FOREST >^0 STREAM. 



79 



Hffoodland, ^ann and (garden. 



BEAUTY IN ARCHITECTURE. 



COUNTRY AND SUBURBAN RESIDENCES— HOUSE BUILDING 

 AND DECORATING. 



THE thoughts which throng upon men and women on 

 the approach of spring are as varied as their tastcsi 

 constitutions, habits, and favorite pursuits. "In the 

 spring," sings the laureate, "a young man's fancy lightly 

 turns to thoughts of love." That of others turns to the re- 

 alization of some architectural dream, and the building of 

 a borne wherein to enjoy the beauties of spring and the 

 other delights of country life, as instinct leads the birds to 

 nest building. The tishermau's thoughts arc turning to his 

 tackle, and to the time when the hand of the Frost King 

 Bhall bo lifted from his favorite streams. The hunter is 

 anticipating a return to the hunting ground, and is busy 

 adjusting his shotgun and rifle against the opening of an- 

 other campaign. 



Should it be ashed, "What has the fisherman or the hunt- 

 er lo do with architecture? Are we to have no more tim- 

 ber huts, no more yarns around the camp fire? Are we to 

 shoot rabbits from our bedroom windows, or stalk the 

 deer upon our lawns?" The answer is simple. The hut 

 und camp will remain, hut something requires to be ad- 

 ded. Men with the taste and the leisure for out-door 

 sports are most likely to care ibout the beauty of their 

 country house. Their constant association willi 

 liful leads them to desire its reproduction. Then 

 again they occasionally develop a desire to pursue their fa- 

 vorite recreation at leisure, lo combine the enjoyment of 



the artistic sense. Not that the latter is impossible. It 

 was suggested some time ago by Appltton-s Journal, whose 

 editorial utterances are so often directed to the public 

 good, that the housetops might be converted into gardens, 

 hut the recommendation, although of a perfectly practical 

 nature, was too much of an innovation to be readily acted 

 upon. 



Let us now inquire into the principles, different from 

 any of these, bearing upon the country houses we have in 

 view. After visiting the Duomo at Florence, and the 

 Spanish Chapel in the same city, Mr. fiuskiu generalizes 

 in this strain: "The glory of architecture is to be what- 

 ever you wish it to be— lovely, or grand, or comfortable — 

 on such terras aa it can easily obtain." So far most readers 

 will agree with him. When be goes further and says that 

 "beauty is given by the relation of parts, size by their 

 comparison," our assent is less hearty, by reason of the lim- 

 itation implied in the terms of the rule. All architectural 

 beauty is relative. On viewing an interior we necessarily 

 have regard to the relation of the parts to each other. The 

 beauty of an exterior is very often relative to its situation 

 and surroundings. A house being a place to live in, and 

 not only to be admired on the inside or from the outside, 

 beauty not related to convenience is a mere mockery. The 

 point is one to be insisted on, as fashion has invaded even 

 the domain of architecture, and men manifest a desire for 

 a fashionable style of house, as they would for a stylish 

 coat— a thing to be discarded when the next whim seizes 

 the inventors of modes. The subject must, therefore, be 

 looked at from two points of view— that of internal har- 

 mony, and that of external haimony. The former is pro- 

 duced whenever convenience is sufficiently studied. It is 

 the harmonv hetweeu the thing and its purpose. To fol- 

 low fashion is to destroy or impair this harmony by insisl- 



playing the kingly salmon with that of contemplation, and 

 not to take all fish and game while they— the sportsmen — 

 are "on the wing." Hence comes the desire to build a 

 house near the most admired section of his terrestrial happy 

 hunting ground. It may be in Florida, or Maine, or on the 

 Pacific slope that he wishes to build a home in or near 

 some vast wilderness or "fish-furrowed stream." There 

 alone can he obtain his heart's desire in the form of a 

 dwelling-place. In the city, even with boundless wealth, 

 he is condemned to live in a parallelopipedon of bricks, 

 -with other rectangular boxes on either side. There he 

 lives for convenience; in the country he would enjoy exis- 

 tence in a home constructed upon his own plans, and built 

 to suit his owu purposes. 



When a few years ago the "Fishing Tourist" gave his 

 hook to the world, he suggested an idea which can best 

 be realized in the way here indicated. "Gradually and 

 completely," ho says, "can we wean our families from the 

 dissipations, late hours, and unhealthy conventionalisms 

 »t fashionable watering-places. By degrees we shall teach 

 our wives and daughters to participate in the favorite pas- 

 times of their husbands and sons; for do they not always 

 take a warm interest in anything that affects us? Do they 

 not sympathize with our views and plans, and mould their 

 tastes to our's?" Of course they do, and in order that the 

 sous may possess the health and strength of Nimrod, and 

 pie daughters be something else than fishers of men, take 

 them to a home where they may enjoy what sportsmen en- 

 joy, and acquire their skill. 



