226 RURAL ARCHITECTURE. 



day see perpetrated by people who come from town, and who, we 

 are bound to say, are far from always being cockneys ; but who, 

 nevertheless, unthinkingly perpetrate these ever to be condemned 

 cockneyisms. Among them, we may enumerate, as illustrations, 

 building large houses, only to shut up the best rooms and live in 

 the basement ; placing the first stoiy so high as to demand a long 

 flight of steps to get into the front door ; placing the dining-room 

 below stairs, when there is abundant space on the first floor ; using 

 the iron railings of street doors in town to porches and piazzas in 

 the country ; arranging suites of parlors with folding doors, precisely 

 like a town house, where other and far more convenient arrange- 

 ments could be made ; introducing plate glass windows, and ornate 

 stucco cornices in cottages of moderate size and cost; building 

 large parlors for display, and small bed-rooms for daily use ; placing 

 the house so near the street (with acres of land in the rear) as to 

 destroy all seclusion, and secure all possible dust ; and all the 

 hundred like expedients, for producing the utmost effect in *a small 

 space in town, which are wholly unnecessary and uncalled for in the 

 country. 



We remember few things more unpleasant than to enter a cock- 

 ney house in the country. As the highest ideal of beauty in the 

 mind of its owner is to reproduce, as nearly as possible, a fac-simile 

 of a certain kind of town house, one is distressed with the entire 

 want of fitness and appropriateness in every thing it contains. The 

 furniture is all made for display, not for use ; and between a pro- 

 fusion of gilt ornaments, embroidered white satin chairs, and other 

 like finery, one feels that one has no rest for the sole of his foot. 



We do not mean, by these remarks, to have it understood that 

 we do not admire really beautiful, rich and tasteful furniture, or 

 ornaments and decorations belonging to the interior and exterior of 

 houses in the country. But we only admire them when they are 

 introduced in the right manner and the right place. In a country 

 house of large size a mansion of the first class where there are 

 rooms in abundance for all purposes, and where a feeling of comfort, 

 luxury, and wealth, reigns throughout, there is no reason why the 

 most beautiful and highly finished decorations should not be seen 

 in its drawing-room or saloon, always supposing them to be taste- 



