OUT-OF-TOWN PLACES 



harmonize with the stone, and the battens of 

 whitish gray to harmonize with the mortar 

 Hnes below. The professional men might call 

 this very inelegant; but I am not sure that 

 strict artistic elegance is the best quality for 

 a home in the country. The best qualities in 

 it will be those that call out most promptly a 

 man's sense of domesticity — that suggest easy 

 comfort, ample room, odd loitering nooks, in- 

 definite play of fire-light and lamp-light, wide 

 and unpretentious hospitality. Above all 

 things a country house, to have its best charm, 

 must look livable. I use an exceptionable 

 word, but I think readers will catch my mean- 

 ing. The mere suggestion— such as tightly- 

 closed shutters will give — of rooms kept for 

 show, barred for weeks and months against 

 light and air, will ruin its charm. Its walls, 

 windows, roof, chimneys, must beam with 

 cheeriness. Its porch must nod a welcome. 

 A terrier frisking through a half-opened door, 

 a cat dozing on a balcony, a dove swooping 

 round the gable, will lend more charms by odds 

 than carefully swept gravel and a statue of 

 Diana on the lawn. There must be no stiff 

 pairing of circle against circle, or of hanging 

 basket against hanging basket — above all, no 

 such execrable tom- foolery as iron dogs or 



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