RURAL ARCHITECTURE. 307 



" First unadorned 



And nobly plain, the manly Doric rose ; 

 The Ionic then with decent matron grace 

 Her airy pillar heaved ; luxuriant last 

 The rich Corinthian spread her wonton wreath." 



A single or double portico of columns supporting a lofty- 

 pediment, the latter connected with the main body of the 

 building, which in nearly all cases was a simple paralello- 

 gram, constituted the principal features characteristic of the 

 pure Grecian architecture. And this very simplicity of form 

 united with the chasteness of decoration, and elegance of pro- 

 portion, enhanced greatly the beauty of the Grecian temple 

 as a whole. 



To the scholar and the man of refined and cultivated mind, 

 the associations connected with Grecian architecture are of 

 the most delightful character. They transport him back, in 

 imagination, to those choice days of classic literature and art, 

 when the disciples of the wisest and best of Athens, listened 

 to eloquent discourses that were daily delivered from her 

 grove-embowered porticoes. When her temples were de- 

 signed by a Phidias, and her architecture encouraged and 

 patronized by a Pericles ; when, in short, all the splendour of 

 Pagan mythology, and the wisdom of Greek philosophy were 

 combined to perfect the arts and sciences of that period, and 

 the temples, dedicated to the olympian Jove or the stately 

 Minerva, were redolent with that beauty, which the Greeks 

 worshipped, studied, and so well knew how to embody in 

 material forms. 



As it is admitted, then, that Grecian architecture is intrinsi- 

 cally beautiful in itself, and highly interesting in point of 

 associations, it may be asked what are the objections, if any, 

 to its common introduction into domestic Rural Architecture. 



To this we answer, that although this form, fig. 24, is actu- 



