330 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



ty, and harmonious in connection with the surrounding 

 forms of vegetation. To be happily situated, a Grecian 

 villa must have a well chosen locality and vegetation of pe- 

 culiar forms. Its square masses and horizontal lines, even 

 then, unite badly with those of surrounding nature. But the 

 Rural Gothic, the lines of which point upwards, in the pyra- 

 midal'gables, tall clusters of chimneys, finials, and the several 

 other portions of its varied outline, harmonizes easily with 

 the tall trees, the tapering masses of foliage, or the surround- 

 ing hills : and while it is seldom or never misplaced in 

 rural scenery, it gives character and picturesque expression 

 to many landscapes' entirely devoid of that quality. 



What we have already said in speaking of the Italian style, 

 respecting the facility with which additions may be made to 

 irregular houses, applies with equal, or even greater force, to 

 thQ varieties of the Gothic style, just described. From the 

 very fact that the highest beauty of these modes of building 

 arises from their irregularity, (opposed to Grecian architec- 

 ture, which in its simplicity, must be regular,) it is evident 

 that additions judiciously made, will tend to increase this 

 beauty, or afford more facility for its display; while it is 

 equally evident that in the interior arrangement, including 

 apartments of every description, superior opportunities are 

 afforded for studying internal comfort and convenience, as 

 well as external effect. 



The ideas connected in our minds with Gothic architec- 

 ture are of a highly romantic and poetical nature, contrasted 

 with the classical associations which the Greek and Roman 

 styles suggest. Although our own country is nearly destitute 

 of ruins, and ancient time-worn edifices, yet the literature of 

 Europe, and particularly of what we term the mother coun- 

 try, is so much our own, that we form a kind of delightful 



