HOUSES. AMERICAN COUNTRY-SEATS. 



363 



forth its angles and 

 masses. But old colo- 

 nial reproductions are, 

 of course, still painted 

 white. In an address 

 before the American In- 

 stitute of Architects in 

 1868, Mr. Richard Up- 

 john said: "Letmespeak 

 a word for color, against 

 which our fellow-citi- 

 zens seem to have had a 

 strong though now hap- 

 pily departing prejudice. 

 Color is the vitalizing 

 principle of architecture, 

 as it is of Nature. Re- 

 duce a landscape to a 

 dead uniformity or mono- 

 tint, and admire the re- 

 sult if you can. Destroy 

 color, and you chill the 

 very life of art. See how 

 the strong yellow tint of 

 a sunset enlivens the 

 most tame and contemp- 

 tible building. We can 

 not have a permanent 

 sunset; we can not rule 

 the atmospheric laws to 

 our ends; but we can, 

 by choice of material for 

 color and texture on ex- 

 teriors, and by poly- 

 chrome and rays of light, 

 stained by their passage 

 through tinted glass, do 

 something toward re- 

 placing their effects." 



The increasing influ- 

 erce of the architect 

 over his client is a fact 

 of which Mr. Howells 

 made use in writing the 

 story of " The Rise of 

 Silas Lapham," whose 

 idea of a house, it will 

 be remembered, was a 

 brown-stone front, four 

 stories high, and a 

 French roof, with an air- 

 chamber above. Black 

 walnut was to be used in 

 all the rooms, except in 

 the attic, which was to 

 be painted and grained 

 to look like black wal- 

 nut. The whole was to 

 be very high - studded, 

 and there were to be 

 handsome cornices and 

 elaborate center - pieces 

 throughout. But the 

 architect was skillful, 

 " as nearly all architects 

 are," in playing upon 



