing the Queen's Dolls' House, asked me some months ago to let
twelve poems of mine be copied small to form one volume in the library;
and I selected the twelve shortest and simplest and least likely to
fatigue the attention of dolls or the illustrious House of Hanover." From
the  Collected Letters  of A. E. Housman.   To Grant Richards, 4 May 1923 
<p no=17>
Reached through the right-hand hall lobby, the library runs the full
length of the ground floor on the west front.   By the early twentieth
century, it was not unusual for the library to be a masculine combination
of gun room, study and smoking room, and the Dolls' House library has a
cluttered family atmosphere, scattered as it is with periodicals,
newspapers, cards and dice. 
<p no=18>
Panelled from floor to cornice in walnut, it has the lowest ceiling of all
the main rooms.   The shadowy Roman theme of the painting on the fluted
and coffered ceiling was purposely "aged" by its artist, William Walcot.
The furniture and the silver chandeliers were designed by Lutyens. 
<p no=19>
British rulers have made collections of books down the ages, and the
library portraits of the English kings Henry VII (1485-1509), Henry VIII
(1509-1547) and Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603) acknowledge these monarchs'
contributions to the sixteenth-century Renaissance of learning in England.
King George III (1760-1820) collected what is now the King's Library in
the British Library, and Queen Mary herself had a library of nearly five
thousand volumes by the end of her life. 
<p no=20 segment_break>
"Cookery is become an art, a noble science." Robert Burton, 1577-1640 
<p no=21>
The kitchen is the main room on the south side of the ground floor.   It
is flanked on the right by the scullery and on the left by a service lobby
with entrances to both the east side pantry and the dining room.
Lutyens's ideal of an orderly life run by efficient, invisible servants is
more than realised in this immaculately appointed domain. 
<p no=22>
Deep cupboards in both the scullery and pantry house the necessary
quantities of glass and china, and deep double sinks in both rooms make up
for the lack of the modern dishwasher.   The size of the taps throughout
the house is one of the few exceptions to scale, as an exact one twelfth
in the plumbing system would have been too small for water to run through
the pipes. 
<p no=23>
The specially designed plate rack in the scullery can drain the ninety
plates of different sizes used for a five-course dinner for eighteen,
whilst the slate floor makes for easy cleaning. 
<p no=24>
Much of the china bears the back-plate of Thomas Goode & Co. Ltd.   One of
the best known china shops in the world and holder of warrants to no less
than nine royal houses before the First World War, the company
commissioned and sold glass and china from different factories.   Queen
Mary was one of the firm's patrons and Goode's undertook to co-ordinate
and in many cases donate glass and china throughout the house.   As in
many large houses of today and yesterday, the names of Minton, Doulton and
Wedgwood run through the Dolls' House china cupboards.   For the kitchen
china, marked with a "K" to distinguish it from the nursery china marked
with an "N", as well as the storage jars with printed names on the kitchen
shelves, Doulton china was used because of its reputation for being
hard-wearing. 
<p no=25 segment_break>
"Very merry, and the best fritters that ever I eat in my life." 
Samuel Pepys, 1633-1703 
<p no=26>
With a staff entrance from the kitchen service lobby and another from the
entrance hall, the dining room faces east, overlooking the garden.   The
room is at its best looked at as a whole.   The carpet, painted to
simulate Aubusson, reflects the pattern of the early Palladian ceiling
with its merry spirits encircling the earth.   It is also an excellent
example of how modern and antique design and furnishing would have been
blended in such a house. 
<p no=27>
The copy of the eighteenth-century walnut table in the centre measures 5
1/4  inches when it is closed, and with twentieth-century construction
extends to twenty inches.   The eighteen "period" walnut arm chairs are
three inches high.   Lutyens designed the screen made by Cartier Ltd. to
hide the carrying of dishes from the service area to the table. 
<p no=28>
The paintings over the doors are trompe-l'oeil  and the painted walls
carry carved swags of limewood.   The pictures are a typical mixture and
include portraits of the kings Edward III and James V of Scotland.  Under
McEvoy's painting after Winterhalter of Queen Victoria and her family (the
original hangs at Buckingham Palace), are two small pictures of corners of
the Audience Chamber and Van Dyck Room at Windsor Castle, specially chosen
as suitable subjects by Queen Mary and the artist, W. Ranken.   Copies
donated by Alfred Munnings of three of his pictures are the King's charger
"Delhi", a Friesian bull and an equestrian portrait of King Edward VIII as
Prince of Wales which later hung in the Paris apartment of the Duke and
Duchess of Windsor.   The absence of visible picture chains and wires
throughout the house is typical of 1920S decoration. 
