MR. URBAN AND A CO UNTR Y HO USE. 267 



tion of country life lies in the possession of space : no 

 brick wall flanks your rear ; no neighbor's area lies 

 under your dining-room windows ; ample stretch of 

 ground for all architectural fancies surrounds and in- 

 vites you. Why not improve it ? Does character 

 lie in tallness ? The old Romans those luxurious 

 comfort-seekers understood the charm that lay in a 

 cubiculum, if not a dormitorium on the first floor ; and 

 with a door half open (such doors as they had) they 

 might go to sleep, lulled by the tinkle of a fountain 

 in the hall. I don't think any of Pliny's villas were 

 as high as those of a great many (in sight from my 

 door) who don't know whether he was Greek or 

 Chinaman. 



Of course we don't want, in this age of the worldj 

 to take oar building fancies from the dead men of 

 Pompeii or of Tusculum ; and I have only interpo- 

 lated this allusion to show that a man's dignity is not 

 necessarily measured by the height of the house he 

 lives in. All the strong, robber classes of the world, 

 whenever they have lived in houses, have, I think, 

 inclined to tall ones. Such were those German 

 barons who perched their eyries along the Rhine, 

 and the thievish borderers by the Tweed who have 

 left us such precious specimens as " Johnny Arm- 

 strong's Tower." On the other hand, the domesticity 

 of the old Saxons expressed itself in low, wide- 



