RUllAL ARCHITECTURE. 375 



Much of the picturesque effect of the old English and 

 Italian houses, undoubtedly arises from the handsome and 

 curious stacks of chimneys which spring out of their roofs. 

 These, while they break and diversify the sky outline of the 

 building, enrich and give variety to its most bare and 

 unornamented part. Examples are not wanting, in all the 

 different styles of architecture, of handsome and character 

 is'.ic chirAneys, which may be adopted in any of our 

 dwellings of a similar style. The Gothic, or old English 

 chimney, with octagonal or cylindrical flues or shafts united 

 in clusters, is made in a great variety of forms, either of 

 bricks or artificial stone. The former materials, moulded 

 in the required shape, are highly taxed in England, while 

 they may be very cheaply made here. 



A Porch strengthens or conveys expression of purpose, 

 because, instead of leaving the entrance door bare, as in 

 manufactories and buildings of an inferior description, it 

 serves both as a note of preparation, and an effectual 

 shelter and protection to the entrance. Besides this, it 

 gives a dignity and importance to that entrance, pointing 

 it out to the stranger as the place of approach. A fine 

 country house, without a porch or covered shelter to the 

 doorway of some description, is therefore as incomplete, 

 to the correct eye, as a well printed book without a title 

 page, leaving the stranger to plunge at once in medias res, 

 without the friendly preparation of a single word of intro- 

 duction. Porches are susceptible of every variety of form 

 :,nd decoration, from the embattled and buttressed portal 

 of the Gothic casile, to the latticed arbor porch of the 

 cottage, around which the festoons of luxuriant climbing 

 plants cluster, giving an effect not less beautiful than t.-.c 

 richly carved capitals of the classic portico. 



