RURAL ARCHITECTURE. 333 



ino- of some trees ; the cautious pruning of others ; the nice 

 distribution of flowers and plants of tender and graceful fol- 

 iage; the introduction of a green slope of velvet turf; the 

 partial opening to a peep of blue distance, or silver gleam 

 of water, — all these are managed with a delicate tact, a per- 

 vading, yet quiet assiduity, like the magic touchings with 

 which a painter finishes up a favourite picture." 



"The residence of people of fortune and refinement in the 

 country, has diftlised a degree of taste and elegance that de- 

 scends to the lowest class. The very labourer, with his 

 thatched cottage and narrow slip of ground, attends to their 

 embellishment. The trim hedge, the grass-plot before the 

 door, the little flower bed, bordered with snug box, the wood- 

 bine trained up against the wall, and hanging its blossoms 

 about the lattice ; the pot of flowers in the window ; the 

 holly providentially planted about the house to cheat winter 

 of its dreariness, and to throw in a semblance of green sum- 

 mer to cheat the fireside ; — all these bespeak the influence 

 of taste flowing down from high sources, and pervading the 

 lowest levels of the public mind. If ever love, as the poets 

 sing, delights to visit a cottage, it must be the cottage of an 

 English peasant." 



It is this love of rural life and this nice feeling; of the har- 

 monious union of nature and art, that reflects so much credit 

 upon the English as a people, and, which sooner or later we 

 hope to see naturalized in this country. Under its enchant- 

 ing influence, the too great bustle and excitement of our 

 commercial cities would be happily counterbalanced by the 

 more elegant and quiet enjoyments of country life. Our ru- 

 ral residences, evincing that love of the beautiful and the 

 picturesque, which, combined with solid comfort, is so attrac- 

 tive to the eye of every beholder, would not only become 



