402 OLD HOUSES. 



There may be more true love of Nature in the inmates 

 of this ambitious dwelling than in those of the rustic 

 cottage; but the former gives no evidence of this love, 

 if it is built in a style expressive of that folly which is 

 continually drawing us away from Nature and happi- 

 ness. Place them both in a picture, and the fashionable 

 house excites only the idea of coxcombry, while the 

 rustic cottage charms all hearts. Is it not possible to 

 borrow this indescribable charm and add it to our country 

 residences ? Not until the builder or designer has become 

 as one of these cottagers in the simplicity of his heart, 

 and is content to forget the world when he is planning 

 for his retirement. Then might the traveller pause to 

 contemplate with delight a house in which the absence of 

 all affectation renders doubly charming those rural accom- 

 paniments, in which the wealth of the owner, if he be 

 wealthy, is detected only by the simple magnificence of 

 his grounds, and his taste displayed by the charm which 

 art has added to Nature, without degrading her fauns 

 and her hamadryads into mere deities of the boudoir. 



These old houses with a long back roof are not the only 

 picturesque houses among our ancient buildings ; but no 

 other style seems to me so entirely American. Wherever 

 we journey in New England, we find neat little cottages 

 of one story, some with a door in front dividing the house 

 into two equal parts, some with a door at the side of the 

 front, and a vestibule with a door at the opposite end. 

 It is common, when you meet with an old cottage of this 

 style in the less frequented roads in the country, to see 

 an elm standing in front, shading a wide extent of lawn. 

 Sometimes there may be merely an apple-tree or pear-tree 

 for purposes of shade. A rose-bush under one of the 

 windows, bearing flowers of a deep crimson, and a lilac 

 at the corner of the garden near the house, are perhaps 

 the only shrubbery. These humble dwellings are the 



