ARCHITECTURE AND GARDENING OF THE EASTERN STATES. 



327 



viLLE noticed in his visit to this country. 

 While passing, for the first time, the Nar- 

 rows, in his approach to New-York, he 

 was struck with the grandeur of the mar- 

 ble palaces seen in the distance ; but 

 whose pediments appeared, on nearer ap- 

 proach, to be supported by great wooden 

 columns I 



One may see, in passing by land from 

 New- York to New-Haven, many burlesques 

 in the architectural way. I have in my eye 

 an example in a building, which must have 

 cost somewhere between fifty and one 

 hundred thousand dollars ; certainly not 

 less than the former sum. It was evi- 

 dently intended to be an imitation of an 

 Oriental or Persian palace, in its architec- 

 ture, as you will see by a glance at its 

 domes and minarets. But with all the 

 assumption of the front to be stone, the 

 sides could show nothing better than flimsy 

 clap-board covering. 



The rural Gothic and bracketed struc- 

 tures, which seem now to be greater favor- 

 ites than any other, for the better class of 

 residences at the east, do not exhibit so 

 many deformities as one might very natu- 

 rally suppose would result from the infancy 

 of these styles in this country. With some 

 who have crude and half formed ideas of 

 the Gothic, the beau ideal seems to have 

 been attained by an elegant superfluity of 

 gables ; so that the chambers might all be 

 found " up among the peaks." Another, 

 you will observe, seems not so anxious 

 about the gables as about his one idea of 

 spacious verge boards, or fanciful terra 

 cotta chimney stacks. Occasionally may 

 be seen a house which might, if seen 

 alone, be considered the perfection of 

 beauty ; but, surrounded by such a nursery 

 of young shade trees, that the good effect 

 produced by the view of the house is nearly 

 lost. 



These are some of the defects apparent 

 to an observer ; yet how much is there to 

 admire. White, for the outside of houses, 

 is plainly not the only orthodox colour. 

 Fancy is very properly gratified by such a 

 variety of colouring, that each individual 

 taste may 'find its own. From a light 

 fawn to a dark brown, shades can be found, 

 but not described, which seem so much 

 more appropriate than white for many 

 situations, that the occasional over colour- 

 ing may be very easily pardoned. You 

 need not understand me as not still having 

 some love for white. There is something 

 so attractive to me in a well painted white 

 dwelling, with cool green shutters, and 

 tastefully embellished with vines and shrub- 

 bery, that I shall still pertinaciously insist 

 upon its claim, to hold its place among 

 those of darker hue. 



There are many situations where white 

 houses will not present that glaring ap- 

 pearance, which Uvedale Price speaks of, 

 as so like the eternal grin of a fool. 



[ White is not only permissible but 

 agreeable, when the house is embosomed 

 in foliage, so as to subdue the glare. Ed.] 



Rural architecture seems to have been 

 studied to good advantage by the farmer 

 and mechanic. Innumerable are the little 

 gems of cottages, surrounded by pretty and 

 attractive, but not expensive, outside em- 

 bellishments. A sum less than one thou- 

 sand dollars has erected quite a large pro- 

 portion of the attractive houses of the New- 

 England mechanics. Internal convenience 

 has been studied to some advantage, and 

 outside show — which, I may say, it is no 

 trait of a New-Englander to despise — has 

 not been allowed to overbalance a more 

 palpable good. 



While on this subject, let me say some- 

 thing of architectural works. I have spent 

 some time in looking over the numbers of 



