OLD HOUSES. 405 



Let us not, in our zeal for rearing something beautiful, 

 overlook the effect of these venerable relics of the more 

 simple mode of life that prevailed fifty years since. Let 

 us not mistake mere glitter for beauty, nor the prompt- 

 ings of vanity for those of taste. Let us beware, lest in 

 our passion for improvement, without a rational aim, we 

 banish simplicity from the old farm, and allow fashion to 

 usurp the throne of Nature in her own groves. Far dis- 

 tant be the time when the less familiar birds of our forest 

 are compelled to retire beyond the confines of our villages, 

 and when the red-thrush is heard only in a few solitary 

 places, mourning over that barbarous art which has de- 

 stroyed every green thicket of native shrubbery, where 

 alone she makes her haunts. This rage for foreign 

 shrubbery is fatal to the birds, each species being depen- 

 dent on certain native trees and shrubs for subsistence 

 and protection. By eradicating every native coppice, and 

 planting exotics in their place, we may as effectually ban- 

 ish the thrushes, and many other species of warblers, from 

 our territories as by constantly shooting them. 



Another style of old houses is a square with a hipped 

 roof, usually of two stories. This is a little more pre- 

 tentious than the others I have described, arid is more 

 frequently seen with an ornamental fence in front, after 

 the present fashion. Hence it is less attractive than 

 some of the more primitive houses. A more pleasing 

 style is a nearly square building of one story, with a 

 curb roof, having the front door at the extreme end of 

 the front, and a vestibule on one side, formed by ex- 

 tending the rear half of the house a few feet, with only 

 half a roof, making the door in the vestibule and the 

 front door face the same way. Modern improvers say 

 . there is no beauty in these old houses. As well might 

 they say there is no beauty in an old tree, unless it is 

 nicely trimmed and whitewashed. More charming to 



