260 OUT-OF-TOWN PLACES. 



other material than wood. Yet I venture to suggest, 

 (and shall urge as I best can,) that in a country where 

 stones abound, and they abound in most of the 

 Eastern States, they furnish the most fit material, 

 and their use will subserve a higher if not a more 

 immediate economy. 



Let me test, one by one, the objections which are 

 commonly urged against buildings for home purposes, 

 of stone. 



First, on the score of appearance : There are 

 those who object to the rough and unbecoming par- 

 ticolored surface of a house of stone who believe 

 that a " handsome house " (a most destestable collo- 

 cation of words) must have smooth exteriors, and 

 submit to the finical niceties of the painters. This, 

 indeed, is a question of taste, in which all ordinary 

 reasoning is adrift. It certainly seems to me that 

 the real beauty of a country house depends not so 

 much upon nice finish of surface as upon outline, and 

 the agreement of its general tone of color with the 

 surrounding landscape. No tint, surely, can be more 

 agreeable than that of our sand-stones, and the yellow 

 ochreous stain which belongs to the old cleavage of 

 the trap-rock is as rich as that of the quarries of 

 Caen. Then there is the lichened surface of a world 

 of scattered boulders their fresh bright cleavage 

 with its spangles of mica, or the homely brown 



