256 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



of a very artificial character ; but even these additional ac- 

 cessories, simple as they may seem, often produce an effect 

 singularly beautiful, which shows how much in real land- 

 scape, as well as in painting, depends upon a few finishing 

 touches to the scene. 



Although we are not now writing of buildings, it may 

 not be inappropriate here to remark how much may be done 

 in the country, and indeed even in town, by using vines 

 and creepers to decorate buildings. The cottage in this 

 country, (except in some parts of the eastern states,) rarely 

 conveys the idea of comfort and happiness which we wish 

 to attach to such a habitation, and chiefly because it stands 

 so often bleak, solitary, and exposed to every ray of our 

 summer sun, with a scanty robe of foliage to shelter it. How 

 different such edifices, however humble, become when the 

 porch is overhung with climbing plants, — when the blush- 

 ing rose-buds peep in at the window sill, or the ripe purple clus- 

 ters of the grape hang down about the eaves, those who have 

 seen the better cottages of England, well know. Very little 

 care and very trifling expense, will procure all the addition- 

 al beauty ; and it is truly wonderful how much so little once 

 done, adds to the happiness of the inmates. Every man 

 feels prouder of his home, when it is a pleasant spot for the 

 eye to rest upon, than when it is situated in a desert, or over- 

 grown with weeds. Besides this, tasteful embellishment has 

 a tendency to refine the feelings of every member of the fami- 

 ly ; and every leisure hour spent in rendering more lovely 

 and agreeable even the humblest cottage, is infinitely better 

 employed than in lounging about in idle and useless dissipa- 

 tion. 



