BUILDING THE HOUSE 59 



have been looking at the trees and listening to the 

 birds. 



We drove about admiring these pretentious build- 

 ings and forgot the country altogether; did not hear 

 the language of the brooks, until the country became a 

 synonym for isolated stupidity. The farmer became 

 Old Hayseed, and all around the cities rich people 

 filled the suburban space with costly mansions. 

 These mansions were surrounded with straight brick 

 walls and a precision that trimmed hens and rabbits 

 along the tops of the hedgerows. 



What we need first of all is to know what we want 

 a house for, and then the sort of a house that fits 

 where we intend to build. There really is such a 

 thing as a natural house, just as there is a natural 

 tree, and the one ought to grow just as naturally as 

 the other and as exactly suited to its place. Our first 

 axiom is that a real country house belongs only in one 

 spot, and to that spot it belongs naturally. In other 

 words no other house could have wisely been built 

 in the place of the one we have constructed. The 

 architect who plans the same sort of a house for di- 

 vers locations does not know his business. 



We have gone into the country to see, to feel, and 

 to know Nature. We have, least of all, any interest 

 in a house that shuts out from us nearly all the beau- 

 tiful that is within reach of vision and leaves us to 

 enjoy wall paper and furniture. The result of the 

 wrong method has been a very natural one, that the 



