dreadfully old-fashioned in fifty years hence, that it is a hundred to
one if it is not voted a nuisance, and pulled down as an eyesore to the
estate." Such is the reasoning commonly used when any architect more
honest, more scientific, and more truly economical in his regard for his
employer's means, ventures to recommend the building of a mansion upon
principles, and with dimensions, which can alone fully satisfy the
exigencies of his art. We take leave, however, to observe, that such
ought not to be the reasoning of an English nobleman or gentleman. In
the first place, what is really erected in a proper and legitimate style
of architecture, be it classical or mediaeval, can never become
"old-fashioned" or ugly. Is Hampton Court old-fashioned and ugly? is
Audley End so? are Burghleigh and Hatfield so? If they are, go and build
better. Is Windsor Castle so? yes, a large portion of it is, for its
architecture is not very correct; and though it has been erected only so
few years, in another fifty the reigning sovereign--if there be a
sovereign in England in those days--will pull down most of it, and
consider it as sham and as trumpery as the Pavilion has at length been
found out to have been all along. True; if you build houses in a false
and affected and unreal style of architecture, they are ugly from the
very beginning; and they will become as old-fashioned as old Buckingham
House or Strawberry Hill itself, perhaps in the life-time of him who
owns them; or else, like Fonthill, they will crumble about your ears,
and remain as monuments of your folly rather than of your taste. But go
and build as Thorpe, or Inigo Jones, or Wren used to build. Or even, if
you will travel abroad for your models, take Palladio himself for your
guide, or Phillbert Delorme, or Ducerceau, or Mansard; and your
erections shall stand for centuries, and become each year more and more
harmoniously beautiful.

Next, your house should be dry; do not, then, go and build it with a
slightly-framed low-pitched roof, nor place it in that part of your
grounds which would be very suitable for an artificial lake, but not for
your mansion. Do not be afraid of a high roof; but let it tower up
boldly into the air; let there be, as the French architects of old used
to term it most expressively, a good "forest" of timber in its framing;
cover it with lead, if you can--if not, with flag-stones, or else, if
these be too dear, with extra thick slates in as large sl