ON THE COLOUR OF COUNTRY HOUSES. 



491 



— chiefly appearing in small objects like j are bound to point out what we consider 



flowers. The practical rule which should 

 be deduced from this, is, to avoid all these 

 colours which nature avoids. In buildings, 

 we should copy those that she offers chiefly to 

 the eye — such as those of the soil, rocks, 

 wood, and the bark of trees, — the materi- 

 als of which houses are built. These ma- 

 terials offer us the best and most natural 

 study from which harmonious colours for 

 the houses themselves should be taken. 



Wordsworth, in a little volume on the 

 Scenery of the Lakes, remarks that the ob- 

 jections to white as a colour, in larg3 spots 

 ormasses, in landscapes, are insurmountable. 

 He says it destroys the gradatioTis of distan- 

 ces, haunts the eye, and disturbs the repose 

 of nature. To leave some little consolation 

 to the lovers of white lead, we will add that 

 there is one position in which their favorite 

 colour may not only be tolerated, but often 

 has a happy effect. We mean in the case 

 of a country house or cottage, deeply im- 

 bowered in trees. Surrounded by such a 

 mass of foliage as Spencer describes, 



In whose enclosed shadow there was set 

 A fair pavilion scarcely to be seen. 



a white building often has a magical effect. 

 But a landscape painter would quickly an- 

 swer, if he were asked the reason of this 

 exception to the rule, " it is because the 

 building does not appear white." In other 

 words, in the shadovv of the foliage by which 

 it is half concealed, it loses all the harsh- 

 ness and offensiveness of a white house in 

 an open site. We have, indeed, often felt, 

 in looking at examples of the latter, set upon 

 a bald hill, that the building itself would, if 

 possible, cry out, 



" Hide me from day's garish eye." 



suitable shades of colour. 



We have said that one should look to na- 

 ture for hints in colour. This gives us, ap- 

 parently, a wide choice of shades, but as 

 we ought properly to employ modified 

 shades, taken from the colours of the mate- 

 rials of which houses are constructed, the 

 number of objects is brought within a mod- 

 erate compass. Houses are not built of 

 grass, or leaves, and there is, therefore, not 

 much propriety in painting a dwelling 

 green. Earth, stone, bricks, and wood, are 

 the substances that enter mostly into the 

 structure of our houses, and from these we 

 would accordingly take suggestions for 

 painting them. 



Sir Joshua Reynolds, who was full of an 

 artistical feeling for the union of a house 

 with its surrounding scenery, once said, " If 

 you would fix upon the best colour for your 

 house, turn up a stone, or pluck up a hand- 

 ful of grass by the roots, and see what is 

 the colour of the soil where the house is to 

 stand, and let that be your choice." This 

 rule was not probably intended to be exact- 

 ly carried into general practice, but the feel- 

 ing that prompted it was the same that we 

 are endeavoring to illustrate — the necessity 

 of a unity of colour in the house and country 

 about it. 



We think, in the beginning, that the 

 colour of all buildings in the country, should 

 be of those soft and quiet shades, called 

 neutral tints, such as fawn, drab, gray, 

 brown, &c., and that all positive colours, 

 such as white, yellow, red, blue, black, 

 &c., should always be avoided ; neutral tints 

 being those drawn from nature, and harmo- 

 nizing best with her, and positive colours be- 

 ino- most discordant when introduced into 



Having entered our protest against the rural scenery, 

 general use of white in country edifices, we In the second place, we would adapt the 



