RURAL ARCHITECTURE. 297 



or later felt, of every man : excepting only those wandering 

 sons of Ishmael, who pitch their tents with the same indiffer- 

 ence, and as little desire to remain fixed, in the flowery plains 

 of Persia, as in the sandy deserts of Zahara or Arabia. 



In a city or town, or its immediate vicinity, where space 

 is limited, where buildings stand crowded together, and de- 

 pend for their attractions entirely upon the style and manner 

 of their constniciiorl, mere architectural effect, after conven- 

 ience and fitness are consulted, is of course the only point to 

 be kept in view. There the facade which meets the eye of 

 the spectator from the public street, is enriched and made at- 

 tractive by the display of architectural style and decoration; 

 commensurate to the magnitude or importance of the edifice, 

 and the whole, so far as the effect of the building is concerned, 

 comes directly within the province of the architect alone. 



With respect to this class of dwellings, we have little com- 

 plaint to make, for many of our town residences are highly 

 elegfant and beautiful. But how shall we desiornate that siu£ru- 

 lar perversity of taste, or rather that total want of it. which 

 prompts the man, who. under the name of a villa residence, 

 piles up in the free open coimtry, amid the green fields, and 

 beside the wanton gracefulness of luxuriant nature, a stiff 

 modern 'three story brick,' which, like a well bred cockney 

 with a true horror of the country, doggedly seems to refuse 

 to enter into harmonious combination with any other object 

 in the scene, but only serves to call up the exclamation, 



Avaunt stiff pile ! why did'st thou stray 

 From blocks congenial in Broadway! 



Yet almost daily we see built up in the country huge com- 

 binations of boards and shingles, without the least attempts at 

 adaptation to situation ; and square masses of brick start up 



3S 



