the wall above 'tlie recess containiiig the principal staircase are of Brocatelle marble ; 

 the other four across the hall itself, at right angles to these, are of Sienna, the caps 

 white and the base and plinth of statuary marble. Their style is Ionic, with capitals 

 designed in the simplest form of this beautiful order. 



The staircase, with its balusters and rail, is massive and handsome, and the steps of 

 peculiarly easy ascent. 



Although the building is large, the composition of its parts is such as not to give an 

 ostentatious appearance ; and the details are all carried out so consistently with the 

 spirit of the style determined upon, that the general effect of the whole mass is not 

 hazarded by any discrepancy in any portion of the construction. 



The architectural style is that of the modern Italian, having a general resemblance 

 to many of the peculiarities of the buildings erected in the suburbs of Rome — and 

 hence of the Roman rather than of the Florentine or Venetian periods. I do not claim 

 that it is a facsimile of any one of them ; but, so far as material would permit, and 

 modern convenience and common sense justify, the whole has been faithfully conceived 

 in a spirit analogous to tha/t which gives vitality to the buildings that originated this 

 style. The walls, from the foundation to the level of the principal tloor, are built of 

 stone, and are laid in regular courses as to their horizontal lines, but in stones of 

 unequal sizes and divisions. The masoniy is of the very best description, and, from the 

 top springs the building which above the ground is of frame, 'filled in with brick, 

 double-boarded on the outside and covered Avith clapboards, the edges of the overlap 

 of which are rounded, by which means they are not liable to be bruised or otherwise 

 defaced. The stone placed within reach of the builder was one of such extreme hard- 

 ness as to render the construction of the entire building a matter of very great expense, 

 nor could the architectural features have been executed but in stone of ditferent tex- 

 ture ; and it may be added that the owner was neither willing to delay completion of 

 his house the time such a mode of construction would have required, nor to expend 

 the vastly increased amount that would have been demanded. 



This house was built carefully by day's work, and its cost, including all that thorough 

 completion involved, was twenty thousand dollars. Of this sum, a very large amount 

 was expended upon the heavy stone masonry of the foundations and lower stor}^, and 

 in almost any other situation the cost could be very materially lessened. The sum 

 named, moreover, included furnace, painting, plumbing, and the provision of gas-pipes 

 throughout the whole building, the owner intending to provide a gas-house and appa- 

 ratus in a secluded situation below the house. 



TRINCirLES OF BEAUTY IN GRECIAN ARCEITECTURE.* 



The most brilliant epoch of Grecian architecture, and to which we are to look for 

 perfection in the art, was compnzed in the short space of about two hundred years, 

 including the respective ages both of Pericles and of Alexander, from whose death 

 its gradual decline may perhaps be said to have commenced. But under the subse- 



* From Earl of AlenJeeiCa Inquiry into the PrineipUs of Beauty in Grecian ArcJdtecture. London: John 



MuKUAY. 1822. 



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