THE SEARCH AND FINDING. 17 



acres, in a thriving country town, two minutes walk 

 from the post office, house forty by thirty-five, and ten 

 feet between joints, stages passing the door three times 

 a day, large apple trees in the yard newly grafted, and 

 the good will of a small grocery, upon the corner, to 

 be sold, if desired, with tfie goods, and healthy.&quot; 



Inadmissible, of course ; and the letter passed over 

 into the hat of my friend. Another letter, from a 

 widow lady, invited attention to the admired place 

 of her late husband : he had &quot; an unusual taste for 

 country life, and had expended large sums in beauti 

 fying the farm ; marble mantels throughout the 

 house, Gothic porticos, and some statuary about the 

 grounds. There was a gardener s cottage, and a far 

 mer s house, as well as another small tenement for an 

 under-gardener, and twenty acres of land, of which 

 six in shrubbery and lawns.&quot; The architecture seemed 

 to me rather disproportionate to the land ; inadmis 

 sible upon the whole, as a desirable place on which to 

 test the economies of a quiet farm-life. 



I can conceive of nothing so shocking to a hearty 

 lover of the country, as to live in the glare of another 

 man s architectural taste. In the city or the town 

 there are conventional laws of building, established 

 by custom, and by limitations of space, to which all 

 must in a large measure conform ; but with the width 

 of broad acres around one, I should chafe as much at 



