PART III. 



ARCHITECTURE. 



133 



SECT. II. OF ORNAMENTS IN COTTAGES. 



After this view of the general forms and different parts of 

 the cottage styles, as far as regards utility, I shall proceed to 

 make some remarks on the disposition of ornaments. The use 

 of cottages, however, is the chief source of their beauty ; 

 and from attending to this alone, arises that simplicity which 

 is frequently so pleasing both in the manners and dress of the 

 lowest class of society. But in regard to dress we generally 

 find, that no sooner has the pretty milk-maid been enabled to 

 cover her bosom with a shawl, or her hair with a straw bonnet, 

 than she wishes to adorn her neck with beads. So it is with 

 the labourer and his cottage ; it is no sooner erected, and he 

 comfortably lodged, than he thinks of something farther, and 

 begins to add ornaments. These, it is true, are more generally 

 confined to the internal parts of it, but are often applied also 

 to the external ; and especially when cottages are near the high- 

 way, or when they are collected together in villages, through 

 an ambition to excel in neatness and decorum. 



In the English cottage of the original kind with the project- 

 ing roof, the first external ornament would be, to take chalk 

 and whitewash the clay walls, which would have a wonderful 



