WAY-SIDE HINTS. 105 



down, with blue and yellow and green glass, in most 

 irritating conjunction. I do not know that I would 

 absolutely advise the building of those ancient divided 

 doors with their diamond " lights ; " but wherever 

 they show their quaint faces, looking out tranquilly 

 upon the clash and turmoil of our latter half of the 

 century, I would certainly cherish them ; or if I hung a 

 porch over them, it would be such a one as should be 

 in keeping with their quaintness, and yet offer all 

 promise which a sensible porch should offer of 

 shelter and rest. There is a village I never pass 

 through but I ache to clap over one or more of its 

 old-time doors (now battling without vestige of roof- 

 let, with sun and rain) some such quaint, overhang- 

 ing beacon of hospitality as I have pictured ; I am 

 sure the houses would take on a double homeliness, 

 and I should think of all the inmates as growing 

 thenceforth, every day, more kindly, and every day 

 mellower in their charities. 



I next give a sketch of a little stone porch, which, 

 if I do not mistake, is taken from some stone cottage 

 in Cumberland County, England. It belongs, certain- 

 ly, by its whole air and by its arrangement, to a 

 country where stones of good, straight-splitting qual- 

 ity (such as gneiss) are plentiful, and are used for 

 unpretending cottage architecture. It would seem to 

 have pertained to a house of very modest character 

 5* 



