OUT-OF-TOWN PLACES 



In fact a great fault of our country architec- 

 ture lies in its being too ambitious : it has in- 

 deed come out from that old hideous conven- 

 tionalism of two stories, white clap-boards and 

 green blinds; but it still seeks to startle with 

 something grand— something that shall tell 

 a noisy brazen story at the first glance. Yet 

 a fit house and home — fit for its belongings — 

 fit in size, in color, in outline (like a man of 

 wholly fit character) — should win upon you 

 by degrees, charming you at each succeeding 

 look by some rare and modest beauties, which 

 are the more attractive because found only 

 after intelligent search. A great, gaunt, cumbrous 

 exterior tells all its story at a glance : you may 

 study it curiously in search of details, but there 

 is no hearty interest in the study. But a 

 humbler line of roof, so humble that we catch 

 sight bit by bit of its peeping gables, its jutting 

 porches, its low flanking line of offices— half 

 hid by shrubbery and half warmed by a blaze 

 of sunlight— this, somehow, by a certain 

 relishy smack of domesticity belonging to its 

 vague indistinguishable outline and scattered 

 chimney-stacks, piques all the home- feeling in 

 a man. 



A great house, whose picture we have seen in 

 the architectural books, we know ; and we ad- 



296 



