Allen'' s Rural Architecture. 221 



REVIEWS. 



Art. I. Rural Architecture ; being a Complete Description 

 of Fannhouses, Cottages, and Outbuildings, comp?'ising 

 Woodhonses, Workshops, Toolhouses, Carriage, and Wag- 

 on Houses, 6j'c., c5*c., together loith Lawns, Pleasure 

 Grounds, and Parks ; the Flower, Fruit and Vegetable 

 Garden, S^c, 6^c. By Lewis F. Allen. 1 vol. 12mo.j pp. 

 384, New York, 1852. 



Such in part, only, is the title of a work, treating upon 

 rural architecture, by Mr. Allen ; and one of the most useful 

 and thoroughly practical volumes that our country has pro- 

 duced. It is just what it pretends to be, — adapted to the 

 wants and condition of the great agricultural and rural popu- 

 lation of our country. 



A great deal has been written upon the improvement of 

 our rural and cottage architecture, and nice plans have been 

 published, which, to our taste, have had little about them in 

 keeping with the true character of what should constitute a 

 rural, or farmer's, residence. 



We appreciate, as fully as any one, rural improvement in 

 the right direction ; but it must be apparent to any person of 

 taste, that, in too many instances, where improvement has 

 been attempted, — where individuals have become imbued 

 with a taste for something better than the old style of build- 

 ing, — they have erred as far on the other side, and have as 

 much too profusely over-ornamented and frittered away the 

 substantial and expressive character of their dwelling as before 

 it was deficient in architectural proportions or beauty. A 

 Gothic or Italian house, with its bay windows, verandas, &c., 

 overrun with vines and plants, is all very well in its place, 

 surrounded by parks and pleasure grounds, and properly set 

 off by rich parterres of flowers and plantations of shrubs. 

 But such a house on a fine farm of a hundred acres, with 

 stables, corn-barns, outhouses, &c., and divided into different 

 fields by stone walls or rail fences, is evidently out of place, 

 and only impresses the beholder with a belief that the propri- 

 etor was entirely ignorant of what constitutes true taste. 



