256 OUT-OF-TOWN PLACES. 



I know of nothing which an architect can do 

 better (in the way of illustrating his real artistic 

 capacity) than to take hold of one of those old, almost 

 uninhabitable country houses of forty years ago, and, 

 without violating its homeliness, graft upon it such 

 convenient addenda of rooms, porches, halls (gables, 

 possibly) as shall result in a charming homestead, 

 in which the old is forgotten in the new, and the 

 new made racy by a certain indefinable smack of the 

 old. 



For all such renovation, however, as I have hinted 

 at, stanch walls and sound timbers are essential pre- 

 requisites. If otherwise if the examining carpenter 

 can thrust his scratch-awl eight inches into the sills 

 if the posts have taken gradual settlement and the 

 ceiling shows gaping rents, any effective remodelling 

 must be of doubtful conomy. Of course there must 

 be a substitution of new sills, and a splicing of the 

 posts which will make even wider gaps in the ceiling. 

 Then comes the pleasant suggestion of the mater 

 familias that the mantels are awkward and must be 

 replaced by something new and tasteful. The adroit 

 mason, being called into consultation, decides that the 

 chimneys are hardly worth the change, and that a 

 renovation from top to bottom would give a large 

 addition of closet room. So the old chimneys come 

 down, with such dirt and breakage and necessary 



