108 



COCKNEYISM IN THE COUNTRY. 



produce a little extra show in the parlor ; 

 mock "fashionable" furniture, which, in- 

 stead of being really fine, has only the 

 look of finery, usurps in the principal room 

 the place of the becoming-, unpretend- 

 ing and modest fittings that belong there; 

 and one is constantly struck with the effort 

 which the cottage is continually making to 

 look like the town house, rather than to 

 wear its own more appropriate and be- 

 coming modesty of expression.* 



The pith of all that should be said on 

 this subject, lies in a few words, viz., that 

 true taste lies in the union of the beautiful 

 and the significant. Hence, as a house in 

 the country is quite distinct in character 

 and uses, in many respects, from a house 

 in town, it should always be built and 

 furnished upon a widely different princi- 

 ple. It is far better, in a country house, 

 to have an abundance of space, as many 

 rooms as possible on a floor, the utmost 

 convenience of arrangement, and a tho- 

 rough realization of comfort throughout, 

 than a couple of very fine apartments, 

 loaded with showy furniture, " in the latest 

 style," at the expense of the useful and 

 convenient everywhere else. 



And we may add to this, that the supe- 

 rior charm of significance or appropriate- 

 ness is felt instantly by every one, when it 

 is attained, — though display only imposes 

 on vulgar minds. We have seen a cottage 

 where the finest furniture was of oak in sim- 

 ple forms, where everything like display was 

 unknown, where everything costly was es- 

 chewed, but where you felt, at a glance, 

 that there was a prevailing taste and fit- 

 ness, that gave a meaning to all, and 

 brought all into harmony ; the furniture 



* We are glad to see evidences of a better taste, in the 

 neat and pretty ''cottage furniture," which is now made 

 and sold by Heaessey, of Boston, and various other dealers 

 in New-York and Philadelphia. One can, by their aid, now 

 furnish a cottage without being obliged to buy chairs and 

 ables suitable only for a town house or villa. 



with the house, the house with the grounds, 

 and all with the life of its inmates. This 

 cottage, we need scarcely say, struck all 

 who entered it with a pleasure more real 

 and enduring than that of any costly man- 

 sion in the land. The pleasure arose from 

 the feeling that all was significant ; that 

 the cottage, its arrangement, its furniture, 

 and its surroundings, were all in keeping 

 with the country, with each other and with 

 their uses ; and that no cockneyisms, no 

 imitations of city splendor, had violated 

 the simplicity and modesty of the coun- 

 try. 



There must with us be progress in all 

 things; and an American cannot but be 

 proud of the progress of taste in this coun- 

 try. But as a great portion of the improve- 

 ments, newly made in the country, are 

 made by citizens, and not unfrequently by 

 citizens whose time has been so closely 

 occupied with business, that they have had 

 no opportunity to cultivate a taste for rural 

 matters, it is not surprising that we should 

 continually see transplanted, as unexcep- 

 tionable things, the ideas in houses, fur- 

 niture, and even in gardens, which have 

 been familiar to them in cities. 



As, however, it is an indisputable axiom, 

 that there are laws of taste which belong 

 to the country and country life, quite dis- 

 tinct from those which belong to town, the 

 citizen always runs into cockneyisms when 

 he neglects these laws. And what we 

 would gladly insist upon, therefore, is that 

 it is only what is appropriate and signifi- 

 cant in the country, (or what is equally so 

 in town and country.) that can be adopted, 

 without insulting the natural grace and 

 freedom of umbrageous trees and green 

 lawns. 



He who comes from a city, and wishes 

 to build himself a country seat, would do 

 well to forget all that he considers the 



