COLOR OF BUILDINGS IN RURAL SCENERY. 



ference for the gray and subdued, over all the bright tints that art can produce. In this 

 particular, then, we give the preference to the effects of European scenery, over that of 

 this country, where wood is so much used for the purposes of building, and where the 

 fashion has long been to color it with white. A better taste, however, or what we es- 

 teem as such, is beginning to prevail, and houses in towns and villages, are now, not un- 

 frequently, even painted in subdued colors. We regard the effect as an improvement, 

 though to our taste, no hue, in its artificial objects, so embellishes a landscape as the so- 

 lemn color of the more sober and less meretricious looking stones. We believe that a 

 structure of white, with green blinds, is almost peculiar to this country. In the most pro- 

 pitious situations, and under the happiest circumstances, the colors are unquestionably un- 

 suited to architecture, which, like statuary, should have but one tint. If, however, it be 

 deemed essential to the flaunting tastes of the mistress of some mansion, to cause the hues 

 of the edifice in which she resides to be as gay as her toilette, we earnestly protest against 

 the bright green that is occasionally introduced for such purposes. There is a graver tint 

 of the same color, that entirely changes the expression of a dwelling. Place two of these 

 houses in close proximity, and scarcely an intellectual being would pass them, without 

 saying that the owner of the one was much superior to the owner of the other, in all that 

 marks the civilized man. Put a third structure in the immediate vicinity of these two, 

 that should have but one color on its surface, including its binds, and we think that nine 

 persons in ten, except the very vulgar and uninstructed, would at once jump to the con- 

 clusion that the owner of this habitation was in tastes and refinement superior to both his 

 neighbors. A great improvement, however, in rural, as well as town architecture, is now 

 in the course of introduction throughout all the northern states. More attention is paid 

 to the picturesque, than was formerl}^ the case, and the effects are becoming as numerous 

 as thej' are pleasing. We should particularise New-Haven, as one of those towns that 

 has been thus embellished of late years, and there are other places, of nearl}' equal size, 

 that might be mentioned as having the same claims to an improved taste. But to return 

 to the great distinctive features between an ordinary American landscape, and a similar 

 scene in Europe. Of the artificial accessories it is scarcely necessary to say any more. 

 One does not expect to meet with a ruined castle or abbey, or even fortress, in America; nor, 

 on the other hand, does the traveller look for the forests of America, or that abundance 

 of wood which gives to nearly ever}"- farm a sufficiency for all the common wants of life, 

 ou the plains and heights of the old Avorld. Wood there certainly is, and possibly enough 

 to meet the ordinary wants of the different countries, but it is generally in the hands of 

 the governments or the great proprietors, and takes the aspect of forests of greater or less 

 size, that are well cared for, cleared and trimmed like the grounds of a park. Germany 

 has, we think, in some respects, a strong resemblance to the views of America. It is not 

 so much wanting in detached copses and smaller plantations of trees, as the countries far- 

 ther south and east of it, while it has less of the naked aspect, in general, that is so re- 

 markable in France. Detached buildings occur more frequently in Germany than in 

 France especially, and we might add, also, in Spain. The reader will remember that it is 

 a prevalent usage throushout Europe, with the exception of the British Islands, Holland, 

 and here and there a province in other countries, for the rural population to dwell in vil- 

 lages. This practice gives to the German landscape, in particular, a species of resemblance 

 to what is ordinarily termed park scenery, though it is necessarily wanting in much of that 

 expression which characterises the embellishments that properly belong to the latter 

 With us, this resemblance is often even stronger, in consequence of the careless graces of 

 nature, and the great affluence of detached woods; the distinguishing feature existing in 