<p no=29 segment_break>
It might be argued that historically the Maronite Christians have done much to
bring this near calamity on themselves, that Gen Aoun is only the latest,
probably the last, in a long line of revolts against an Arab and Mulsim
environment to which this most stiff-necked of Arab minorities refuses to
adapt itself.
<p no=30>
Recently, one prominent, hitherto militant Christian commentator did argue
that.  But last week such arguments looked academic: the Maronites were facing
the first-ever full-scale invasion of their traditional mountain heartland,
and the survival of " Christian Lebanon" was at stake as never before.
<p no=31>
There was no question but that the army, the Lebanese Forces militia, and a
whole new wave of volunteers would have put up a desperate resistance.
<p no=32>
Even if the new President had entered his official residence, he would have no
standing in his own community, and what, after all, is the point of a Maronite
President if it is not to integrate the Maronites within the traditional
confessional system which - readjusted in the Muslims' favour - the Tayif
agreement perpetuates?  If that agreement is already deeply ailing, the Syrian
invasion would have killed it off.
<p no=33>
The plain fact is that Syria, together with the principal promoters of the
Arab League " peace plan" such as the US and Saudi Arabia, and its reluctant
supporters such as France, have taken fright at its enforcement.
<p no=34 segment_break>
"Where the quiet-coloured end of evening smiles." Robert Browning,
1812-1889 
<p no=35>
From the upper hall, the King's suite of wardrobe, bedroom and bathroom is
reached through the right-hand lobby and faces west above the library.
To the right, his wardrobe is lined with fitted cupboards on both sides
and a field marshal's sword made by Wilkinson Sword Ltd. lies on the
lacquer table.   On the groined ceiling the artist W. G. de Glehn's
scantily-clad maidens are at their  toilette .   The centre light fitting,
designed by Lutyens, is made of mother of pearl and ivory and matches a
similar one in the private bathroom. 
<p no=36>
On the bedroom side the wooden carved overdoor in the early Palladian
style is the most handsome in the house. 
<p no=37>
The King's bedroom is dominated by the eighteenth-century state bed.
This costly production, with the royal coat of arms embroidered in silk on
white damask at the head of the bed, was manufactured and appropriately
hung and plumed by the Royal School of Needlework and was donated by the
school's founder, Princess Christian, mother of Princess Marie Louise. 
<p no=38>
Above the chimney piece and marble hearth is Ambrose McEvoy's portrait of
the Princess Royal, King George V's daughter.   The silver chandelier is a
copy of one at Knole, home of the Sackville-West family, and the tapestry
fire screen is worked with the traditional vase of flowers on a marble
pedestal that was the badge of the weavers of the royal wardrobe in the
eighteenth century. 
<p no=39>
The furniture is of walnut, with comfortable chairs in red damask.
Scattered around are favourite books, photographs and one of Dunhill's
pipes. 
<p no=40 segment_break>
The saloon, or drawing room, extends the full width of the first floor on
the east side above the dining room.   Used for formal entertaining, it is
the largest room in the house.   With no concession to comfort and the two
thrones under a silk canopy, the room suggests that in this part of the
house at least Lutyens was designing a miniature royal palace.   Indeed,
by this time he was so immersed in the project that, as his close
companion of the time, Lady Sackville, pointed out, he was not paying
nearly enough attention to either her, or his work on Britannic House for
the Anglo Iranian Oil Co. Ltd! 
<p no=41>
The six state portraits are charmingly painted.   On either side of the
thrones the pictures of George III (1760-1820) and Queen Charlotte are by
Harrington Mann, copied from the original paintings by Reynolds that now
hang in the Royal Academy.  At the opposite end Edward VII (1901-1910) and
Queen Alexandra by Sir John Lavery are based on the state portraits by
Fildes at Buckingham Palace.   After some initial doubt, Sir William
Orpen, a future president of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters,
agreed to adapt his usual free style to paint his first royal portraits,
those of the King and Queen.   Lady Patricia Ramsay, a cousin of the King,
painted the panels over the doors.   The specially woven damask material
is in the same eighteenth-century style as that in the Queen's bedroom,
and hangs between the marble cornice and dado. 
<p no=42>
The glass vitrines are filled with small ornaments, and the two console
tables have elephant-tooth tops. 
<p no=43>
The music for the piano is a selection from some fifty volumes of
published music in the library, the work of twenty-five contemporary
composers, which has been photographically reduced to scale. 
<p no=44 segment_break>
Staff rooms on the lower and upper mezzanine floors can only be reached by
the back staircase or the service lift. 
