Picturesque English Cottages and Their Doorway Gardens 
But the old cottage need not generally be 
ashamed of its more comfortable and conve¬ 
nient modern copy, which serves a useful 
purpose and leads us modern folk back to 
Nature and the joys of country life. Perhaps 
we may induce our friendly architects to con¬ 
struct for us some plans of such modern cot¬ 
tages. If they are wise, they will in their con¬ 
struction follow closelv the lines laid down for 
us by our forefathers, and take for their models 
some of those humbler dwelling-places to 
quarries supplies fit and pleasing material 
for north-country houses. The painter seeks 
to produce a pleasing harmony of color on 
his canvas. The architect has a similar 
object in view. He will avoid with care the 
production of strange anomalies, and refuse 
to associate together those constituent parts 
which Nature hath not blended. Foreign 
elements decline to harmonize with that which 
Nature rears, or man, her ally, constructs 
in accordance with her laws and wishes. 
MODERN COTTAGES SURROUNDING A QUADRANGLE AT LEIGH 
isp 
HP! 
which it will be our pleasure to direct them. 
As for materials, they will select those which 
Nature herself supplies in the neighborhood 
wherein the cottage is to be reared. It is 
not merely economy which preaches this 
doctrine. The use of local products has a 
great esthetic value. 'The half-timbered 
houses of our Berkshire lanes would look 
out of place amid the wild moors of York¬ 
shire, where the stone hewn from the native 
From a study of the old, we learn to con¬ 
struct what is new. It will, therefore, be our 
pleasure to journey together through many 
highways and byways of the Old Country, 
and note what Time has left of the ancient 
homes which our forefathers reared. We 
shall see the cottage of the Berkshire peas¬ 
ant and the Cornish fisher’s hut; the lovely 
moorland shepherd’s dwelling, and the nest¬ 
ling hamlets nigh the village church. 
86 
