492 



ON THE COLOUR OF COUNTRY HOUSES. 



shade of colour, as fiir as possible, to the ex- 

 pression, style, or character of the house 

 itself. Thus, a large mansion may very 

 properly receive a somewhat sober hue, ex- 

 pressive of dignity ; while a country house, 

 of moderate size, demands a lighter and 

 more pleasant, but still quiet tone ; and a 

 small cottage should, we think, always 

 have a cheerful and lively tint. Country 

 houses, thickly surrounded by trees, should 

 always be painted of a lighter shade than 

 those standing exposed. And a new house, 

 entirely unrelieved by foliage, as it is ren- 

 dered conspicuous by the very nakedness of 

 its position, should be painted several shades 

 darker than the same building if placed in a 

 well wooded site. In proportion as a house 

 is exposed to vieio, let its hue be darker, and 

 where it is much concealed by foliage, a very 

 light shade of colour is to he prefemd. 



WoRDSAVoRTH remarks, in speaking of 

 houses in the Lake country, that man\'- per- 

 sons who have heard white condemned, 

 have erred by adopting a cold slaty colour. 

 The dullness and dimness of hue in some 

 dark stones, produces an effect quite at va- 

 riance with the cheerful expression which 

 small houses should wear. "The flaring 

 yellow," he adds, " runs into the opposite 

 extreme, and is still more censurable. Up- 

 on the whole, the safest colour, for general 

 use, is something between a cream and a 

 dust colour." 



This colour, which Wordsv^^orth recom- 

 mends for general use, is the hue of the 

 English freestone, called Portland stone — a 

 quiet faion color, to which we are strongly 

 partial, and which harmonizes perhaps more 

 completely with all situations in the country 

 than any other that can be named. Next 

 to this, we like a loarm gray, that is, a drab 

 mixed with a very little red and some yel- 

 low. Browfis and dark grays are suitable 



for barns, stables and outbuildings, which it 

 is desirable to render inconspicuous — but 

 for dwellings, unless very light shades of 

 these latter colours are used, they are apt to 

 give a dull and heavy effect in the coun- 

 try.* 



A very slight admixture of a darker colour 

 is sufficient to remove the objections to 

 white paint, by destroying the glare of white, 

 the only colour which reflects all the sun's 

 rays. We would advise the use of soft 

 shades, not much removed from white, for 

 small cottages, which should not be painted 

 of too dark a shade, which would give them 

 an aspect of gloom, in the place of glare. 

 It is the more necessary to make this sug- 

 gestion, since we have lately observed that 

 some persons, newly awakened to the bad 

 effect of white, have rushed into the oppo- 

 site extreme, and coloured their country 

 houses of such a sombre hue that they give 

 a melancholy character to the whole neigh- 

 borhood around them. 



A species of monotony is also produced 

 by using the same neutral tint for every 

 part of the exterior of a country house. Now 

 there are features, such as window facings, 

 blinds, cornices, etc., which confer the same 

 kind of expression on a house that the eyes, 

 eyebrows, lips, &:c. of a face, do upon the 

 human countenance. To paint the whole 

 house plain drab, gives it very much the 



* It is very difficult to convey any proper idea of shades of 

 colour bywords. In our " Cottage Residences," we have at- 

 tempted to do so by a plate showing some of the tints. We 

 would suggest to persons wishing to select accurately, shades 

 for their painter to copy, to go into a stationer's and examine 

 a stock of tinted papers. A great variety of shades in agreea- 

 ble neutral tints, will usually be found, and a selection once 

 made, the colour can be imitated without risk of failure. The 

 paper of our frontispiece, may be taken as an example of a 

 fawn colour of the lightest shade we would ever employ for a 

 house — four or five shades darker is the colour of the English 

 Portland stone. The gray of the cover of this journal, is as 

 dark a shade as wooden houses cair usually be painted Mrith 

 good effect. 



