Letter from Arcadia
Open and shut case
Thursday, 15th February 2007
When we moved into our house there was only one window in the dining room. It was built to keep out cold, not let in light. So its northern wall, two feet thick, was left blank. For years we suffered the frustration of eating our summer suppers in the knowledge that, on the other side of the fireplace, there was a garden in full bloom which we could not see.
Then I had an idea. A cupboard was sunk into the wall where a window ought to be — exactly in line with the sundial, and, if the dining-room and downstairs drawing-room doors were left open, affording a view of the garden from one side of the house to the other. The window, into which it could be converted, would not be as big as we would wish. But we feared that the planning authority would veto anything extravagant. Converting the cupboard seemed more likely to win official approval. So, with the assistance of a solicitor, architect and builder, we made an official application to dislodge about ten square feet of limestone.
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