168 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



ity, with the purposes for which it is intended, and the circum- 

 stances of the occupant. Let a house be made in imitation 

 of a Grecian temple, and no man would look upon it with 

 the same feelings with which he would contemplate a veri- 

 table Grecian temple. In all imitations of foreign models an 

 intelligent spectator never overlooks the adaptedness of the 

 original to the wants, intentions, and circumstances of the 

 proprietor, and his emotions are pleasing or displeasing, accord- 

 ing as he observes these correspondences. 



In modern times, at least in this country, no man is un- 

 der the necessity of making his home a castle. This is a 

 style of building adapted to the habits and circumstances of 

 a past age and another country, and any attempt to imitate 

 it in the style of our own dwellings is absurd. A castle 

 would not have been out of place two hundred years ago, 

 when our people were surrounded by tribes of hostile Indians. 

 Had such edifices been erected at that period, they might 

 have saved many from violent deaths, and have stood at the 

 present time as historical monuments of the deeds, sufferings, 

 and adventures of the people of olden time. But our ancestors 

 could not build them when they were wanted, and depended 

 upon their arms and prowess for their defence. It is now too 

 late to erect buildings of this description ; and however 

 romantic may be the idea of a battlemented castle, which 

 has stood ever since the feudal ages, we may be sure that our 

 people would attach almost any idea but that of romance to 

 one that should be erected at the present day. 



The taste for grandeur in architecture, in these days, must 

 be gratified in the style of our public buildings, and not in 

 that of our private dwellings. The temple and the cathedral 

 may still be successfully imitated in the construction of our 

 churches and our halls of legislation. But a private citizen, 

 however great his wealth, would expose himself to critical 

 mirth by imitating them in the style of his family residence. 

 "We may be assured, that however attractive these wooden 

 parthenons may be when first introduced into a village, while 

 they wear the charm of novelty, they will soon pall upon 

 the public sight, and the spectator will turn away from them 



