232 RURAL ARCHITECTURE. 



penditure of that sum so indisputable, or which he will so com' 

 pletely realize the value of afterwards, as $10 or $20 worth of ad- 

 vice, with a few pen or pencil marks, to fix the ideas, upon paper, 

 from an architect of acknowledged taste and judgment. Whether 

 the house is to look awkward and ugly, or whether it is to be com- 

 fortable and pleasing for years, all depend upon the idea of that 

 house which previously exists in somebody's mind, either architect, 

 owner, or mechanic, whoever, in short, conceives what that house 

 shall be, before it becomes " a local habitation," or has any name 

 among other houses already born in the hitherto GRACELESS VIL- 

 LAGE. 



It is both surprising and pleasant, to one accustomed to watch 

 the development of the human soul, to see the gradual but certain 

 effect of building one really good and tasteful house in a graceless 

 village. Just as certain as there is a dormant spark of the love of 

 beauty, which underlays all natures extant, in that village, so certain 

 will it awaken at the sight of that house. You will hear nothing 

 about it ; or if you do, perhaps you may, at first, even hear all kinds 



of facetious comments on Mr. 's new house. But next year you 



will find the old mode abandoned by him who builds a new house. 

 He has a new idea ; he strives to make his dwelling manifest it ; 

 and this process goes on, till, by-and-by, you wonder what new 

 genius has so changed the aspect of this village, and turned its neg- 

 lected, bare, and lanky streets into avenues of fine foliage, and 

 streets of neat and tasteful houses. 



It is an old adage, that " a cobbler's family has no shoes." We 

 are forced to call the adage up for an explanation of the curious 

 fact, that in five villages out of six in the United States, there does 

 not appear to have been room enough in which properly to lay out 

 the streets or place the houses. Why, on a continent so broad that 

 the mere public lands amount to an area of fifty acres for every 

 man, woman, and child, in the commonwealth, there should not be 

 found space sufficient to lay out country towns, so that the streets 

 shall be wide enough for avenues, and the house-lots broad enough 

 to allow sufficient trees and shrubbery to give a little privacy and 

 seclusion, is one of the unexplained phenomena in the natural his- 

 tory of our continent, which, along with the boulders and glaciers, 



