THE SEARCH AND FINDING. 17 



acres, in a thriving country town, two minutes' walk 

 from the post office, house forty by thirty-five, and ten 

 feet between joints, stages passing the door three times 

 a day, large apple trees in the yard newly grafted, and 

 the good will of a small grocery, upon the corner, to 

 be sold, if desired, with the goods, and healthy." 



Inadmissible, of course ; and the letter passed over 

 into the hat of my friend. Another letter, from a 

 widow lady, invited attention to the admired place 

 of her late husband : he had " an unusual taste for 

 country life, and had expended large sums in beauti- 

 fying the farm ; marble mantels throughout the 

 house, Gothic porticos, and some statuary about the 

 grounds. There was a gardener's cottage, and a far- 

 mer's house, as well as another small tenement for an 

 under-gardener, and twenty acres of land, of which 

 six in shrubbery and lawns." The architecture seemed 

 to me rather disproportionate to the land ; inadmis- 

 sible upon the whole, as a desirable place on which to 

 test the economies of a quiet farm-life. 



I can conceive of nothing so shocking to a hearty 

 lover of the country, as to live in the glare of another 

 man's architectural taste. In the city or the town 

 there are conventional laws of building, established 

 by custom, and by limitations of space, to which all 

 must in a large measure conform ; but with the width 

 of broad acres around one, I should chafe as much at 