<p no=45>
The supply of domestic staff in Britain had dwindled after the First World
War, when former servants found better paid employment for fewer hours'
work in offices and factories.   Although in many cases modern technology
had reduced the necessity for large staffs, households were conscious of
the need to accommodate their remaining servants in well-appointed rooms,
with better facilities and labour-saving devices. 
<p no=46>
Distributed on the two mezzanine floors are six servants' rooms, which
include the menservants' bathroom with a water closet and the butler's
bedroom.   The maids' bathroom and water closet is on the top floor by the
linen room.
<p no=47>
The firm of Waring & Gillow was responsible for contemporary furniture in
many large houses, and supplied the Dolls' House with typical, practical
pieces for staff bedrooms. 
<p no=48 segment_break>
"And still she slept an azure-lidded sleep in blanched linen, smooth, and
lavender'd." John Keats, 1795-1821 
<p no=49>
The top floor of the house with its two bathrooms, four lobbies and six
rooms is the most difficult floor for today's visitor to see clearly.
Its many rooms, all ten inches high, are filled with the memorabilia of
childhood and family life, and the housekeeper's bed-sitting room and the
linen room are also there.
<p no=50>
The passenger lift stops outside the north-facing lobby to the Princess
Royal's (or the eldest daughter's) bedroom.   The room, which looks west
over the garage far below, is filled with cream-painted and decorated
furniture that matches the hanging cupboard in the lobby. 
<p no=51>
The bed is a copy of one of a pair that Lutyens designed for his own
eldest daughters.   Time has disintegrated the pea organically grown to
the correct proportion that, true to fairy-tale tradition, he placed under
the mattress!    
<p no=52 segment_break>
"In the midst of this huge model of an Empire on which the sun never sets,
the centre of public attention is this little house which the flame of a
single candle could gut in five minutes." 
<p no=53>
From the preface of the original illustrated catalogue of the Dolls' House
at the Empire Exhibition 
<p no=54>
Placed as it is between the Princess Royal's room and the night nursery,
this very personal room contains nothing that is not essential to the
character of its occupant.   A piece of the Queen's unfinished embroidery
lies on one of the chairs.   The glass cabinets are filled with a
collection of jade and amber; amongst the tiny animals are a water
buffalo, a goat and a lion. 
<p no=55>
Queen Mary enjoyed the oriental decoration and the vogue for cream
furniture that were fashionable in the Twenties.   Edmund Dulac painted
ochre silk walls with golden clouds and water lilies.   The rug is a copy
of a Chinese carpet of the Chien Lung period and is hand worked with 324
knots to the inch. 
<p no=56>
The silver Winsor & Newton watercolour paint box on the Queen's desk,
photographed alongside a full-size brush. 
<p no=57 segment_break>
"Nanny was boss - she was marvellous." Mary Lutyens to the author 
<p no=58>
In all households with a nursery, "nanny" was a very important person.
Neither staff nor mistress, nevertheless her word was law, and in most
cases her responsibility total.   The nanny who arrived in the Lutyens's
household in 1898, for example, was still with the family when she died 38
years later, and the nanny's rather grand bed in the Dolls' House night
nursery can only be interpreted as a mark of the greatest respect.   It
was usual for the baby of the family to sleep with the nanny, and the
Dolls' House night nursery has everything necessary for both of them. 
<p no=59>
Adjacent to this room, the well-appointed bathroom is for nursery use
only.   Leaving the bathroom, the immediate lobby on the south side of the
top floor is fitted with a pair of walnut wall cabinets.   Unglazed and
firmly closed against small fingers, these are the medicine cabinets
containing invalid food, "Torch" brand hydrogen, Allenbury's vaseline,
swabs, bandages and splints.   Three padded pneumonia jackets, worn to
combat the crisis of this dreaded disease, point to the revolution in
treatment brought about since the arrival of penicillin and antibiotics.   
<p no=60>
The nursery rooms have everything necessary for the baby of the day.   The
feeding bottle is one inch long.
<p no=61 segment_break>
In Malta, President Bush - in agreement with President Gorbachev - said there
must be no more bloodshed in Lebanon.  France has said that it would support
the side that restarted the war.
<p no=62>
The Arab " troika" has called for restraint by all parties.  In other words,
they do n't want Syria to strike.
<p no=63>
But that puts them all in a real quandary.  For at the same time they still
see no alternative to Tayif, and still see Aoun as the one great impediment in
its way.
<p no=64>
Yet, now more than ever, force would appear to be the only way of ousting the
general, and Syria alone capable of supplying it.  There is fresh talk of a
general blockade against the enclave.  The diplomatic one has already begun.
