MR. DOWNING'S LETTERS FROM ENGLAND. 



117 



as affording instruction to those who are en- 

 gaged in studying plans preparatory to building. 



There is, then, much that is pleasing in the 

 exterior of this house. As regards symmetry, 

 proportion, solidity, dignity, and a certain ex- 

 pression of substantial and refined comfort, it 

 has claims upon our admiration. The ar- 

 rangement of the first floor is simple and 

 good ; and the position of the kitchen offices, 

 in a separate wing, partly concealed by shrub- 

 bery plantations, is excellent. 



On the other hand, there is a great archi- 

 tectural deficiency in the composition of the 

 roof, and sky outline of the elevation. We 

 would both remedy this in a good degree, and 

 improve the internal comfort and beauty, by 

 placing the ehinmeys in the partition walls, 

 exactly opposite the places in the })rincipal 

 rooms where they now stand. This would 

 bring out the chimney tops towards the mid- 

 dle of the roof, instead of upon the outside 

 walls ; and as they would of course bC'Carried 

 up six or eight feet above the ridge, they 

 would give central and p3ramidal height to 

 the middle of the pile, where it is now squatty 

 and meagre. In other words, it would im- 

 prove the exterior composition. To such a 

 country house as this, a veranda is an indis- 



pensable appendage in this country, though 

 not essentially necessary in England. We 

 wovdd therefore add it to that side of the li- 

 brary and drawing-room where the chimneys 

 now stand in the plan. Those chimneys or 

 fireplaces being moved, as we have already 

 suggested, to the opposite side of the rooms, 

 a coui)le of broad windows, opening down to 

 the floor of the veranda, should occupy their 

 places, which would greatly improve the as- 

 pect of the rooms themselves. 



The oriel window, which projects over the 

 front porch, has a petty, cockneyish air, quite 

 out of keeping with the rest of the front. By 

 turning back to the frontispiece of our No- 

 vember number, 1849, the reader will see 

 an oriel window correctly designed, which 

 would greatly improve the facade of this 

 house. 



The staircase is both handsome and easy, — 

 the hall in which it is placed being 14 feet 

 wide, so as to give space enough for those 

 broad landings and low steps which we rarely 

 sec, except in first class houses. 



Altogether, this design might be remodel- 

 led so as to make a very satisfactory country 

 house for the United States, with a few alte- 

 rations like those we have suggested. 



MR. DOWNING'S LETTERS FROM ENGLAND. 



My Dear Sir : — As, after looking at some 

 constellation in a summer night, one remem- 

 bers most vividly its largest and most potent 

 star, so, from amid a constellation of fine 

 country seats, I can write you to-day only 

 of my visit to one, but that, one which for its 

 pecidiar extent, overtops all the rest — War- 

 wick Castle. 



Warwick Castle, indeed, combines in itself 

 perhaps more of romantic and feudal interest 

 than any actual residence in Europe, and for 

 this very reason, because it unit.\s in itself the 



miracle of exhibiting at the same moment hoar 

 antiquity, and the actual vivid present, having 

 been held and maintained from first to last by 

 the same family. In most of the magnificent 

 country seats of England, it is rather vast 

 extent and enormous expense which impresses 

 one. If they are new, they are sometimes 

 overloaded with elaborate details ;* if old, they 



*I,ike Eton Ha!I, near Liverpool, perhaps visited hj more 

 Amcricuiis than any other seat— though the architecture is 

 meretricious, and the wliole place as wanting in sfeiutiue taste 

 as it is abounding in evidences of immense wealth. Warwick 

 Castle bears, to an American, the same relation to all mo- 

 dern castles that the veritable Noah's ark. if it could be found 

 still in full preservation, would to a model made by an inge- 

 nious antiquarian. 



