490 



ON THE COLOUR OF COUNTRY HOUSES. 



that of his Sunday suit, the more the first day 

 after it comes from the tailor, with all the un- 

 sullied gloss and glitter of gilt buttons. To 

 possess a house which has a quiet air, as 

 though it might have been inhabited and 

 well taken care of for years, is no plea- 

 sure to him. He desires everyone to know 

 that he, Mr. Broadcloth, has come into the 

 country and built a new house. Nothing 

 will give the stamp of newness so strongly 

 as white paint. Besides this, he does not 

 wish his light to be hidden under a bushel. 

 He has no idea of leading an obscure life 

 in the country. Seclusion and privacy are 

 the only blue devils of his imagination. 

 He wishes every passer by on the river, rail- 

 road or highway, to see and know that this 

 is Mr. Broadcloth's villa. It must be con- 

 spicuous — therefore it is painted white. 



Any one who has watched the effect of 

 example in a country neighborhood, does 

 not need to be told that all the small dwel- 

 lings that are built the next season after 

 Mr. Broadcloth's new house, are painted, if 

 possible, a shade whiter, and the blinds a 

 little more intensely verdant — what the 

 painters triumphantly call " French green." 

 There is no resisting the fashion ; those who 

 cannot afford paint, use whitewash ; and 

 whole villages, to borrow Miss Miggs' stri- 

 king illustration, look like " whitenin' and 

 supelters." 



Our first objection to white, is, that it is 

 too glaring and conspicuous. We scarcely 

 know any thing more uncomfortable to the 

 eye, than to approach the sunny side of a 

 house in one of our brilliant mid-summer 

 days, when it revels in the fashionable purity 

 of its colour. It is absolutely painful. Na- 

 ture, full of kindness for man, has covered 

 most of the surface that meets his eye in the 

 country, with a soft green hue — at once the 

 most refreshing and most grateful to the 



eye. These habitations that we have re- 

 ferred to, appear to be coloured on the very 

 opposite principle, and one needs, in broad 

 sunshine, to turn his eyes away to relieve 

 them by a glimpse of the soft and refreshing 

 shades that every where pervade the trees, 

 the grass, and the surface of the earth. 



Our second objection to white is, that it 

 does not harmonize with the country, and 

 thereby mars the effect of rural landscapes. 

 Much of the beauty of landscape depends on 

 what painters call breadth of tone — which is 

 caused by broad masses of colours that 

 harmonize and blend agreeably together. 

 Nothing tends to destroy breadth of tone so 

 n)uch as any object of considerable size, 

 and of a brilliant white. It stands harshly 

 apart from all the soft shades of the scene. 

 Hence landscape painters always studiously 

 avoid the introduction of white in their build- 

 ings, and give them instead, some neutral 

 tint — a tint vv^hich unites or contrasts agreea- 

 bly with the colour of trees and grass, and 

 which seems to blend into other parts of natu- 

 ral landscape, instead of being a discordant 

 note in the general harmony. 



There is always, perhaps, something not 

 quite agreeable in objects of a dazzling 

 whiteness, when brought into contrast with 

 other colours. Mr. Price, in his Essays on 

 the Beautiful and Picturesque, conceived 

 that very white teeth gave a silly expression 

 to the countenance — and brings forward, in 

 illustration of it, the well known soubiiquet 

 which Horace Walpole bestowed on one 

 his acquaintances — " the gentleman with 

 the foolish teeth." 



No one is successful in rural improve- 

 ments, who does not study nature, and take 

 her for the basis of his practice. Now, in 

 natural landscape, any thing like strong and 

 bright colours is seldom seen, except in very 

 minute portions, and least of all pure white 



