352 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



amore, into the history of the domestic life and habits of 

 those illustrious minds, will not, we are sure, forget that 

 lowly cottage by the side of the Avon, where the great 

 English bard was wont to dwell ; the tasteful residence 

 of Pope at Twickenham ; or the turrets and battlements 

 of the more picturesque Abbotsford; and numberless other 

 examples of the rural buildings of England, once the 

 abodes of renowned genius. In truth, the cottage and 

 villa architecture of the English has grown out of the 

 feelings and habits of a refined and cultivated people, 

 whose devotion to country life, and fondness for all its 

 pleasures, are so finely displayed in the beauty of their 

 dwellings, and the exquisite keeping of their buildings and 

 grounds. 



It is this love of rural life, and this nice feeling of 

 the harmonious union of nature and art, that reflects 

 so much credit upon the English as a people, and which, 

 sooner or later, we hope to see completely naturalized in 

 this country. Our rural residences, evincing that love of 

 the beautiful and the picturesque, which, combined with 

 solid comfort, is so attractive to the eye of every beholder, 

 will not only become sources of the purest enjoyment to 

 the refined minds of the possessors, but will exert an 

 influence for the improvement in taste of every class in 

 our community. The ambition to build " shingle palaces" 

 in starved and meagre grounds, we are glad to see giving 

 way to that more refined feeling which prefers a -neat villa 

 or cottage, tastily constructed, and surrounded by its proper 

 accessories, of greater or less extent, of verdant trees and 

 beautiful shrubbery. 



It is gratifying to see the progressive improvement in 

 Rural Architecture, which within a few years past has 

 evinced itself in various parts of the country, and par- 



