vn. 



ON SIMPLE RURAL COTTAGES. 



September, 1846. 



THE simple rural cottage, or the Working Man's Cottage, deserves 

 some serious consideration, and we wish to call the attention 

 of our readers to it at this moment. The pretty suburban cottage, 

 and the ornamented villa, are no longer vague and rudimentary 

 ideas in the minds of our people. The last five years have produced 

 in the environs of all our principal towns, in the Eastern and Middle 

 States, some specimens of tasteful dwellings of this class, that would 

 be considered beautiful examples of rural architecture in any part 

 of the world. Our attention has been called to at least a dozen 

 examples lately, of rural edifices, altogether charming and in the 

 best taste. 



In some parts of the country, the inhabitants of the suburbs of 

 towns appear, indeed, almost to have a mania on the subject of or- 

 namental cottages. Weary of the unfitness and the uncouthness of 

 the previous models, and inspired with some notions of rural Gothic, 

 they have seized it with a kind of frenzy, and carpenters, distracted 

 with verge-boards and gables, have, in some cases, made sad work 

 of the picturesque. Here and there we see a really good and well- 

 proportioned ornamental dwelling. But almost in the immediate 

 neighborhood of it, soon spring up tasteless and meagre imitations, 

 the absurdity of whose effect borders upon a caricature. 



Notwithstanding this deplorably bad taste, rural architecture is 

 making a progress in the United States that is really wonderful. 

 Among the many failures in cottages, there are some very success- 



