174 AN OCTOBER ABROAD. 



has a pleasing effect in the wall. Then a very short 

 space of time in that climate suffices to take off the 

 effect of newness, and give a mellow, sober hue to 

 the building. Another advantage of the climate is 

 that it permits outside plastering. Thus almost any 

 stone may be imitated, and the work endure for ages ; 

 while our sudden changes, and extremes of heat and 

 cold, of dampness and dryness, will cause the best 

 work of this kind to peel off in a few years. 



Then this people have better taste in building than 

 we have, perhaps because they have the noblest sarn 

 pies and specimens of architecture constantly before 

 them those old feudal castles and royal residences, 

 for instance. I was astonished to see how homely 

 and good they looked, how little they challenged ad- 

 miration, and how much they emulate rocks and trees. 

 They were surely built in a simpler and more poetic 

 age than this. It was like meeting some plain, natu- 

 ral nobleman after contact with one of the bedizened, 

 artificial sort. The Tower of London, for instance, is 

 as pleasing to the eye, has the same fitness and har- 

 mony, as a hut in the woods ; and I should think an 

 artist might have the same pleasure in copying it 

 into his picture as he would in copying a pioneer's 

 log cabin. So with Windsor Gastle, which has the 

 beauty of a ledge of rocks, and crowns the hill like a 

 vast natural formation. The warm, simple interior, 

 too, of these castles and palaces, the honest oak with- 

 out paint or varnish, the rich wood carvings, the ripe 

 human tone and atmosphere, how it all contrasts, for 



