TBB 



J3URNAL OF PiURAL ART AND RURAL TASTE. 



Vol. hi. 



FEBRUARY, 1849. 



No. 8. 



Our readers very well know that, in the 

 country, whenever anything especially taste- 

 ful is to be done, when a church is to be 

 " dressed for Christmas," a public hall fes- 

 tooned for a fair, or a saloon decorated for 

 a horticultural show, we have to entreat 

 the assistance of the fairer half of humanity. 

 All that is most graceful and charming in 

 this way, owes its existence to female hands. 

 Over the heavy exterior of man's handi- 

 work, they weave a fairy-like web of en- 

 chantment, which, like our Indian summer 

 haze upon autumn hills, spiritualizes and 

 makes poetical, whatever of rude form or 

 rough outlines may lie beneath. 



Knowing all this, as we well do, we 

 write this leader especially for the eyes of 

 the ladies. They are naturally mistresses 

 of the art of embellishment. Men are so 

 stupid, in the main, about these matters, that 

 if the majority of them had their own way 

 there would neither be a ringlet, nor a ruffle, 

 a wreath, nor a nosegay, left in the world. 

 All would be as stiff and as meaningless as 

 their own meagre black coats, — without an 

 atom of the graceful or romantic about 

 them ; nothing to awaken a spark of inte- 

 rest, or stir a chord of feeling ; nothing, in 

 short, but downright, common place, matter- 

 of-fact. And they undertake to defend it — 



Vol, iil 23 



the logicians — on the ground of utility, and 

 the spirit of the age ! As if trees did not 

 bear lovely blossoms as well as good fruit ; 

 as if the sun did not give us rainbows as 

 well as light and warmth ; as if there were 

 not still mocking-birds and nightingales as 

 well as ducks and turkeys. 



But enough of that. You do not need 

 any arguments to prove that grace is a 

 quality as positive as electro-magnetism. 

 Would that you could span the world with 

 it as quickly as Mr. Morse with his tele- 

 graph. To come to the point, we want 

 to talk a little with you about what we call 

 the drapery of cottages and gardens ; about 

 those beautiful vines, and climbers, and 

 creepers, which nature made on purpose to 

 cover up everything ugly, and to heighten 

 the charm of everything pretty and pictu- 

 resque. In short, we want j'our aid and 

 assistance in dressing, embellishing and 

 decorating, not for a single holiday, fair, 

 or festival, but for years, and forever, 

 the outsides of our simple cottages and 

 country homes ; wreathing them about 

 with such perennial festoons of verdure, 

 and starring them over with such bouquets 

 of delicious odor, that your husbands and 

 brothers would no more think of giving up 

 such houses, than they would of aban- 



