352 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
amove, into the history of the domestic life and habits of 
those illustrious minds, will not, we are sure, forget that 
lowly cottage by the side of the Avon, where the great 
English bard was wont to dwell ; the tasteful residence 
of Pope at Twickenham ; or the turrets and battlements 
of the more picturesque Abbotsford ; and numberless other 
examples of the rural buildings of England, once the 
abodes of renowned genius. In truth, the cottage and 
villa architecture of the English has grown out of the 
feelings and habits of a refined and cultivated people, 
whose devotion to country life, and fondness for all its 
pleasures, are so finely displayed in the beauty of their 
dwellings, and the exquisite keeping of their buildings and 
grounds. 
It is this love of rural life, and this nice feeling of 
the harmonious union of nature and art, that reflects 
so much credit upon the English as a people, and which, 
sooner or later, we hope to see completely naturalized in 
this country. Our rural residences, evincing that love of 
the beautiful and the picturesque, which, combined with 
solid comfort, is so attractive to the eye of every beholder, 
will not only become sources of the purest enjoyment to 
the refined minds of the possessors, but will exert an 
influence for the improvement in taste of every class in 
our community. The ambition to build “ shingle palaces” 
in starved and meagre grounds, we are glad to see giving 
way to that more refined feeling which prefers a neat villa 
or cottage, tastily constructed, and surrounded by its proper 
accessories, of greater or less extent, of verdant trees and 
beautiful shrubbery. 
It is gratifying to see the progressive improvement in 
Rural Architecture, which within a few years past has 
evinced itself in various parts of the country, and par- 
