Page:Rural Hours.djvu/427

Rh dating perhaps forty years back, appears the plain, straightforward style, with its square outline, its broader foundations, respectable from a pervading character of honest comfort, although capable of many improvements. Sometimes houses of this kind have a wing, sometimes two, but more frequently the addition is put up with an eye to convenience rather than symmetry, and a long, low building, containing the kitchen, wood-shed, &c., &c., projects from the rear, forming with it, at right angles with the house, two sides of a yard. These dwellings are seen in every direction, rather more common, perhaps, than any other, and where things are in good order about them, they have a pleasant, cheerful look. This plain, straightforward style has, however, received a certain development within the last ten years which, when not carried to extremes, is a progress for the better: the foundation is broader, the elevation of the building lower, the roof projects farther, the cornices and all parts of the frame-work are more substantial, the porch or verandah is in better proportions, and the whole has a look of more finished workmanship. A farm-house of this homely, substantial kind, standing beside one of the common shallow, or a starved Grecian edifice of the shallow-ornate style, appears to great advantage, and speaks encouragingly for the growth of common sense and good taste in the community.

Still more recently, however, this substantial school has been somewhat abused. You see here and there new wooden cottages, which, in the anxiety of the architect to escape the shallow, err in the opposite extreme, and look oppressively heavy, as though the roof must weigh upon the spirits of those it covers. The cornices and door-frames of these small cottages would often suit