TO HOHENBURG AND KREUTH. 183 



possible for a tall man to do so ; but this is not necessary, 

 for when in the hut they are either sitting round the 

 stone hearth in the centre of the dwelling, cooking and 

 eating their meal, or else lying down on their bed of dry 

 leaves and straw. As there is no chimney in the roof, 

 nor any opening beside the door or window, all within 

 becomes in time quite black, as though the great logs 

 were charred by the flame. Yet in a storm, or at dusk, 

 the sight of such a poor place of shelter is greeted with 

 a heartier welcome than we ever bestowed on the most 

 luxurious hotel : its low door, as we push it open and see 

 the cheering blaze, seems then the portal of a palace. 



The dwellings in the mountainous parts of Bavaria are 

 also very different from those of the flat country : they 

 somewhat resemble the cottages of Switzerland, and, in 

 the same manner, harmonize remarkably with the sce- 

 nery amid which they are placed. So much indeed is 

 this the case, that for their particular style of architec- 

 ture the mountains seem a necessary background; the 

 two belong together : indeed the mountains are here as 

 necessary to complete their character, as the landscape 

 background is indispensable to the figures in the Peter 

 Martyr of Titian. 



Put any other building of brick or stone in these val- 

 leys, and the discord, so to speak, will be immediately 

 felt. As it is, the eye finds the gently-sloping lines of 

 the low roof — so low indeed that all its surface is discern- 

 ible — again repeated in the bolder outlines rising up into 

 the sky : there seems an affinity between them, and there 

 is just enough connection to make them component parts 

 of a well-ordered whole. 



The same feeling which guides a painter in the com- 

 position of his picture, which urges the removal of uncon- 

 genial forms, which strives after unity by the harmonious 