But Lebanon's inter-communal boundaries are so porous, so criss-crossed by
reciprocal interests - with, for example, East Beirut controlling most of West
Beirut's water and electricity supplies- that an economic blockade would
probably require a much greater political will than the shambles which Hrawi's
"legitimate" administration could ever muster.
<p no=65>
States do n't advertise such intentions, but there can be no doubt that Syria,
for one, is working overtime on a means of killing the general.
<p no=66 segment_break>
"Quarterly or half-yearly, it is a good plan for the housekeeper to make
an inventory of everything she has under her care, and compare this with
the lists of a former period." Mrs Beeton's  Household Management , 1861 
<p no=67>
The linen room is the largest in the centre of the east side top floor.
To the right is the maids' bathroom, and on the left the housekeeper's
bed-sitting room. 
<p no=68>
Throughout the house there is monogrammed kitchen linen, table-cloths,
bathroom towels, sheets, pillowcases and all the usual items required in
any house.   All this is stored and cared for in the six large unheated
cupboards in the linen room. 
<p no=69>
Although by today's standards the amount seems excessive, linen given to a
bride on marriage was meant to last a lifetime.   One of the reasons why
items well over 150 years old can still be found in many houses today is
that to look after linen properly it was "rested" between laundering and
use.   Frequent washing weakened the fibres, so items taken in strict
rotation made it necessary to keep a well-stocked cupboard.   There were
commercial laundries in the 1920s and the large linen hampers that took
two people to carry them to the laundry van show that this was a luxury
enjoyed by the inhabitants of the Dolls' House. 
<p no=70>
The Windsor chairs have the Prince of Wales's feathers on the back, and
the picture is by Lady Patricia Ramsay. 
<p no=71>
The room next door is the housekeeper's own room, furnished with one of
the better beds, a comfortable chair and pretty china. 
<p no=72 segment_break>
When the house was built, it was the first dolls' house to have both
passenger and service lifts.   These were specially designed and
manufactured by the firm of Waygood Otis Ltd, a company still involved
with lift mechanism all over the world today. 
<p no=73>
Both cars are supported in proper metal slings, and while a safety gear is
provided under each, this is not connected up for operation owing to the
small size of the model.
<p no=74>
The machine for operating the lifts is mounted in a chamber in the roof of
the house.   The suspension ropes, of which there are four to each car,
were made of good fishing line, as this was found to give the best
results. 
<p no=75>
The passenger lift, first entered from the right-hand lobby in the ground
floor hall, serves the three main floors, and is controlled by a fully
automatic set of push buttons at each floor so that the car can be called
or dispatched from any of the main floors. 
<p no=76>
The goods or service lift is entered from the backstairs area behind the
passenger lift and is controlled by a set of three "semi-automatic" push
buttons, the third being for stopping the lift at any desired point.   The
only concession to scale is that for obvious reasons the lift buttons are
situated outside the cars!   
<p no=77>
The passenger car of polished mahogany is 4 inches wide by 5 5/8  inches
deep and 7 inches high.   The floor is alternate strips of oak and walnut. 
<p no=78>
The service car, made from light polished oak, has no seat and is only 3
3/4  inches deep. 
<p no=79 segment_break>
Reached by a flight of back stairs, the south-facing basement is a large
cellar with a groined roof.   This is divided into nine bays.   The first
half is used for the traditional binning of the wines selected for the
house, and the second half for the storage of dry, tinned and bottled
goods. 
<p no=80>
The quality of the wine selected for storage in the Dolls' House cellar
was planned with great care and knowledge.   The task was undertaken by
Francis Berry, then joint senior partner of Berry Bros. & Co. of 3, St
James's Street, London, and grandfather of today's managing director of
Berry Bros. & Rudd Ltd. 
<p no=81>
Although Francis Berry's involvement with the cellar came purely from his
friendship with Lutyens, this must not be taken as favouritism Berry's was
one of the oldest wine merchants in the business (the company started
trading in 1699), and their first royal warrant was given to them by
Edward VII, an honour the firm holds to this day.   No. 3, St James's
Street has been the company premises since it was rebuilt in the early
eighteenth century and the name Berry Bros. & Rudd Ltd., as it is now
known, was established in 1943. 
<p no=82>
It is interesting for today's connoisseur to look at the cellar list of
the Dolls' House and ruminate on the joys of opening a bottle or two.
Anthony Berry, son of Francis, says, "There is nothing that I would not
enjoy drinking today." 
