58 RURAL ARCHITECTURE. 



paint the whole house plain drab, gives it very much the same dull 

 and insipid effect that colorless features (white hair, pale eyebrows, 

 lips, &c., &c.) do the face. A certain sprightliness is therefore al- 

 ways bestowed on a dwelling in a neutral tint, by painting the 

 bolder projecting features of a different shade. The simplest practi- 

 cal rule that we can suggest for effecting this, in the most satisfac- 

 tory and agreeable manner, is the following : Choose paint of some 

 neutral tint that is quite satisfactory, and let the facings of the win- 

 dows, cornices, &c., be painted several shades darker, of the same 

 color. The blinds may either be a still darker shade than the fa- 

 cings, or else the darkest green.* This variety of shades will give a 

 building a cheerful effect, when, if but one of the shades were em- 

 ployed, there would be a dulness and heaviness in the appearance 

 of its exterior. Any one who will follow the principles we have 

 suggested cannot, at least, fail to avoid the gross blunders in taste 

 which most common house-painters and their employers have so long 

 been in the habit of committing in the practice of painting country 

 houses. 



Uvedale Price justly remarked, that many people have a sort of 

 callus over their organs of light, as others over those of hearing ; 

 and as the callous hearers feel nothing in music but kettle-drums 

 and trombones, so the callous seers can only be moved by strong 

 opposition of black and white, or by fiery reds. There are, we may 

 add, many house-painters who appear to be equally benumbed to 

 any delicate sensation in shades of color. They judge of the beauty 

 of colors upon houses as they do in the raw pigment, and we verily 

 believe would be more gratified to paint every thing chrome yellow, 

 indigo blue, pure white, vermilion red, and the like, than with the 

 most fitting and delicate mingling of shades to be found under the 



* Thus, if the color of the house be that of Portland stone (a fawn shade), 

 let the window casings, cornices, etc. be painted a light brown, the color of 

 our common red freestone and make the necessary shade by mixing the re- 

 quisite quantity of brown with the color used in the body of the house. 

 There is an excellent specimen of this effect in the exterior of the Delavan 

 House, Albany. Very dark green is quite unobjectionable as a color for the 

 Venetian blitds, so much used in our country ras it is quite unobtrusive. 

 Bright greet is offensive to the eye, and vulgar and flashy in effect. 



