But the effect
of the villa extends very often over a considerable space, and becomes
part of the large features of the district; so that the whole character
and expression of the visible landscape must be considered, and thus the
distinction between the two kinds of blue country becomes absolutely
necessary. Of the first, or simple, we have already adduced, as an
example, the greater part of the South of England. Of the second, or
picturesque, the cultivated parts of the North and East Ridings of
Yorkshire, generally Shropshire, and the north of Lancashire, and
Cumberland, beyond Caldbeck Fells, are good examples; perhaps better
than all, the country for twelve miles north, and thirty south, east,
and west, of Stirling.
_A. The Simple Blue Country._
185. Now, the matter-of-fact business-like activity of simple blue
country has been already alluded to. This attribute renders in it a
plain palpable brick dwelling-house allowable; though a thing which, in
every country but the simple blue, compels every spectator of any
feeling to send up aspirations, that builders who, like those of Babel,
have brick for stone, may be put, like those of Babel, to confusion.
Here, however, it is not only allowable, but even agreeable, for the
following reasons:--
186. Its cleanness and freshness of color, admitting of little dampness
or staining, firm in its consistence, not moldering like stone, and
therefore inducing no conviction of antiquity or decay, presents rather
the appearance of such comfort as is contrived for the enjoyment of
temporary wealth, than of such solidity as is raised for the inheritance
of unfluctuating power.
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