In the centre of the Hot Plate is a circular plate which may be removed when it is desired to allow the flames of the gas ring to come into direct contact with the cooking vessel. A lifter is provided for this purpose. (C. H. Kempton)] Nurse and Nursery. If this important person has a bathroom conveniently situated, gas fires, a gas ring for heating kettles, irons, etc., and a cupboard containing her own stock of crockery, she should give very little trouble to the house-parlourmaid. If advisable, a charwoman one day a week could turn out the nurseries, tidy the front area and backyard, clean the stairs and bathrooms. Arranging the house thus, the following work is saved: Cleaning of kitchen range and flues, carrying of coal all over house, running up and downstairs to answer front door, especially in morning, when the cook is busy, carrying of trays from basement, cleaning and filling coal scuttles, cleaning grates and fireirons, much carrying of hot water and bedroom work, entire cleaning of basement. If a coke furnace is used, coke is light to carry and clean to handle, and should a buttery hatch be arranged between dining-room and kitchen, one maid (if well trained) can wait on six or eight persons quite satisfactorily. Then when a little dinner is given, a charwoman, at one shilling and her supper, to help wash up, is the only outside help which is necessary. Now I cannot but think that a house such as I have described would let at £120 a year, where now many of them are let at £90, and as time goes on will fetch less and attract a less desirable style of tenant. Considering the saving in upkeep of a basement, labour, food and keep of one maid, and the shrinkage of general expense which occurs when two maids are kept rather than three, it would pay the tenant well to expend the extra £30 a year. Even were the saving of expense no object, the additional comfort of a labour-saving house is worth the extra rent. With the cost of heating by gas rather than coal I will deal later, but it must always be borne in mind that with coal range and coal fires in, say, three or four rooms in such a house the labour is made far greater, and also the rooms become far dirtier. In my own dining-room, where there is a gas fire, the dirt and dust is most noticeably less than in the drawing-room, where we burn coal. I said at the beginning of this chapter that there were at least two methods of turning labour-making into labour-saving houses. Let us now suppose that we have to deal with another basement house, but that in this case the basement is neither deep nor dark. [Illustration: _PLATE XV_ A WELL FITTED BATHROOM WITH A GAS-HEATED TOWEL RAIL AND FIXED WASHSTAND] A Second Suggestion for a Labour-Saving House.