58 HOW TO LIVE IN THE COUNTRY 



the land can afford a good, broad, hearty veranda, 

 ten feet deep, and breasting at least two sides of 

 the house only I am going to talk about this more 

 fully very soon. 



When we come to the better sort of country 

 houses, they lack independence; have no character 

 of their own ; are patched up of notions that have de- 

 veloped mainly in the crowd. The old-fashioned 

 New England house was borrowed of old England 

 and it never got over a foreign aspect. It would 

 have been a good deal better if these Puritan Fathers 

 of ours had imitated the Indians. Then about 1850 

 there came in a touch of scholarship, in the way of 

 Greek porticos and big pillars, supposed to be Doric 

 and Ionic. What in the world had we Yankee pio- 

 neers, shoving our way through the wilderness, to do 

 with Greek temples? 



These borrowed houses were not usable by their 

 tenants. The parlor was shut up most of the time, 

 until the Family Bible and hair-cloth sofa were 

 equally musty. The verandas or porches were just 

 big enough to be uncomfortable and practically use- 

 less. Soon after observatories were built on the 

 roofs, but who had time to go up there to look out? 

 Nobody did go but spiders and flies. Meanwhile 

 architecture underwent another change and out on 

 the hillsides we began to build copies of city houses 

 in brick; and these were put up as conspicuously as 

 possible, for people to look at when they ought to 



