458 



CRITIQUE ON THE FEBRUARY HORTICULTURIST. 



much of picturesque effect, too, would be 

 added by an improved style of building on 

 plantations, where the chief mansion is or- 

 namented and " set off" by the numerous 

 cottages of the laborers, which may be 

 grouped into an infinite variety of expres- 

 sion ! Dear me ! If people would only 

 consider how wonderfully a little good taste 

 in arrangement would add to the value, in 

 reality as well as in appearance, of their 

 estates, by the location and style of their 

 buildings, how much would their attach- 

 ment to them be enhanced ! Americans, 

 instead of the most negligent, should be 

 the most conspicuous in their rural archi- 

 tecture of any people in the world ; because 

 owning the fee, they build for themselves. 



The Manetti Rose Stock. — If this be what 

 Mr. Rivers says of it, why is it not just the 

 thing for lawn hedges in this country ? 

 The Privet, intermixed with the wild Mi- 

 chigan rose, is now the prettiest thing we 

 have for a northern climate. But the Mi- 

 chigan will not grow from the layer as the 

 Manetti does ; nor does it incline to sucker 

 profusely, although it is the most rampant 

 of growers. The Manetti appears to be 

 already introduced into the United States ; 

 and if as easily propagated as described, it 

 will soon be abundant in our gardens. Let 

 it be tried, by all means, and see what it 

 amounts to. 



The Critic Criticised. — Well, " I'm in for 

 it," to a dead certainty. Mr. Davis is an 

 architect ; of course, an exact man — mathe- 

 matically so. And he says that my " cen- 

 sure" of Mr. Botch's villa is based on "su- 

 perficial examination." Be it so. I'll tell 

 him a story, which I saw the other day in a 

 newspaper. A clergyman in Lowell was 

 publicly accused of going with his urife to 

 the " protracted meetings" in that famous 

 city, and making light of the penitential 

 acts of those who participated in the eve- 



ning exercises. He thus answered the ac- 

 cusation, as publicly as he was charged : 



"I have never accompanied my wife to 

 any of the protracted meetings. 



" My wife has never attended one of 

 those meetings' nor made light of their pro- 

 ceedings. 



" I never have attended one myself. 



" I have no wife ! " 



Now for the application : 



Critique. 

 " The roof of the front 

 porch is also too high, 

 running its point far 

 aboTe the pinnacle of 

 the kovse itself, — thus 

 making it (the porch) 

 the superior, instead of 

 the inferior appendage ; 

 the latter, its proper 

 character." 



Mr. Davis. 

 " The roof of the main 

 body of the building is 

 pronounced (by critic) too 

 high, and would be made 

 subordinate, and an ' in- 

 ferior appendage l . ' The 

 whole character of de- 

 sign, composition, and 

 harmonious arrangement, 

 lies in making this fea- 

 ture dominant, rather 

 than subordinate." [The 

 "Shakspeare" part I have 

 no use for. — Critic] 



I fancy it will be hard to find where my 

 opinion differs from his own in reality, al- 

 though he quotes me exactly the reverse, 

 and may be quite as " superficial" in his 

 readings as myself. Had Mr. D. drawn 

 an end elevation to the house, and shown 

 what he calls the gables, I should not have 

 been betrayed into the supposition that they 

 were "dormer" windows, which, notwith- 

 standing they prove "gables," look more 

 like " dormers," in the picture, than any- 

 thing else. And as for the manifest supe- 

 riority of "peaked" chambers over "flat" 

 ceiled ones, it being a question of taste 

 solely — which is often a very arbitrary 

 matter — I shall not dispute him. The 

 adage, "de gustibus ?ion disjrutandum" must 

 suffice.* 



* Jeffreys must allow ns lo show him that he- entirely mis- 

 understands Mr. Davis' design, which he criticises. What lie 

 calls the "'from porch." is not merely a porch, but is a gable, 

 carried np of the same width at the front and rear with a roof, 

 running through from the top of the gable over front porch to 

 the top of gable over back porch. As the ridge of this roof, 

 extending from the front gable to the rear gable, is six feel 

 higher than the ridge of the lower roof on each side of it (over 

 what Jeffreys calls the main building,) and ash measures 



