MR. URBAN AND A COUNTRY HOUSE 



is old by enlargement of dimensions and by 

 such simple decorative features as shall add a 

 piquancy to the wrinkles of age — even as the 

 twist of some sober-colored ribbon will set off 

 some be-capped and widowed face more at- 

 tractively than all the snow-flake haberdashery 

 that could be devised— let him cherish all the 

 quaintness that is due to years, and seek only 

 to magnify and illustrate it by such enlarge- 

 ments as are in keeping with it, and by such 

 sober adornments as shall seem to be rather 

 a restoration of old and lost graces than the 

 ambitious display of new ones. The thing 

 is feasible. It only wants an eye to perceive 

 the need, and a courage to discard the flash 

 carpentry of the day. 



I beg that I may be not misunderstood. I 

 by no means intend to say that the country 

 houses of fifty years ago were in any sense 

 equal or comparable, on the score of fitness or 

 of taste, to the country houses of to-day; but 

 I do mean to say, that if the walls of such old 

 houses are plumb and true and sound, and re- 

 pairs are undertaken, it will be far wiser, and 

 call for nicer exercise of skill, to carry forward 

 such repairs with the quaint flavor of the old 

 homely tastes upon them — thus working out 

 artistic agreement and adornment together — 



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