226 RURAL ARCHITECTURE. 



day see perpetrated by people who corne from town, and who, we 

 are bound to say, are far from always being cockneys ; but who, 

 nevertheless, unthinkingly ^perpetrate these ever to be condemned 

 cockneyisms. Among them^ we may enumerate, as illustrationSf>*i- . 

 building large houses, only to shut up the best rooms and live in 

 the basement ; placing the &st story so high as to demand a long 

 flight of steps to get into the front door ; plaoin.g the dining-room 

 below stairs, when there is abundant space on the first floor ; using' 

 Jbh& iron railings of street doors in town to porches and .piazzas in 

 ■the country ; arranging suites of parlors with folding doors, precisely 

 like a town house, where other and far more convenient aiTange- 

 ments could be made ; introducing plate glass windows, and ornate 

 stucco cornices in cottages of moderate size and cost; building 

 large parlors for display, and small bed-rooms fer daily use ; placing 

 the house so near the street (with acres of land in the reai') as to 

 •destroy all seclusion, and secure all possible jdust ; and all the 

 hundred like expedients, for producing the utmost e^ct' in a small 

 space in town, which are wholly unnecessary and imoalled for in the 

 ■country. 



We remember few things more unpleasant than to enter a cock- 

 ney house in the country, i As the, highest ideal of beauty in the 

 mind of its o^vner is to reproduce, as nearly as possible, a fac-simile 

 •of a certain kind of town house, one is distressed with the entire 

 want of fltne^ and appropriateness in every thing it contains. ThE 

 fiu-niture is all made for display _ not for use ; and between a pro- 

 fusion of gilt ornaments, embroidered white satin chairs, and other 

 like finery, one feels that one has no rest for the sole of his foot. 



We do not mean, by these remarks, to have it understood that 

 -we do not admire really beautiful, rich and tastefiU furniture, or 

 ornaments and decorations belonging to the interioi; an(^ exterior of 

 houses in the- country. But we only admire them when they are 

 introduced in the right manner and. the right place. In' a countiy 

 house of Ikrge size — a mansion of the first class — where there are 

 rooms in abundance for all purposes, and where a feeling of comfort, 

 luxury, and wealth, reigns throughout, there is no reason why the 

 most beautiful and highly finished; decorations should not be seen 

 an its drawing-room or saloon, — always supposing them to be taste- 



