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NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS. MORAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS. 165
style of building now in vogue, have already been instrumental, in some measure,
to infuse a more catholic taste, and to revive a reverence for the relics and
traditions of the past.
The system, authörized by law, of building so spaciously has, moreover, proved
of doubtful advantage from an economical point of view, the price of sites and
the cost of building generally having very much increased. This is one of the
reasons why building enterprise in Swedish towns, great and small alike, has been
directed, to a greater extent possibly than elsewhere, to the erecting of houses
to be let out in flats, rather than of private residences to be inhabited by one family.
Setting aside the disadvantages inevitably incident to a system of that kind, it
may be affirmed that in general the houses which have been recently put up
satisfy fairly well all reasonable demands for perfect sanitation, modern comforts,
and general elegance.
A working-man’s family in a Swedish town has, as a rule, to content itself
with one room and a kitchen, or, in favourable circumstances, with two rooms
and a kitchen. The two-room-and-kitchen suites are becoming more common,
where rents are not abnormally high. One room is, though, often sublet to a
single lodger; indeed the same is sometimes the case with regard to the
one-room-and-kitchen suites in Stockholm and other large towns. Tho reform work
being carried on by Housing Societies and Employers towards the improvement
of workmen’s dwellings, is discussed in another section of this work. — The
middle classes in towns live in suites of 3, 4, or 5 rooms and a kitchen. Houses
with suites of 6, 7, and 8 rooms, to be let as flats, are very general, and are
equipped with a great degree of comfort, often amounting to luxury, and with
considerable pretensions to architectural beauty. In the case of the last-mentioned
houses, the material generally employed is some natural stone, limestone or
sandstone, several varieties of which are found in great abundance.
It may be a cause for surprise that persons who are in a position to afford
to pay two thousand kronor, or even more, a year in rental, should not prefer to
build private houses of their own. The explanation of their not doing so is to
be sought in the high charges for building-sites and the great cost of building,
as pointed out above, and in the dislike that seems to prevail in the minds
of a great many of having their rooms on different levels, on the story-system.
The private houses erected lately are of a more palatial character.
Nor has the Villa as a residence been adopted at all generally, at any rate
in the large towns. The villa-quarters, the laying out of which was planned
in Stockholm, have not reached completion, though in Gothenburg the system has
met with somewhat more favour. Greater success has attended the Villa-Suburbs,
situated at convenient distances from the city. Instances of these are Djursholm
and Saltsjöbaden, at six to ten miles’ distance from Stockholm, with beautiful
natural surroundings, on the shores in the »Skärgård», and inhabited by persons
whose work lies in the city.
The love of Nature, which is very generally implanted in the Swedish
nation, finds expression in the very prevalent custom of spending the summer in
the country, as testified by the great number of Summer- Villas to be found
in the vicinity of the towns, especially of Stockholm, and which lend such
attractiveness to its two »Skärgårds», both the outer one towards the Baltic and
the inner one on the banks of the Eastern section of Lake Mälaren.
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