RURAL ARCHITECTURE. 317 



this Style of architecture, combine to render it in the fine ter- 

 raced gardens of Florence and other parts of Italy, one of 

 the richest and most attractive styles in existence. Indeed 

 we can hardly imagine a mode of building, which in the 

 hands of a man of wealth and taste, could in this country be 

 made productive of more beauty, convenience, and luxury, 

 than the modern Italian style; so well suited to both our hot 

 summers and cold winters, and which is so easily suscep- 

 tible of enrichment and decoration, while it is at the same 

 time so well adapted to the material in the most common use 

 at present in most parts of the country, wood. Yases, and 

 other beautiful architectural ornaments, may now be pro- 

 cured in our cities, or may be imported direct from the Med- 

 iterranean, finely cut in Maltese stone, at very moderate 

 prices, and both the grounds and buildings be ornamented in 

 an exquisite manner. 



Gothic, or more properly, pointed a7'chitecture, which 

 sprung up with the Christian religion, reached a point of 

 great perfection about the thirteenth century ; a period when 

 the most magnificent churches and cathedrals of England 

 and Germany were erected. These wonderful structures, 

 reared by an almost magical skill and contrivance, with all 

 their richly groined roofs of stone, supported in mid-air, 

 their beautiful and elaborate tracery and carving of plants, 

 flowers, and animate objects, their large windows, through 

 which streamed a rich glow of rainbow light, their various 

 buttresses and pinnacles, all contributing to strengthen, and 

 at the same time give additional beauty to the exterior, their 

 clustered columns, airy-like, yet firm ; and surmounting the 

 whole, the tall spire, piled up to an almost fearful height 

 toward the heavens, are lasting monuments of the genius, 

 scientific skill, and mechanical ingenuity of the artists of 



