A FEW WORDS ON OUR PROGRESS IN BUILDING. 



the result was, of course, both ludicrous and absurd. There is less dictation to ar 

 chitects in this country on one hand, and more independence of any class on the oth- 

 er, to bring such examples of architectural salmagundies into existence — though there 

 are a few in the profession weak enough to prostitute their talents to any whim or ca- 

 price of the employer. 



But by far the greater danger at the present moment lies in the inordinate ambition 

 of the builders of ornamental cottages. Not contented with the simple and befitting 

 decoration of the modest veranda, the bracketted roof, the latticed window, and the 

 lovely accessories of vines and flowering shrubs, the builder of the cottage ornee in 

 too many cases, attempts to engraft upon his simple story of a habitation, all the 

 tropes and figures of architectural rhetoric which belong to the elaborate oratory of 

 a palace or a temple. 



We have made a point of enforcing the superior charm of simplicity — and the real- 

 ness of the beauty which grows out of it, in our late work on Country Houses. 

 We even went so far as to give a few examples of farm-houses studiously made sim- 

 ple and rural in character, though not without a certain beauty of expression befitting 

 their locality, and the uses to which they were destined. But, judging from some 

 criticisms on these farm-houses in one of the western papers, we believe it will not be 

 an easy task to convince the future proprietors of farm-houses and rural cottages, that 

 truthful simplicity is better than borrowed decorations, in their country homes. Our 

 critic wonders why farmers should not be allowed to live in as handsome houses, (con- 

 founding mere decoration with beauty,) as any other class of our citizens, if they can 

 afi"ord it — and claims for them the use of the most ornamental architecture in their 

 farm-houses. We have only to answer to this, that the simplest expression of beauty 

 which grows out of a man's life, ranks higher for him than the most elaborate one 

 borrowed from another's life or circumstances. We will add, by way of illus- 

 tration, that there is no moral or political objection, that we know, to a farmer's wear- 

 ing a general's uniform in his corn-fields, if he likes it better than plain clothes ; but 

 to our mind, his costume — undoubtedly handsomer in the right place, would be both 

 absurd and ugly — behind the harrow. 



We are glad to find, however, that our feeling of the folly of this exaggerated pre- 

 tension in cottage architecture, is gradually finding its expression in other channels of 

 the public press — a sure sign that it will eventually take hold of public opinion. The 

 following satire on the taste of the day in this over-loaded style of "carpenter's 

 gothic," from the pen of one of the wittiest and cleverest of American poets, has 

 lately appeared, (as part of a longer satire on another subject,) in one of our popular 

 magazines. But it is too good to be lost sight of by our readers, and we recommend 

 it to a second perusal. A thought or two upon its moral, as applied to the taste of 

 the country, will help us on most essentially in this, our experimental age of architec- 

 ture. 



