MR. URBAN AND A CO UNTR Y HO USE. 269 



A great house, whose picture we have seen in the 

 architectural books, we know ; and we admire it 

 coldly, if we admire it at all. But a lesser one less 



beautiful, possibly, judged by the conventional laws of 

 the art * whose quaint assemblage of modest peaks 

 and outlying offices seems to shadow forth the indi- 



* Since the first publication of this book, old conventional- 

 isms in all that relates to country houses have been largely 

 upset. There is now to be seen a variety and a freedom of 

 treatment which would have astonished and bewildered the 

 builders of twenty years ago : it is not too late, however, to 

 speak an approving word for those modest exteriors, which 

 win by reason of their modesties. 



