efore the
shower, and after its refreshment has come, it is too wet and muddy.
Spacious verandahs, shaded with vines, and well-made walks, always firm
and dry, bordered with shrubbery, or overhung with trees, will give us
"ample scope and verge enough."

But the uses of country seats depend mainly upon the tastes and
habitudes of the occupants; and their adaptation in style size and
arrangement should be accordingly. We believe there is no law against a
man's building an elegant library and picture gallery, though he may
have no taste for literature or art, but having plenty of money,
chooses to make this display of it. There are a great many absurdities
to which poor, frail humanity is liable, against which the legislature,
in its wisdom, has not thought it worth while to make solemn and
positive enactments; it is better for the general moral condition of
society, perhaps, that the vulgar rich man's ambition for display should
manifest itself in books and pictures, rather than in fast horses. Might
not the cultivation of the garden--vegetables, fruits and flowers,--take
the place of both, as simple means of display? These are wholesome and
agreeable employments even for those who have passed that time of life
when a taste for books and art may be acquired.

A country seat should combine and express the real uses which are
required by the intellectual and social condition of its occupants, and
not attract attention as blazoning the wealth and money importance of
the owner. If he is rich, let him make it as complete and simply elegant
as he will, and this he may do without proclaiming to every passer-by
his miserable pride of wealth.

With these preliminary observations, we submit our work to the judgment
of those who are interested in these subjects. We have not included in
our present volume any considerable number of designs for the more
spacious and costly Villa, the work being designed for popular use and
to meet a demand which is unprovided for by previous publications.

DESIGN No. 1.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.--_Front Elevation._]

[Illustration: FIG. 2.--_End Elevation._]

This design as shown in figures 1 and 2, is for a laborer's cottage
intended to be erected on the grounds connected with a fine estate on
the western slope of the Palisades in New Jersey. It is to be built of
rough stone, plainly finished. It is 16 by 24 feet outside, having a
living-room with bed room on the first floor, (Fig.