It should not look like stone, as the cottage
should, but should tell as a building on the mind as well as the eye.
White, therefore, is frequently allowable in small quantities,
particularly on the border of a large and softly shored lake, like
Windermere and the foot of Loch Lomond; but cream-color, and
putty-color, and the other varieties of plaster-color are inexcusable.
If more warmth is required by the situation than the sun will give on
white, the building should be darkened at once. A warm rich gray is
always beautiful in any place and under any circumstance; and, in fact,
unless the proprietor likes to be kept damp like a traveling codfish, by
trees about his house and close to it (which, if it be white, he must
have, to prevent glare), such a gray is the only color which will be
beautiful, or even innocent. The difficulty is to obtain it; and this
naturally leads to the question of material.
254. If the color is to be white, we can have no ornament, for the
shadows would make it far too conspicuous, and we should get only
tawdriness. The simple forms may be executed in anything that will stand
wet; and the roof, in all cases, should be of the coarse slate of the
country, as rudely put on as possible. They must be kept clear of moss
and conspicuous vegetation, or there will be an improper appearance of
decay; but the more lichenous the better, and the rougher the slate the
sooner it is colored.
Pages:
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245