414 Reviews. — Cottage Residences; or a 



REVIEWS. 



Art. I. Cottage Residences; or a series of Designs for Ru- 

 ral Cottages and Cottage Villas, and their gardens and 

 grounds: adapted to J\'orth America. By A.J. Down- 

 ing, author of a treatise on Landscape Gardening, lllus- 

 tiated by numerous engravings. 1 vol., Svo., 187 pp. 

 New York: 1842. 



We some time since announced the appearance of this 

 volume, and we congratulate the author upon the very excel- 

 lent manner in which the work is executed. 



The cottage and villa architecture of this country is full of 

 defects, and needs the aid of a reforming hand, before the ex- 

 amples of bad taste shall become so geneial that such aid will 

 be of little avail in correcting them. It is in the infiincy of 

 the art that works like Mr. Downing's are needed, to form 

 and mould a true architectural taste among the peo])]e, that 

 they may be able to appreciate that which is beautiful and per- 

 fect, in preference to that which is common, and without form. 



We need not, however, enter into any argument to show how 

 acceptable, at this time, is such a work as the one at the head 

 of this article: an extract from the preface will show^ with what 

 spirit the author takes up the subject, and the motive which 

 induced him to prepare the volume. 



A hearty desire to contribute something to the improvement of the 

 domestic architecture and the rural taste of our country, has been the 

 motive which has influenced me in preparing this little volume. With 

 lis, almost every man either builds, or looks forward to building, a 

 house for himself, at some period of life; it may be only a log hut, or, 

 at most, a rustic cottage, but perhaps also a villa, or a mansion. As 

 yet, however, they are mostly of the plainest and most meagre de- 

 scription, or, if of a more ambitious, they are frequently of a more 

 objectionable character — shingle palaces of very questionable conve- 

 nience, and not in the least adajited, by their domestic and rural 

 beauty, to harmonize with our lively natural landscape. 



Now 1 am desirous that every one who lives in the country, and in 

 a country house, should be in some degree conversant with domestic 

 architecture, not only because it will be likely to improve the comfort 

 of his own house, and hence all the houses of the country, but that it 

 will enlarge his mind, and give him new sources of enjoyment. 



It is not my especial object, at this moment, to dwell upon the su- 

 perior convenience which may be realized in our houses by a more 



