THE VILLAS. 67 



secured for such. Dampness, heat, cold, will be welcome to do 

 their best ; every day they will improve. In fifty or a hundred 

 years fashions may change, and they will appear, perhaps, quaint, 

 possibly grotesque ; but still strong, home-like, and hospitable. 

 They have no shingles to rot, no glued and puttied and painted 

 gimcrackery, to warp and crack and moulder ; and can never 

 look so shabby, and desolate, and dreary, as will nine-tenths of 

 the buildings of the same denomination now erecting about New 

 York, almost as soon as they lose the raw, cheerless, impostor- 

 like airs which seem inseparable from their newness. 



