228 RURAL ARCHITECTURE. 



into harmony ; the furniture with the house, the house with the 

 grounds, and all with the life of its inmates. This cottage, we need 

 scarcely say, struck all who entered it with a pleasure more real and 

 enduring than that of any costly mansion in the land. The plea 

 sure arose from the feeling that all was significant ; that the cottage, 

 its arrangement, its furniture, and its surroundings, were all in 

 keeping with the country, with each other and with their uses ; and 

 that no cockneyisms, no imitations of city splendor, had violated 

 the simplicity and modesty of the country. 



There must with us be progress in all things ; and an American 

 cannot but be proud of the progress of taste in this country. But 

 as a great portion of the improvements, newly made in the country, 

 are made by citizens, and not unfrequently by citizens whose time 

 has been so closely occupied with business, that they have had no 

 opportunity to cultivate a taste for rural matters, it is not surprising 

 that we should continually see transplanted, as unexceptionable 

 things, the ideas in houses, furniture, and even in gardens, which 

 have been familiar to them in cities. 



As, however, it is an indisputable axiom, that there are laws of 

 taste which belong to the country and country life, quite distinct 

 from those which belong to town, the citizen always runs into cock- 

 neyisms when he neglects these laws. And what we would gladly 

 insist upon, therefore, is that it is only what is appropriate and 

 significant in the country, (or what is equally so in town and 

 country,) that can be adopted, without insulting the natural grace 

 and freedom of umbrageous trees and green lawns. 



He who comes from a city, and wishes to build himself a 

 country-seat, would do well to forget all that he considers the stand- 

 ard of excellence in houses and furniture in town, (and which are, 

 perhaps, really excellent there,) and make a pilgrimage of inspection 

 to the best country houses, villas and cottages, with their grounds, 

 before he lays a stone in his foundation walls, or marks a curve of 

 his walks. If he does this, he will be certain to open his eyes to 

 the fact, that, though there are good models in town, for town life, 

 there are far better models in the country, for country life. 



