JOUMAL OF RURAL ART AND RURAL TASTE. 



Vol. I. 



SEPTEMBER, 1846. 



No. 3. 



The simple ritral cottage, or the Working 

 Man^s Cottage, deserves some serious con- 

 sideration, and we wish to call the attention 

 of our readers to it at this moment. The 

 pretty suburban cottage, and the ornamen- 

 tal villa, are no longer vague and rudimen- 

 tary ideas in the minds of our people. The 

 last five years have produced in the envi- 

 rons of all our principal towns, in the East- 

 ern and Middle States, some specimens of 

 tasteful dwellings of this class, that would 

 be considered beautiful examples of rural 

 architecture in any part of the world. Our 

 attention has been called to at least a dozen 

 examples lately, of rural edifices, altogether 

 charming and in the best taste. 



In some parts of the country, the inhabi- 

 tants of the suburbs of towns appear, indeed, 

 almost to have a mania on the subject of or- 

 namental cottages. Weary of the unfitness 

 and the uncouthness of the previous models, 

 and inspired with some notions of rural 

 gothic, they have seized it with a kind of 

 frenzy, and carpenters, distracted with verge 

 boards and gables, have, in some cases, made 

 sad work of the picturesque. Here and 

 there we see a really good and well propor- 

 tioned ornamental dwelling. But almost in 

 the immediate neighborhood of it, soon 



14 



spring up tasteless and meagre imitations, 

 the absurdity of whose effect borders upon a 

 caricature. 



Not\yithstanding this deplorably bad 

 taste, rural architecture is making a progress 

 in the United States that is really wonder- 

 ful. Among the many failures in cottages, 

 there are some very successful attempts, and 

 every rural dwelling, really well designed 

 and executed, has a strong and positive effect 

 upon the good taste of the whole country. 



There is, perhaps, a more intuitive judg- 

 ment — we mean a natural and instinctive 

 one — in the popular mind, regarding archi- 

 tecture, than any other one of the fine arts. 

 We have known many men, who could not 

 themselves design a good common gate, who 

 yet felt truly, and at a glance, the beauty 

 of a well-proportioned and tasteful house, 

 and the deformity of one whose proportions 

 and details were bad. Why then are there 

 so many failures in building ornamental 

 cottages ? 



We imagine the answer to this, lies plain- 

 ly in the fact that the most erroneous notions 

 prevail respecting the proper use of decora- 

 tion in rural architecture. 



It is the most common belief and prac- 

 tice, with those whose taste is merely bor- 



