Theory and Practice 187 



were built of the most costly materials ; witness Wood- 

 ley, Babworth, Taplow, etc. 



To produce effect by difference of colour in build- 

 ings, such as red and yellow bricks, black and white 

 flints, oreven edging brick-work with dressings of stone, 

 is the poor expedient of the mere bricklayer ; the same 

 may be observed of that paltry taste for pointing the 

 joints of brick-work to render them more conspicuous, 

 and, of course, more offensive. 



As a general principle I should assert that no ex- 

 ternal effect or light and shade on a building ought to 

 be attempted, except by such projections or recesses as 

 will naturally produce them, since every effect produced 

 by colour is a trick or sham expedient ; and on the same 

 principle a recess in the wall is preferable to a painted 

 window, unless it is actually glazed. 



With respect to the colour of sashes and window- 

 frames, I think they may be thus determined with pro- 

 priety, first observing that from the inside of the room 

 the landscape looks better through bars of a dark 

 colour ; but on the outside, in small cottages, they may 

 be green, because it is a degree of ornament not incom- 

 patible with the circumstances of the persons supposed 

 to inhabit them, and even in such small houses as may 

 be deemed cottages, the same colour may be proper. 

 But in proportion as it approaches to a mansion, it 

 should not derive its decoration from so insignificant 

 an expedient as colour, and, therefore, to a gentleman's 

 house the outside of the sashes should be white, whether 

 they be of mahogany, of oak, or of deal, because, 

 externally, the glass is fastened by a substance which 

 must be painted, and the modern sash-frames are so 

 light that unless we see the bars the houses appear at 

 a distance unfinished and as having no windows. In 



