s casement
windows are surmounted with circular lights in the arches. The fourth
house is built of pitch-pine framework, enriched with carving and
filled in with plaster panels--a style of construction known as
"half-timbered work," much employed in England from the fifteenth to
the seventeenth century. This house is placed at the disposal of the
Canadian commissioners. It has a large square two-story bay-window,
with the customary small glass panes in cames of lozenge and other
patterns, and is perhaps the neatest and most cozy house in the row.
The fifth is of the construction of an English country-house in the
reign of William III. It is of timber, with stucco and rough-cast
panels, and has a large bay-window in the second story, surmounted by
a gable to the street and covering an old-fashioned stoop with seats
on each side. The five houses have a pretty effect, and each has a
home look. The facades only are on exhibition, the interiors being
private. They contrast with others in the "street" in the same way as
the habits of the different peoples. Some build their houses to retire
into, and others to exhibit themselves. Each nation being asked for
the facade of a house, the Italian has built a portico where he
can lounge, see and be seen; the Englishman has in all serenity
represented what he deems comfort, and shuts the front door.

[Illustration: VIEW IN THE PARK OF THE TROCADERO, SHOWING THE
PAVILIONS OF PERSIA AND SIAM.]

The next in order is the United States house, which is plain and
commodious; the latch-string would be out, but that the front door is
everlastingly open. The style is perhaps to advertise to the world
that we have not yet had time to invent an order of architecture or
devise anything adapted to our climate, which has extremes utterly
unknown to our ancestors in Britain. The building is light and airy,
has office-rooms on each floor, and is described by one English
paper as "a sort of school-building which combines elegance with
usefulness." Another paper states that "it exemplifies the utilitarian
notions of our Transatlantic cousins rather than any artistic intent."
These comments are as favorable as anything we ourselves can say: we
accept the verdict with thanks and think we have got off pretty well.
In the squareness of its general lines, with arched windows on the
second floor and square tower over the centre, perhaps the architect
thought it was Italian. Sixteen coats-of-arms on the out