Piazzas 
more beauty and more fitness too ; and, in 
fact, widely as we have departed from the 
plain, box - like house in recent years, our 
best new country houses are, in many re- 
spects, developed from them, and most 
notably so as regards the constant presence 
of the piazza. Considerations of sentiment 
and art excuse and make good its absence 
to the owner of an old colonial house ; but 
when a new house is desired it is a clearly 
recognized necessity, -even though some 
colonial scheme may be closely followed in 
other respects. Only in very rare cases do 
we see piazzas dispensed with by owners 
who care more for the odd pleasure, of 
copying with exactness an inappropriate 
foreign model than for building themselves 
really comfortable homes. 
Certainly no really comfortable country 
home can exist in our land without a piazza. 
Even on our most northerly borders the heat 
of our summer atmosphere and the strength 
of our sunshine make exercise in the open 
air, to the extent to which it is practiced in 
England, for example, a sheer impossibility. 
Nor, for similar reasons, could we sit with 
325 
