260 General Results of a Gardening Tour: — 



mullions, or broad upright and cross divisions of the window, 

 must impede the entrance of light. Gothic windows are also, 

 as they are generally constructed in cottages, less air-tight, 

 and the mode of giving air by them is much less convenient, 

 than that by the common suspended and balanced sash win- 

 dows. The reason of these sins against fitness, in cottages 

 pretending to the beauty of architectural style, may be thus 

 given: — The general character of a cottage, as distinguished 

 from that of dwellings of a higher class, is considered by 

 architects to consist in low walls, and, of course, low ceil- 

 ings ; small windows, broad rather than high ; and conspi- 

 cuous roofs, generally with windows in their sides. We 

 admit, that, taking cottages as they are usually constructed, 

 these features may be said to constitute their character ; and 

 hence they would be employed by a painter, or poet, or a 

 descriptive writer, who wished to portray a cottage of the 

 present day. 



Thus, a certain degree of coarseness and homeliness of dress 

 and manner may be said to have hitherto characterised the 

 British labourer, as contradistinguished from the British gen- 

 tleman. A romantic writer would, therefore, make use of 

 these characteristics : and a poet or a sentimentalist would 

 probably regret their disappearance, and the gradual assimi- 

 lation of dress and manners between the labourer and the 

 gentleman. The fault of the architect is, that he has too 

 closely followed the painter and the man of literature ; forget- 

 ting that his art, being founded upon and guided by utility, 

 ought to embrace all improvements, not only in architecture, 

 but in the uses of buildings, as they are brought into notice. 

 The fault of the landlord is, that he has thought of little ex- 

 cept the outside show of his cottages ; but it is surely as much 

 his interest to encourage whatever will raise and elevate the 

 character of the people who live on his land, as it is the duty 

 of the architect to consider, not what a cottage has hitherto 

 been, but what it is capable of being made. Putting a servant 

 into a handsome Gothic cottage is like putting him into a 

 handsome suit of livery : but there is, unfortunately for the 

 servant, this difference, that the faults of the dwelling, if it 

 does not fit, cannot be so readily perceived as those of the 

 coat; and nobody may know, but the occupant and his family, 

 how little comfort sometimes exists under a gay exterior. 

 For our own part, we have seen so many ornamental cottages 

 and lodges on gentlemen's estates, both in England and in 

 Scotland, small, damp, and badly contrived within, that we 

 are compelled to consider them as much badges of slavery 

 as a suit of livery. Let us hope that another generation will 



