VI 



OTHING is more characteristic 

 of American country-houses, as 

 contrasted with those of other 

 northern lands, than their large 



covered piazzas. These have been devel- 

 oped in answer to as distinct and imperative 

 a national need as ever determined the gene- 

 sis of an architectural feature. Our colonial 

 ancestors did without piazzas, for their hab- 

 its of living and their architectural schemes 

 were alike imported from England and Hol- 

 land ; and amid a strenuous people, occupied 

 with sterner problems than how to live most 

 agreeably, it was naturally some time before 

 that gradual modification of habits which is 

 inevitably brought about at last by new cli- 

 matic influences could express itself in archi- 

 tectural language. No early colonial house 

 had anything that resembled a piazza. If 

 we find one attached to such a house to-day, 

 it is an addition of later date — as is the case 



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