APRIL. 169 



\ 



with aversion, to contemplate with delight some plain, unar- 

 tistic old country-house, or a simple, unadorned cottage. 



II. The different kinds of expression which I have named 

 are often so intimately blended, as to make it difficult to de- 

 termine whether one or another is predominant. The rural 

 or poetic expression is sometimes with difficulty distinguished 

 from the romantic. A building that derives its principal 

 charm from its rustic simplicity, and its power of suggesting 

 images of humble contentment and quiet happiness, is often 

 rendered still more charming by its resemblance to some 

 historic model. Various other ideas are associated with a 

 little unpretending cottage, in a pleasant and retired situation. 

 It is not necessary for the full force of this expression that 

 the building should seem to be the home of a rustic family. 

 Any private dwelling may derive this rural or poetic expres- 

 sion, frofn its immediate suggestiveness of certain qualities 

 which would render it a delightful abode. The English rural 

 cottages, though deriving an interest from history and pastoral 

 literature, owe their principal charm to their simplicity, and 

 to the flowers, vines, and shrubbery that seem to ally them 

 with the hill or the valley in which they are placed. 



The introduction of that class of buildings usually termed 

 Gothic cottages, evinces an imperfect idea, on the part of the 

 builders, of the advantages of rural expression. They have, 

 also, more or less of a historic character. Such styles are 

 rural and poetic, on account of their association with moun- 

 tain scenery, and with the pyramidal larches, firs, and other 

 evergreen trees peculiar to Alpine situations. The charm of 

 these imitations of foreign models is often destroyed by the 

 too apparent evidence that the proprietor has no just apprecia- 

 tion of their true character and merits. 



The imitation of a rustic model, whose character is sim- 

 plicity and rudeness, must be a failure, whenever it is decke(J 

 with those gewgaws that stand out as evidences of puerile 

 taste and foppishness. 



Everything that savors of vanity or ostentation is fatal to 

 poetic expression. All trifling or costly ornaments are as 

 destructive of this charm, as the suspension of artificial fruit 



VOL. XXL NO. IV. 22 



