RURAL ARCHITECTURE. 



dainty and '' prinked up," that we were afraid to sit down on the frail things stuck 

 around by way of seats, for fear of breaking them; and everything about it looked so 

 gingerly and inhospitable, that we felt an absolute relief when we could fairly get out of 

 it, and take a place by the wide old fireplace, in the common living room, comfortably en- 

 sconced in a good old easy, high-backed, split-bottomed chair — there was positive comfort 

 in that, when in the "parlor" there was nothing but restraint and discomfort. No; 

 leave all this vanity to town-folk, who have nothing better — or who, at least, think they 

 have — to amuse themselves with: it has no fitness for a country dwelling, whatever. All 

 this kind of frippery smacks of the boarding school, the pirouette, and the dancing mas- 

 ter, and is out of character for the farm, or the sensible retirement of the country. 



" In connection with the subject of furniture, a remark may be made on the room ar- 

 rangement of the house, which might, perhaps, have been more fittingly made when dis- 

 cussing that subject, in the designs of our houses. Some people have a marvellous pro- 

 pensity for introducing into tlicir houses a a suite of rooms, connected by wide folding- 

 doors, which must always be opened into each other, furnished just alike, and devoted to 

 extraordinary occasions; thus absolutely sinking the best rooms in the house, for display 

 half a dozen times in the year, and at the sacrifice of the every day comfort of the family. 

 This is nothing but a bastard taste, of the most worthless kind, introduced from the city 

 — the propriety of which, for city life, need not here be discussed. The presence of such 

 arrangement, in a country house, is fatal to everything like domestic enjoyment, and al- 

 ways followed by great expense and inconvenience. No room, in any house, should be 

 too good for occupation by the family themselves — not every day, and common place — 

 but occupation at any and all times, when convenience or pleasure demand it. If a large 

 room be required, let the single room itself be large; not sacrifice an extra room to the 

 occasional extension of the choicer one, as in the use of folding-doors must be done. This 

 " parlor" maj' be better furnished — and so it should be — than any other room in the house. 

 Its carpet should be not too good to tread, or stand upon, or for the children to roll and 

 tumble upon, provided their shoes and clothes be clean. Let the happy little fellows roll and 

 tumble on it, to their heart's content, when their mother or elder sisters are with them — 

 for it ma}^ be, perhaps, the most joyous, and most innocent pleasure of their lives, poor 

 things! The hearth rug should be in keeping with the carpet, also, and no floor-cloth 

 should be necessary to cover it, for fear of soiling; but everything free and easy, with a 

 comfortable, inviting, hospitable look about it. 



" Go into the houses of our great men — such as live in the countrj' — whom God made 

 great, not money — and see how theij live. We speak not of statesmen and politicians 

 alone, but great merchants, great scholars, great divines, great mechanics, and all men 

 who, in mind and attainments, are head and shoulders above their class in any of the 

 walks of life, and you find no starch or flummery about them. AVe once went out to the 

 country house — he lived there all the time for that matter — of a distinguished banker of 

 one of our great cities, to dine, and spend the day with him. lie had a small farm at- 

 tached to his dwelling, where he kept his horses and cows, his pigs, and his poultry. He 

 had a large, plain two-story cottage house, with a piazza running on three sides of it, 

 from which a beautiful view of the neighboring city, and water, and land, was seen in 

 nearly all directions. He M'as an educated man. His father had been a statesman of 

 distinguished ability and station at home, and a diplomatist abroad, and himself educated 

 in the highest circle of business, and of societj^. His wife, too, was the daughter of a 

 distinguished city merchant, quite his equal in all the accomplishments of life. H 

 wealth was competent; he was the manager of millions of the Avealth of others; and 



