174 AN OCTOBER ABROAD. 



has a pleasing effect in the wall. Then a very short 

 space of time in that climate suffices to take off the 

 effect of newness, and give a mellow, sober hue to 

 the building. Another advantage of the climate is 

 that it permits outside plastering. Thus almost any 

 stone may be imitated, and the work endure for ages ; 

 while our sudden changes, and extremes of heat and 

 cold, of dampness and dryness, will cause the- best 

 work of this kind to peel off in a few years. 



Then this people have better taste in building than 

 we have, perhaps because they have the noblest sam- 

 ples and specimens of architecture constantly before 

 them those old feudal castles and royal residences, 

 for instance. I was astonished to see how homely 

 and good they looked, how little they challenged ad- 

 miration, and how much they emulate rocks and trees. 

 They were surely built in a simpler and more poetic 

 age than this. It was like meeting some plain, natu- 

 ral nobleman after contact with one of the bedizened, 

 artificial sort. The Tower of London, for instance, is 

 as pleasing to the eye, has the same fitness and har- 

 mony, as a hut in the woods ; and I should think an 

 artist might have the same pleasure in copying it 

 into his picture as he would in copying a pioneer's 

 log cabin. So with "Windsor Castle, which has the 

 beauty of a ledge of rocks, and crowns the hill like a 

 vast natural formation. The warm, simple interior, 

 too, of these castles and palaces, the honest oak with- 

 out paint or varnish, the rich wood carvings, the ripe 

 human tone and atmosphere, how it all contrasts, for 



