STYLE OE THE HOUSE. 33 



of a house, somewhat comporting with the ground fea- 

 tures of the country by which it is surrounded. A 

 mountainous evergreen, or a hilly region in a northern 

 climate, would naturally suggest a strong-walled house, 

 with a steep and sheltering roof to protect it from 

 heavy snows, and. give it warmth, as in the Swiss or 

 Anglo-Italian styles, if placed on an eminence over- 

 looking a wide tract of country ; or in the old English 

 cottage style with high gables, in a valley protected 

 by high hills, and sheltered by woods. If in a plain, 

 or an undulating country, a wider choice of style 

 may be indulged, as the more open Italian, or the 

 modern pointed Gothic ; or inclining to the Vene- 

 tian, and low Italian, with broad verandas in both, 

 as their localities extend further south. For the Nor- 

 man, Tudor, and Elizabethan styles, as they are 

 severally termed, we have less attachment, being 

 too suggestive of fortification, and defense, for which 

 people of the present day have no use. The indul- 

 gence of these styles with the architects of our own 

 time, frequently run into all sorts of absurdities in the 

 accumulation of buttresses, gables^ turrets, and end- 

 less conceits that lower the true dignity of the house, 

 and make them more to resemble a costly toy than a 

 sensible, comfortable dwelling. Aside from such draw- 

 backs, we cannot with propriety copy the proportions 

 and parts of the foreign structures which are presented 

 to us in those elaborate styles. In adapting them to 

 our use, they should be Americanized, if such a word 

 may be permitted, into a fitness to our circumstances, 

 as being different from the people of any country abroad. 

 They- should be plain in the exterior, and simple in 

 their composition, with every convenience that is 

 2* 