Between the residences above referred to and those 

 known as "suburban," there is a difference, but it is very 

 slight. The same principles of construction apply to both, 

 and they have this quality in common: that they are 

 equally the outcome of a man's individual taste, as distin- 

 guished from his chy residence, already sufficiently quali- 

 fied. Away from the city and its interminable rows of mo- 

 notonous monstrosities, its stores, and its municipal "piles 

 stupendous," one is led into an entirely different train of 

 ideas. We condemn, without qualification, the average 

 New York house. It stands with the wrong side upper- 

 most. The cooking is invariably done in the basement, 

 whence fumes and steam mount through dining-room, 

 drawing room and bed-rooms, lo the great detriment of the 

 occupants, before escaping to the outside world, They 

 are built with regard to supposed convenience and economy 

 of space, and make no approach or pretension to gratify 



ing upon small windows, the absence of verandahs, thin, 

 spear-like chimneys, or something equally monstrous and 

 destructive of comfort. There are houses — old family 

 mansions — in Europe, to which an occasional wing has 

 been added, as centuries rolled past and developed the ne- 

 cessities of the proprietors. What was their rule? Simply 

 that of convenience, and if there happened to be incongru- 

 ities of style, the result as a whole is generally found to he 

 charming. This is an extreme case, but it illustrates re- 

 markably well the absurdity of the opposite practice, of 

 sacrificing comfort and personal preference lo the conven- 

 tionalities of style. Above all things, therefore, it is emi- 

 nently desirable that ventilation and temperature should 

 be kept in mind, and that even at the expense, if neces 



might be modified, if necessary, to suit location. If, for 

 example, a cottage is wanted, say in Florida, for occu- 

 pation during a few months in each year, the Swiss Gothic 

 cottage, or that shown in the second engraviug might be 

 adopted. Such cottages cost from $2,000 to $2,500. The 

 interior of the Swiss cottage is admirably arranged. To 

 the left of the door, entering from the piazea, is a "study' ' 

 measuring eight feet square, and lighted by two of five 

 windows to the left of the elevation shown in the view. 

 The other three Hght a parlor twelve feet by thirteen, and 

 connected with it by a folding-door is a dining-room of 

 nearly equal size. The kitchen and pantries occupy the ex- 

 tension to the right. The study is the place for fishing 



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gear and guus, being easily accessible from the outside, 

 and opening also into the parlor. This arrangement could 

 be carried out without violently wrenching its name, since 

 there excursions would be planned, and there, also, amidst 

 the fumes of the "fragrant weed," would be digested 

 and studied the materials for the owner's communications 

 to Forest and Stream. On the second story are four 

 bed-rooms, and in the attic a large central bed-room of 

 thirteen feet by fourteen for the children. In our sec- 

 ond cottage is a chamber eight feet by thirteen for a study, 

 a large parlor or dining-room fourteen feet by seventeen, 

 and a kitchen. The second story has three chambers of 

 the same size and arrangement as those below. In this 

 cottage the study has the advantage of being directly ac- 

 cessible from either front or rear. The other has a corres- 

 ponding advantage in the greater variety of its rooms. No 

 two are exactly alike, and the second story is entirely dif- 

 ferent from thefir8t. It is, in fact, a house which it would 

 take a longer time to become thoroughly acquainted with. 

 In either dwelling a sportsman might endure existence 

 without murmuring, always provided sport is good and 

 game plentiful. 



The style to be chosen must, however, be determined in 

 all cases by requirement, scenery, and situation. It is al- 

 ways advisable, when possible, to combine beauty and util- 

 ity. The external harmony to which we referred above is that 

 existing between the house and the ground on which it 

 stands. There are houses which seem to have grown on 

 their sites, so lovingly do they nestle amidst the trees or 

 shrubs, and so perfectly do they harmonize with the tones 

 of nature. There are others which stand out in continual 

 protest against the taste which planted them, where they 

 can never he anything but a discord in the landscape. 

 What produces this harmony? Is it lofty turrets or wide 

 piazzas; or large windows or porched doorways, or what 

 else? We can only answer that it consists in no single one- 

 of theui. The air pervading the house of human beings 

 with sensibilities and affections, and we might add, with 

 common sense, differs vastly from that surrounding the 

 garish edifice of the lover of mere style. If we come to 

 analyze the difference, we shall, in all probability, fiud 

 that in the latter everything has been sacrificed to fashion 

 or style, and that in the former everything has been kept 

 secondary to the health, comfort, and freedom of the in- 

 mates. If it be once thoroughly understood that the exi- 

 gencies of situation transcend the rules of the prosaic 

 architect, the solution of the problem is very nearly Teached. 



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sary, of such decorations as mouldings, carvings and gild- 

 ings. 



The illustrations we give arc taken from "Woollett'a 

 Villas and Cottages," "Atwood's Modern American Home- 

 steads," and other works, published by A. J, BicknelKt 

 Co., of New York, to whom those intending to build are 

 indebted for many valuable publications, Any of the styles 



Nothing would be more silly than to lose a fine prospect 

 because a window at the point whence it could be ob- 

 tained would be a breach of the architectural proprieties. 

 Let us suppose again, that the building is to be erected 

 within hearing of the soothing hum of a waterfall. Would 

 it not be an abandonment of one of the advantages of the 

 site, t° iwrn a dead, wall loits soft melody, because, accord- 



