on, that the pointed arch is indeed the
best form into which the head either of door or window can be thrown,
considered as a means of sustaining weight above it. How these pointed
arches ought to be grouped and decorated, I shall endeavor to show you
in my next lecture. Meantime I must beg of you to consider farther some
of the general points connected with the structure of the roof.

16. I am sure that all of you must readily acknowledge the charm which
is imparted to any landscape by the presence of cottages; and you must
over and over again have paused at the wicket gate of some cottage
garden, delighted by the simple beauty of the honeysuckle porch and
latticed window. Has it ever occurred to you to ask the question, what
effect the cottage would have upon your feelings if it had _no roof_? no
visible roof, I mean;--if instead of the thatched slope, in which the
little upper windows are buried deep, as in a nest of straw--or the
rough shelter of its mountain shales--or warm coloring of russet
tiles--there were nothing but a flat leaden top to it, making it look
like a large packing-case with windows in it? I don't think the rarity
of such a sight would make you feel it to be beautiful; on the contrary,
if you think over the matter, you will find that you actually do owe,
and ought to owe, a great part of your pleasure in all cottage scenery,
and in all the inexhaustible imagery of literature which is founded upon
it, to the conspicuousness of the cottage roof--to the subordination of
the cottage itself to its covering, which leaves, in nine cases out of
ten, really more roof than anything else. It is, indeed, not so much the
whitewashed walls--nor the flowery garden--nor the rude fragments of
stones set for steps at the door--nor any other picturesqueness of the
building which interest you, so much as the gray bank of its heavy
eaves, deep-cushioned with green moss and golden stone-crop. And there
is a profound, yet evident, reason for this feeling. The very soul of
the cottage--the essence and meaning of it--are in its roof; it is that,
mainly, wherein consists its shelter; that, wherein it differs most
completely from a cleft in rocks or bower in woods. It is in its thick
impenetrable coverlet of close thatch that its whole heart and
hospitality are concentrated. Consider the difference, in sound, of the
expressions "beneath my roof" and "within my walls,"--consider whether
you would be best sheltered, in a shed,