monly wide. the street, without a ragged paling and littered garden before them, so frequent in the south. The litter of gardens, and other litter, are behind. They are neither alined with perfect regularity, nor deviate greatly from a perfect alinement; they are neither all contiguous, nor widely scattered. Thus there is variety in the lights and variety in the shades, and breaks in both, yet breadth in both. Often one or more trees in the street assist the composition.

The houses abut immediately on

In the south, in the rare instances of new cottages, raised for the husbandman, the common fashion has been to put the whole of the ground, allowed for the garden, against the road, immediately under the passenger's eye, and place the house behind it. Thus indeed inspection of the cottager's diligence in cultivating his garden is easier; and, where diligence is found, the inspection will be gratifying But no diligence can make the potatoe and cabbage garden either a picturesk object, or not generally a scene of litter. The house with the door open, may exhibit advantageously sometimes, the housewife's neatness; but oftener, against all care, that also, with a young family, must be a scene of litter. Better therefore I think is the plan, common in the north, of putting the door, not fronting the street, but on one side of the house, or behind.

But, in the south, even where extensive wastes have been brought into cultivation, and large farmsteds have been built, an analogous plan has had favor. The house, often a creditable building, is thrown behind, and the dungyard, and all the most offensive appendages of a farm, are even with an appearance of ostentation, spread out for the entertainment of the curious traveller. The same arrangement reversed would be nearly all necessary to make the whole a pleasing combination in the landscape, without being less advantageous for the uses, which form certainly the more important object. The house (better indeed often shorn of its coxcomb little central pediment, and other fripperies of the country architect) might itself be the advantage ous skreen to hide some of the less pleasing objects; and the other buildings, concealing the rest, might be so disposed as to produce one good combination. If anything interferes between the road and the house, it should be only a green croft, in which a very few trees allowed, against ordinary modern practice, room to spread their branches, might afford gratification in future ages to the elegant admirer of forms.

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LETTER XXXVII.

Domestic Architecture.-Cottages.

DESIGN for cottages is not controlled by material, as for temples and palaces. For the upright, whether of stone, brick, wood, or unbaked earth, the design may be the same. The cobwall, or mud wall, common in many parts of England, and recommended for economy, makes a dry wholesome dwelling. In the Pisan territory of Tuscany, the failure of clay, fit for either the manufacture of bricks, or the construction of cobwall, together with the distance of all stone fit for walling, has driven to the discovery, highly valuable there, of a mode for making the common surface sail hold together sufficiently for the purposes of building. Curiosity urged to trial of it here; and I believe it is the same thing to which some, in writing of this Italian invention and practice, have given a French name, Pisé. I remember my northern friend imputing this to artifice. "They would allure favor to it so,' he said, ' as the milliners to their wares by their number'less quaint French terms, and the auctioneers, by their fermes ornées,' and 'façades,' and 'coups d'œils,' and 'chef d'œuvres.' The plain English'man's eyes stare at the strange marks, and his

utterance is posed by the strange syllables, to the delight of the belles and beaux, who flatter themselves with the imagination, mostly under 'wide mistake, that they can twist their mouths to the exotic pronunciation with true Parisian grace.'

But though, for the perpendicular of cottages, whatever the material, design may be nearly the same, it is not so for the roof. Where ornament to the country is desired in the construction of a village, slate and pantile have great superiority over the flat tile, in allowing a lower pitch; more approaching the advantageous rustic grace of the rustic buildings of Italy and the south of France. A predilection for thatch I have known, among your ornée cottage fanciers, extensive, and in some instances vehement. The advantage of thatch for use, as it protects more, against both heat and cold, than any other covering, I admit. But its danger from its readiness to take and com municate fire, must deserve serious consideration on the other side. There must then be added as a public consideration, the loss of either cattlefood or manure; as private considerations, the inconvenience of the allurement to birds and vermin, and the perishable disposition of the material, with the addition that the patchwork of repaired thatch will hardly please any eye. In Dutch composition only, I think, thatch can

deserve favor: in combination with trees and varied ground, and in the more distant parts of landscape, of any description, the more decided lines of the firmer material, whether in nature, or in picture, have a far better effect.

But cottage-building is a very different business in different parts of England. Where, under the soil, is a rubble stone, as in many places, divided by nature nearly to the size and form convenient for a rude building, that natural advantage is great. Brick-earth is much more extensively found in England than stone fit for building, and no doubt is also a very advantageous material. But brick-earth requires far more labor in manufacture; and that manufacture is loaded with a heavy tax it requires expence in fuel; and, in many parts, the fuel also is loaded with a tax. Thus building with brick is made so expensive, that, where stone is not ready, and cheapness is an object, cobwalls recommend themselves. The Pisan, or Pisée, may, I think, be left to countries where even the cobwall cannot be had. But the saving, by either, is only in the wall. For floors, stairs, doors, windows, and roof, with such walls, the expence will be at least equal, in some points greater. The cob and Pisan moreover both require external plaster; which, in proportion as the climate is subject to frost, suffers from wea ther, and requires occasional renewing; so that