File:Rural essays (1853) (14577193237).jpg

Identifier: ruralessays02down (find matches)
Title: Rural essays
Year: 1853 (1850s)
Authors: Downing, A. J. (Andrew Jackson), 1815-1852 Curtis, George William, 1824-1892, ed
Subjects: Gardening Architecture, Domestic Landscape gardening Trees
Publisher: New York, Leavitt & Allen
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
reeable—be-cause it is in betterkeeping with a rusticcottage, than whenthe more expensivemode of using planedboards is resorted to. Some time ago, we ventured to record our objections to xvhiteas a universal color for country houses. We have had great satis-faction, since that time, in seeing a gradual improvement takingplace with respect to this matter. Neutral tints are, with the besttaste, now every where preferred to strong glaring colors. Cottagesof -this class, we would ahvays paint some soft and pleasing shadeof drab or fawn color. These are tints which, on the whole, har-monize best with the surrounding hues of the country itself. These two little designs are intended for the simplest cottages,to cost fi-om two to five hundred dollars. Our readers will not un-derstand us as offering them as complete models of a workingmanscottage. They are only partial examples of our views and taste inthis matter. We shall continue the subject, from time to time,with various other examples.
Text Appearing After Image:
Fiff. 4. Cottago Window Dressing. VIII ON THE COLOR OF COUNTRY HOUSES. May, 1847. CHARLES DICKENS, in that unlucky \dsit to America, inwhich he was treated like a spoiled child, and left it in thehumor that often follows too lavish a bestowal of sugar plums onspoiled children, made now and then a remark in his characteristicvein of subtle perceptions. Speaking of some of our wooden vil-lages—^the houses as bright as the greenest blinds and the whitestweather-boarding can make them—he said it was quite impossibleto believe them real, substantial habitations. They looked as ifthey had been put up on Saturday night, and were to be taken downon Monday morning ! There is no wonder that any tourist, accustomed to the quietand harmonious color of buildings in an English landscape, shouldbe shocked at the glare and rawness of many of our co^u^try dwell-ings. Brown, the celebrated English landscape gardener, used tosay of a new red brick house, that it would put a whole valley in afever! S

Note About Images