280 ROOF-TREE. 



to relieve the flatness of our pine-box houses by more 

 frankness and boldness in this respect. If the eye 

 could see more fully the necessities of the case, how 

 the thing stood up and was held together, that it was 

 not pasteboard, that it did not need to be anchored 

 against the wind, etc., it would be a relief. Hence 

 the lively pleasure we feel in what are called " timber- 

 houses," and in every architectural device by which 

 the anatomy, the real framework of the structure, in- 

 side or out, is allowed to show, or made to serve as 

 ornament. The eye craves lines of strength, evidence 

 of weight and stability. But in the wooden house, 

 as usually treated, these lines are nearly all concealed, 

 the ties and supports are carefully suppressed, and 

 the eye must feed on the small, fine lines of the fin- 

 ish. When the mere outlines of the frame are in- 

 dicated, so that the larger spaces appear as panels, it 

 is a great help ; or let any part of the internal econ- 

 omy show through, and the eye is interested, as the 

 projection of the chimney-stack in brick or stone 

 houses, or the separating of the upper from the main 

 floor by a belt and slight projection, or by boldly pro- 

 jecting the chamber floor-joist, and letting one story 

 overlap the other. 



As I have already said, herein is the main reason 

 of the picturesqueness of the stone house above all 

 others. Every line is a line of strength and necessity. 

 We see how the mass stands up ; how it is bound and 

 keyed and fortified. The construction is visible ; the 

 corners are locked by header and stretcher, and are 



