As regards the general floor surfaces, let them be entirely painted, or stained and varnished, so as to present non-absorbent and easily cleaned surfaces, or better still, finished with parquet flooring, which is almost entirely non-absorbing, and which can be cleaned by a damp cloth every day; with rugs or simple homespun carpets laid down beside the bed, and elsewhere, where required, so as to be easily taken up and shaken every day without trouble. There is one objection to square carpets in a bedroom, and that is, if you are lightly shod, or, as is often the case, barefoot, the polished floor is very unpleasantly cold; and also, as it is not every one who can indulge in the luxury of a bedroom fire, a wholly carpeted floor tends to keep out draughts and make the room generally warmer. If you do away with all resting-places for dirt and dust on the tops of wardrobes and hanging closets, and behind and under chests of drawers and other heavy furniture, there will naturally be much less labour required in cleaning and purifying the rooms. Heavy curtains should be avoided, indeed it is difficult to see why curtains are needed at all in bedrooms, if the window-blinds be of some dark-toned stuff sufficient to hide light, and to keep out the glare of the morning sun. _Nurseries._--In all the upper rooms of a house, which may be used as nurseries, Edis would, where practicable, construct semi-octagonal projecting bays, so as to provide for the greatest possible light and sunshine; and if this cannot be arranged, the windows should be as widely splayed inside as possible, and no light or sunshine shut out by heavy curtains or venetian blinds; and here, too, as in the best rooms of the house, should be thick plate, instead of the miserably thin glass, which is considered sufficient in the upper portions of so many houses; the thick glass gives truer light, is less penetrated by sound, and helps to retain the warmth of the room after the fires have gone out, and the house is left to cool in the long night hours. The walls of the nurseries should be hung with some bright and cheerful pattern paper, varnished for health’s sake, while the upper portion should be distempered; the upper space or frieze should be divided from the general wall surface by a small deal painted picture rail, but the ceilings and frieze should be cleaned off and re-distempered every autumn, as nothing tends so much to sweeten the rooms as this annual cleaning off and re-doing of the ceilings, which naturally are more impregnated with the impurities of the shut-up rooms than any other portion of them. Paint or varnished papers are always more healthy than distemper, as they can be readily washed, and do not absorb and hold dirt and other impurities.