§ 10S, 109. ELIZABETHAN HOUSES. 



345 



houses which have so many claims on our admiration ; and a 

 parapet wall is often added, which has the injurious effect of 

 confining the snow between it and the roof, requiring men to 

 be sent up to clear it away, and often making the house clamp 

 and leaky.] Here the notion of adding an ornamental feature 

 is an erroneous one ; for besides the inconsistency of surround- 

 ing the roof of any house by a parapet, to collect the snow 

 and leaves, which clog the gutters, the roof loses one of its 

 most beautiful and characteristic features, — the overhanging 

 eaves, which are capable of the most effective treatment, as 

 in the Palazzo Farnese and other buildings, where the roof is 

 in its proper place, at the top of the house, and where no 

 attempt is made to hide what ought to contribute to its 

 beauty. False pretences and concealment are contrary to 

 sound principles and common sense; and the difficulty of 

 getting rid of the flow of water from the roof is merely an 

 excuse. 



109. The character of our Elizabethan houses was certainly 

 better adapted to our climate than that which Dutch taste 

 afterwards brought in ; when bald neatness was mistaken for 

 simplicity. It was also preferable to those styles, in which low 

 or fiat roofs are an essential feature ; and which are ill suited 

 to a country where rain and snow abound. In reality, a high- 

 pitched roof is cooler in summer and warmer in winter than a 

 flat one ; and it would be more reasonable to adopt the high 

 roof in a hot climate than the flat roof in the north. I do 

 not, however, in my praise of Elizabethan houses, include that 

 part of the Elizabethan style which displayed the debased 

 classical column, and other imperfections of the 

 Eenaissance. I speak of the general form and | ^ r 

 arrangement of our Elizabethan country houses, *» 



CI 



when the rooms are of sufficient height, and the 



ends (a, a,) are not so narrow and prominent as to look poor, 



and to make their rooms cold in winter. 



