than to have been erected;--to have risen,
by an instinct of their own, out of the native rock--so little is there
in them of formality, such is their wildness and beauty. Among the
numerous recesses and projections in the walls and in the different
stages of their roofs, are seen bold and harmonious effects of
contrasted sunshine and shadow. It is a favourable circumstance, that
the strong winds, which sweep down the vallies, induced the inhabitants,
at a time when the materials for building were easily procured, to
furnish many of these dwellings with substantial porches; and such as
have not this defence, are seldom unprovided with a projection of two
large slates over their thresholds. Nor will the singular beauty of the
chimneys escape the eye of the attentive traveller. Sometimes a low
chimney, almost upon a level with the roof, is overlaid with a slate,
supported upon four slender pillars, to prevent the wind from driving
the smoke down the chimney. Others are of a quadrangular shape, rising
one or two feet above the roof; which low square is often surmounted by
a tall cylinder, giving to the cottage chimney the most beautiful shape
in which it is ever seen. Nor will it be too fanciful or refined to
remark, that there is a pleasing harmony between a tall chimney of this
circular form, and the living column of smoke, ascending from it through
the still air. These dwellings, mostly built, as has been said, of rough
unhewn stone, are roofed with slates, which were rudely taken from the
quarry before the present art of splitting them was understood, and are,
therefore, rough and uneven in their surface, so that both the coverings
and sides of the houses have furnished places of rest for the seeds of
lichens, mosses, ferns, and flowers. Hence buildings, which in their
very form call to mind the processes of Nature, do thus, clothed in part
with a vegetable garb, appear to be received into the bosom of the
living principle of things, as it acts and exists among the woods and
fields; and, by their colour and their shape, affectingly direct the
thoughts to that tranquil course of Nature and simplicity, along which
the humble-minded inhabitants have, through so many generations, been
led. Add the little garden with its shed for bee-hives, its small bed of
pot-herbs, and its borders and patches of flowers for Sunday posies,
with sometimes a choice few too much prized to be plucked; an orchard of
proportioned size; a cheese-p