WAY-SIDE HINTS. 101 



sided over by that wonderful host who so quickened 

 the story-telling humors of the Canterbury pilgrims 

 of Master Chaucer ? 



Then again, in our time, if one were to peel away 

 the verandas and the exterior corridors from our vast 

 watering-place hostelries, what an arid baldness of 

 wall and of character would be left ! All sentiment, 

 all glowing memories, all the music of girlish foot- 

 falls, all echoes of laughter and banter and rollicking 

 mirth, and tenderly uttered vows would be gone. 



King David, when he gave out to his son Solomon 

 the designs for the building of the Temple, included 

 among the very first of them (1 Chron. xxviii. 11) 

 the " pattern of a porch." It is not, however, of 

 porches of shittim-wood and of gold that I mean to 

 talk just now nor even of those elaborate architec- 

 tural features which will belong of necessity to the 

 entrance-way of every complete study of a countiy 

 house. I plead only for some little mantling hood 

 about every exterior door-way, however humble. 



There are hundreds of naked, vulgar-looking 

 dwellings, scattered up and down our country high- 

 roads, which only need a little deft and adroit adap- 

 tation of the hospitable feature which I have made 

 the subject of this paper, to assume an air of modest 

 grace, in place of the present indecorous exposure of 

 a wanton. 



