The principles,
however, are the same in all situations, and it would be a hopeless task
to endeavor to give more than general principles. In hill country,
however, another question is introduced, whose investigation is
peculiarly necessary in cases in which the ground has inequality of
surface, that of position. And the difficulty here is, not so much to
ascertain where the building ought to be, as to put it there, without
suggesting any inquiry as to the mode in which it got there; to prevent
its just application from appearing artificial. But we cannot enter into
this inquiry, before laying down a number of principles of composition,
which are applicable, not only to cottages, but generally; and which we
cannot deduce until we come to the consideration of buildings in
groups.
94. Such are the great divisions under which country and rural buildings
may be comprehended; but there are intermediate conditions, in which
modified forms of the cottage are applicable; and it frequently happens
that country which, considered in the abstract, would fall under one of
these classes, possesses, owing to its peculiar climate or associations,
a very different character. Italy, for instance, is blue country; yet it
has not the least resemblance to English blue country. We have paid
particular attention to wood; first, because we had not, in any previous
paper, considered what was beautiful in a forest cottage; and secondly,
because in such districts there is generally much more influence
exercised by proprietors over their tenantry, than in populous and
cultivated districts; and our English park scenery, though exquisitely
beautiful, is sometimes, we think, a little monotonous, from the want of
this very feature.
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