OLD HOUSES AND THEIR INCLOSCRES. 311 



before our eyes, without making any impression upon 

 the mind, that differs from those produced by examin- 

 ing the plates of fashions in the window of a tailor's 

 shop. As we proceed further into the country we pres- 

 ently encounter a scene that awakens a different class 

 of emotions, that seem to penetrate more deeply intO' 

 the soul. An old house, containing two stories in fronts 

 with the back roof extending almost to the ground, is 

 seen half protected by the drooping branches of a ven- 

 erable elm. A Virginia creeper hangs in careless fes- 

 toons around the low windows, and a white rose-bushi 

 grows luxuriantly over the plain board fence that in- 

 closes the garden. The house stands a few rods back 

 from the street, and is surrounded in front and on one 

 side by an extensive gi'ass plat, neatly shorn by the 

 grazing animals, while sauntering on their return from 

 pasture. An old barn is near; and the flocks and the 

 poultry seem to enjoy an amount of comfort which we 

 might look for in vain, in the vicinity of a more ornate 

 dwelling-house. 



There is an appearance of comfort and freedom about 

 this old house, that renders it a pleasing object to 

 almost every eye. No one can see it without calling to 

 mind the old-fashioned people whom we always sup- 

 pose to be its occupants. About it and around it we 

 see no evidences of that constraint to which the in- 

 dwellers and visitors of some more fashionable houses 

 must be doomed. The exterior is associated with its 

 interior arrangements, no less than with the scenes 

 around it. We see, in the mind's eye, the wide entry 

 into which the front door opens, the broad and angular 

 staircase, the window in the upper entry, that looks out 

 upon a rustic landscape dotted with fruit-trees, and 

 patches of ploughed land alternating with green 



