[Footnote 6: Compare _Modern Painters_, vol. iv. chap. xi, and vol. v.
chap. ix.]
44. Again, when a number of these cottages are grouped together, they
break upon each other's formality, and form a mass of fantastic
proportion, of carved window and overhanging roof, full of character and
picturesque in the extreme. An excellent example of this is the Bernese
village of Unterseen. Again, when the ornament is not very elaborate,
yet enough to preserve the character, and the cottage is old, and not
very well kept (suppose in a Catholic canton), and a little rotten, the
effect is beautiful: the timber becomes weather-stained, and of a fine
warm brown, harmonizing delightfully with the gray stones on the roof,
and the dark green of surrounding pines. If it be fortunate enough to be
situated in some quiet glen, out of sight of the gigantic features of
the scene, and surrounded with cliffs to which it bears some proportion;
and if it be partially concealed, not intruding on the eye, but well
united with everything around, it becomes altogether perfect; humble,
beautiful, and interesting. Perhaps no cottage can then be found to
equal it; and none can be more finished in effect, graceful in detail,
and characteristic as a whole.
45. The ornaments employed in the decoration of the Swiss cottage do not
demand much attention; they are usually formed in a most simple manner,
by thin laths, which are carved into any fanciful form, or in which rows
of holes are cut, generally diamond shaped; and they are then nailed one
above another to give the carving depth.
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