Art Out-of-Doors 



comfort on the lawns of England or the un- 

 covered terraces of France, or in the arbors, 

 placed at some distance from the house, 

 which are so characteristic of German villas. 

 We must have a wide and open yet covered 

 space, closely connected with our living- 

 rooms, where we can pass our hours of rest 

 and many of our hours of occupation too. 

 How necessary it is we read in the fact that, 

 when well arranged, the piazza always be- 

 comes the very focus of domestic life and 

 social intercourse — as central a feature in 

 summer as the parlor-fireside is in winter. 



But it is hardly needful to-day to affirm 

 that an American country house without a 

 piazza is in every sense a mistake and a 

 failure — that it palpably lacks fitness, and 

 therefore must lack true beauty in the eyes 

 of intelligent observers. It is more needful 

 to protest against the excessive use of piazzas 

 than to urge their erection. When their 

 value was first fully appreciated, it was, not 

 unnaturally, overappreciated. Architect and 

 owner alike believed that they could not 

 get too much of them. A house of any im- 

 portance most often had three if not all of its 

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