and of Rural Improvement, during 1835. 625 



and, from the heat and excessive dryness of the summer, it has 

 been found in many cases a valuable substitute for lucern and 

 clover, which have been completely burnt up. To the above- 

 mentioned Supplement, indeed, we may refer for all the recent 

 agricultural improvements whether in science or practice. 



Rural Architecture is making great progress in every part of 

 the country ; and, we think, we may safely attribute some portion of 

 this progress to the extensive circulation of our Encyclopcedia of 

 Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture. No other architectural 

 work of so comprehensive a character, embracing, as it does, all 

 the interior details of fitting up, finishing, and furnishing of cot- 

 tages, fai'm-houses, villas, inns, public-houses, and schools, ever 

 obtained anything like so extensive a sale in this country ; and 

 though this may have been principally owing to its unparalleled 

 cheapness, considering the quantity of engravings it contains, 

 yet so many persons cannot have purchased the work without 

 more or less acting on it. As the cottages of labourers in the 

 country are generally designed and executed by carpenters, 

 masons, or bricklayers, it is a great point gained^ to improve the 

 taste of such persons ; and, to do this, and also to jrive the 

 general reader such a knowledge of architecture as may be 

 useful to him in building and furnishing, and agreeable as a 

 matter of taste and criticism, have been the objects of the JLn- 

 cyclopcedia; and the same objects are followed up by the 

 Architectural Magazine. Every day convinces us of the sound- 

 ness of our opinion, that the only effectual and permanent mode 

 of improving the taste and style of any art is, to make the great 

 mass of society critics in that art. What has improved political 

 governments in different countries ? Not the governors, but the 

 dissemination of the general principles of government among the 

 masses of society, or among the leaders of these masses. In like 

 manner we arrive at the conclusion, that houses will not gene- 

 rally be constructed in the most commodious and salubrious 

 manner, and in good taste, till a knowledge of what is the most 

 salubrious and the most commodious manner, and in what consists 

 good taste, shall be possessed by those who intend to occupy 

 them; or, if not by all, at least by a sufficient number to render 

 such qualities in houses fashionable. We wish we could see 

 architectural societies established generally throughout the pro- 

 vinces ; or, rather, societies for promoting the improvement of 

 the public taste in architectural and rural scenery, as suggested 

 by a correspondent, (p. 280.) 



Domestic Economy. — We shall have but little to say under 

 this head, if we limit our views to the past year ; but if we take 

 a retrospect of the last ten years, then we should say that the 

 manners and the dress of the mass of society have considerably 

 improved ; at all events, it is impossible to deny that this has 

 Vol. XL — No. 69. z z 



