270 OUT-OF-TOWN PLACES. 



viduality of the occupant, and is invested with a 

 homely yet cheery quietude this we admire with a 

 livelier interest. 



If, however, economy in the use of stone for do- 

 mestic purposes demands comparatively low walls, it 

 need not cheat us wholly of our chambers. A French 

 roof, with great perpendicularity to its first pitch, 

 will give airy height for upper rooms and ample 

 ventilating space above ; and such a roof, slated in 

 diamond pattern, will contrast admirably with the 

 natural surfaces of the boulders below, and the 

 irregular lines of mortar. 



Again, I do not know anything in the laws of 

 taste, apart from conventionalisms, to which we all 

 yield so implicitly, which would forbid the placing 

 of an upper story of wooden construction upon a 

 ground-story of stone. The idea may be shocking at 

 first, but I ask the reader to fancy for a moment an 

 irregular mass of honest stone building of the height 

 and simplicity I have suggested, pierced with win- 

 dows of irregular proportions (just where needed 

 for the best light). Next imagine a wooden structure 

 of a story in height, with simple sharp pent roof, 

 relieved by a gable half down its length, placed upon 

 the stone overhanging it if you please by a foot in 

 width and length, with its floor timbers rounded into 

 the shape of supporting corbels ; then imagine here 



