RURAL ARCHITECTURE. 319 



question in its greatest purity. For domestic purposes, both, 

 for the same reasons, are equally unfitted ; as they were never 

 so intended to be used by their original inventors, and 

 as also, in themselves, they are unfitted for the purposes of 

 habitation in domestic life ; the Greek temple, as we have 

 already shown, from its massive porticoes, and the simple 

 rectangular form of its interior, and the Gothic cathedral, 

 from its high-pointed windows, and immense vaulted apart- 

 ments. It would scarcely, however, we think, be more ab- 

 surd to build a miniature cathedral for a dwelling in the 

 Gothic style, than to make an exact copy of the Temple of 

 Minerva for a country residence, 30 by 50 feet in size, as we 

 often witness in this country. 



The Gothic Style, as applied to Domestic Architecture, 

 has been varied and adapted in a great diversity of ways, to 

 the wants of society in different periods, from the 12th cen- 

 tury to the present time. The baronial castle, of feudal days, 

 perched upon its solitary, almost inaccessible height, and 

 built strongly for defence ; the collegiate or monastic abbey 

 of the monks, suited to the rich fertile plains which these 

 jolly ascetics so well knew how to select ; the Tudor and 

 Elizabethan mansion, of the English gentleman, surrounded 

 by beautiful parks, filled with old ancestral trees ; and the 

 pretty rural gabled cottage, of the humblest pretensions, are 

 all varieties of this multiform style, easily adapting itself to 

 the comforts and conveniences of private life. 



Contrasted with Classic Architecture and its varieties, in 

 which horizontal lines are most prevalent, all the different 

 Gothic modes or styles, exhibit a preponderance of vertical 

 or perpendicular lines. In the purer Gothic Architecture, 

 the style is often determined by the form of the arch predom- 

 inant in the window and door openings, which in all edi- 



