26 



DESIGN FOR A RURAL SCHOOL-HOUSE. 



Nor are our American women — yes, John 

 QuiNCY Adams says " women" — a whit be- 

 hind our men, in their squeamish notions of 

 country gentility, who would probably die of 

 a thick shoe, if obliged to wear one ! In a 

 past paper, you gave an extract from the late 

 Mr. CoLMAN, in the portrait of an English 

 Duchess, in country life. How many such — 

 bating the high birth, breeding, and education 

 of the English women — can be counted among 

 our aristocratic country residents ? and all, 

 the effect of a mistaken notion in education — 

 artificial, unnatural, and most wretchedly mis- 

 judged. The thing is all wrong in both sexes, 

 and so I fear it must remain, for reasons which 

 I may give hereafter. 



I will close this by an illustration : A young 

 gentleman — he would dislike to be called less 

 — the son of a wealthy man, who had furnish- 

 ed him with a five hundred acre farm, and 

 was then erecting upon it a house to cost 25 

 or 30,000 dollars, and in the construction of 

 which his builder could have cheated him five 

 thousand, and he be none the wiser for ^\ at 

 the suggestion of a friend, went to purchase 

 of a neighboring resident a few choice, high- 



bred sheep, to put upon his lawn. Their value 

 was ten to twenty dollars each ; and yet this 

 gentleman, who intended to furnish his house 

 with costly furniture and statuary, for which 

 unlimited orders, as to cost, were sent abroad, 

 higgled at three cents a head in the price for 

 the sheep, when the owner of them — and 

 really beautiful animals they were — had al- 

 ready offered them for two-thirds of their worth! 

 Great country, this — and " extensive people," 

 some that live in it I Strain at the gnat, and 

 so forth, and so forth ! 



Horticultural Criticism Criticised. — Three 

 mortal pages of closely printed brevier type ! 

 Well, that will do. " The sargeant read me 

 the chapter about Nimrod, the mighty hunter, 

 the night before my christening, and a mightj 

 aisevient it was, to listen to any thing from 

 the Book!" Thus discoursed Betty Flan- 

 NEGAN HoLLiSTER to Natty Bumppo, be- 

 fore the bar-room fire in Cooper's "Pioneers:" 

 and I trust that Mr. Leuchars, having 

 no\.- taken his revenge, feels a little " aise- 

 ment." If he is gratified, I am — certainly. 



Jeffreys. 



July, 1850. 



DESIGN FOR A RURAL SCHOOL-HOUSE. 



In a previous volume of this journal, we have 

 endeavored to poitJt out the many advantages 

 that would result from an increased attention 

 to the design and arrangement of coimtry 

 school-houses. 



Barnard's School Architecture, a most use- 

 ful and valuable work, adapted to the United 

 States, which has already found a large cir- 

 culation, is doing much towards enlightening 

 the public mind on all points relating to this 

 subject. Not a school district in America 

 should be without this work ; and we are glad 

 to find that Jas. S. Wadsworth, Esq., of 



Geneseo, so well known for his liberality and 

 sagacity on all matters connected with popular 

 education, has caused a large number of 

 copies to be distributed in the various school 

 districts of the state of New- York. 



The district school-house, which ought to 

 teach youth lessons of order and beauty, as 

 well as the " fundamental branches" usually 

 taught there, is perhaps the only public build- 

 ing in the country which exhibits utter neg- 

 lect. In New-England, this reproach is fast 

 passing away, and public school-houses, ad- 

 mirably designed, well arranged, warmed, 