<p no=83>
It should be realised that the amount stocked would only have been
expected to last a relatively short time.   In the 1920s the owners of
large private cellars did not, with the possible exception of vintage
port, lay down wine for future consumption as they do now.   The lack of
inflation between the wars allowed merchants to hold large stocks that
were ready for drinking within two years, and weekly deliveries by Berry
Bros. to the cellars of the aristocracy and English gentlemen could be up
to thirty dozen or more bottles for immediate use.   Today's modern
tendency to place large orders in anticipation of escalating prices has
resulted in the owners of cellarless houses being obliged, more often than
not, to store their orders with the wine merchants themselves. 
<p no=84>
After the wine for the day had been chosen by the master of the house, the
butler was responsible for its presentation at table.   All red wine and
vintage port would have been decanted; port as early as possible on the
day it was to be drunk; claret two or three hours before drinking and kept
at room temperature without a stopper in order to let it "breathe". 
<p no=85 segment_break>
"The poetry of motion!   The  real  way to travel!   The  only  way to
travel!" Kenneth Grahame, 1859-1932 
<p no=86>
When the house was first exhibited at the Wembley Exhibition the six cars
in the garage occasioned much comment.  Although cheaper cars were just
beginning to appear, owning a motor car was still the prerogative of the
rich.   The Twenties were golden years of motoring design.   The horseless
carriages of the first decade had made way for vehicles designed as motor
cars in their own right. 
<p no=87>
The great British car manufacturing companies, among them Daimler,
Lanchester, Rolls-Royce, Sunbeam and Vauxhall, all of which are
represented in the Dolls' House, made their own engines and chassis with a
standard body, but it was more usual for the owners of such cars to have
special bodywork built to their own requirements by coachbuilders.   All
the firms invited to donate the custom-built models in the Dolls' House
took the opportunity to use the black and maroon colours of the royal
livery on their bodywork. 
<p no=88>
From 1900 until 1943 the official royal motor cars were made by Daimler, a
tradition instituted by Edward VII.   Today the Queen's official cars are
made by Rolls-Royce. 
<p no=89>
The garage itself is built into a drawer in the western basement.   When
the drawer is pulled out, it brings the hidden columns supporting the five
car bays level with the front base of the house.   The front flap of the
drawer drops down to a fixed horizontal position to complete an outside
yard, stencilled to represent red brick.     
<p no=90 segment_break>
"It may safely be said that all good gardening consists in putting the
right plant in the right place." Gertrude Jekyll, 1922, from her book in
the Queen Mary's Dolls' House library 
<p no=91>
When Gertrude Jekyll and Edwin Lutyens met in the spring of 1889, she was
an eccentric spinster of forty-five, whose myopic eyesight was beginning
to restrict her many talents, and in particular her outstanding work in
garden design. 
<p no=92>
Twenty years her junior, the young Lutyens had always nurtured the idea
that the garden of a house should complement the whole picture.   The
meeting of their two minds produced a working partnership of mutual
enjoyment: he became her eyes and long-distance vision, whilst she
augmented his inspiration with her knowledge of plant and vegetable life. 
<p no=93>
Their joint commissions reached well over a hundred, and though by the
time the Dolls' House was created, Miss Jekyll was nearly eighty and
practically blind, being asked to design the garden gave her immense
satisfaction, and has left us with an unaltered glimpse of this period of
England's gardening history. 
<p no=94>
The basement drawer which holds the garden with its two-foot trees,
rambling roses and a magnificent pair of iron gates is less than eleven
inches deep.   To have made the garden a permanent fixture would have made
access impossible to the interior of the house on the east facade. 
<p no=95 segment_break>
"Houses are built to live in and not look on; therefore let use be
preferred before uniformity except where both may be had." Francis Bacon,
1561-1626 
<p no=96>
In the sixty odd years that have passed since it was built, the house,
like any other house, has mellowed.   Dust has gathered in inaccessible
places, walls have faded and paintwork has subtly changed colour. 
<p no=97>
In 1972, the press was notified and the house closed to the public for two
and a half months.   All the items in it were removed and given a thorough
overhaul by the Restoration Department of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
The cars were restored by the Science Museum. 
<p no=98>
The electrical, mechanical and plumbing systems were renovated.   The
plumbing and drainage pipes were all intact and in fairly good condition,
but the electrical equipment and the lighting circuits were in need of
urgent attention.   Approximately 1,100 metres of special miniature cable
were used to change the wiring in the seventy light fittings from 4 volts
DC to 24 volts AC lighting at 2 lumens per square foot.   New lighting
effects were installed to improve public viewing from outside the glass
case, and an operating console was designed to fit into a small room
outside the Dolls' House.   Each room was wired on a different circuit so
that the lights in it could be switched on and off at will. 
