220 RURAL ARCHITECTURE. 



our late work on Country Houses. We even went so far as to give 

 a few examples of farm-houses studiously made simple and rural in 

 character, though not without a certain beauty of expression befit- 

 ting their locality, and the uses to which they were destined. But, 

 judging from some criticisms on these farm-houses in one of the 

 western papers, we believe it will not be an easy task to convince 

 the future proprietors of farm-houses and rural cottages, that truth- 

 ful simplicity is better than borrowed decorations, in their country 

 homes. Our critic wonders why farmers should not be allowed to 



/ live in as handsome houses (confounding mere decorations with 



beauty) as any other class of our citizens, if they can afford it and 

 claims for them the use of the most ornamental architecture in their 

 farm-houses. We have only to answer to this, that the simplest ex- 

 pression of beauty which grows out of a man's life, ranks higher 

 for him than the most elaborate one borrowed from another's life 

 or circumstances. We will add, by way of illustration, that there 

 is no moral or political objection, that we know, of a farmer's wear- 

 ing a general's uniform in his corn-fields, if he likes it better than 

 plain clothes ; but to our mind, his costume undoubtedly hand- 

 somer in the right place would be both absurd and ugly, behind 

 the harrow. 



We are glad to find, however, that our feeling of the folly of 

 this exaggerated pretension in cottage architecture, is gradually 

 finding its expression in other channels of the public press a sure 

 sign that it will eventually take hold of public opinion. The fol- 

 lowing satire on the taste of the day in this overloaded style of 

 " carpenter's gothic," from the pen of one of the wittiest and clever- 

 est of American poets, has lately appeared (as part of a longer satire 

 on another subject), in one of our popular magazines. But it is too 

 good to be lost sight of by our readers, and we recommend it to a 

 second perusal. A thought or two upon its moral, as applied to 

 the taste of the country, will help us on most essentially in this, our 



v experimental age of architecture. 



