OUT-OF-TOWN PLACES 



or limit of the proposed repairs to an old coun- 

 try house. Third: it is altogether impossible 

 to say in advance that any system of change, 

 however deliberately considered, will prove 

 ultimately satisfactory to the (female) occu- 

 pants. 



These truisms would seem to count against 

 the undertaking to remodel an old house: yet 

 there are conditions which make it eminently 

 wise, as well in a practical as in an aesthetic 

 point of view. 



If, for instance, the walls be of stone or 

 brick, and not wholly inconsiderable in extent, 

 it would be bad economy as well as bad taste 

 to sacrifice them to any craving for newness. 

 In the brick, if well laid, a man may be sure of 

 stanchness; and in the stone, with the lichens 

 of years upon it, he has a mellowness of tone 

 which not all the arts of the decorators can 

 reach. But even upon walls of such material, 

 especially if they carry the blotches of age, 

 it will never do to engraft the grandiose de- 

 signs of the modern builders. If a country 

 liver be really ambitious to match all the pre- 

 tensions of the latest architecture in respect 

 of high ceilings and mansard-roofs, let him 

 begin by pulling down; but if his aim be of 

 that finer temper which seeks to qualify what 



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