400 OLD HOUSES. 



extending almost to the ground, is seen half protected by 

 the drooping branches of a venerable elm. A Virginia 

 creeper hangs in careless festoons around the low win- 

 dows, and a white rose-bush grows luxuriantly over the 

 plain board fence that encloses the garden. The house 

 stands a few rods back from the road, and is surrounded 

 in front and on one side by an extensive grass-plat, neatly 

 shorn by the grazing animals while sauntering on their 

 return from pasture. An old barn is near ; and the flocks 

 and the poultry seem to enjoy an amount of comfort 

 which we might look for in vain in the vicinity of a 

 more ornate dwelling-house. 



There is an appearance of comfort and freedom about 

 this old house that renders it a pleasing object to almost 

 every eye. No one can see it without calling to mind the 

 old-fashioned people whom we always suppose to be its 

 occupants. About it and around it we see no evidences 

 of that constraint to which the in-dwellers and visitors 

 of some more fashionable houses must be doomed. The 

 exterior is associated with its interior arrangements, no 

 less than with the scenes around it. We see, in the 

 mind's eye, the wide entry into which the front door 

 opens, the broad and angular staircase, the window in 

 the upper entry, that looks out upon a rustic landscape 

 dotted with fruit-trees, and patches of ploughed land 

 alternating with green meadow. By the side of the stair- 

 case, on the lower floor, stands an ancient clock, whose 

 loud striking and slow stroke of the pendulum are asso- 

 ciated with the old style of low-studded rooms. Perhaps 

 by studying the cause of the pleasant emotions with 

 which we contemplate this old house, we may arrive 

 at the knowledge of a principle that may be turned to 

 advantage in regulating our own and the public taste. 



The charm of these old houses, which are marked by 

 neatness and plainness, and by an absence of all preten- 



