lish ordinary landscape,
than the large, old, solitary, brick manor house, with its group of dark
cedars on the lawn in front, and the tall wrought-iron gates opening
down the avenue of approach.

193. Thirdly. No stone quoining, or presence of any contrasting color,
should be admitted. Quoins in general (though, by the by, they are
prettily managed in the old Tolbooth of Glasgow, and some other antique
buildings in Scotland), are only excusable as giving an appearance of
strength; while their zigzag monotony, when rendered conspicuous by
difference of color, is altogether detestable. White cornices, niches,
and the other superfluous introductions in stone and plaster, which some
architects seem to think ornamental, only mock what they cannot mend,
take away the whole expression of the edifice, render the brick-red
glaring and harsh, and become themselves ridiculous in isolation.
Besides, as a general principle, contrasts of extensive color are to be
avoided in all buildings, and especially in positive and unmanageable
tints. It is difficult to imagine whence the custom of putting stone
ornaments into brick buildings could have arisen; unless it be an
imitation of the Italian custom of mixing marble with stucco, which
affords it no sanction, as the marble is only distinguishable from the
general material by the sharpness of the carved edges. The Dutch seem to
have been the originators of the custom; and, by the by, if we remember
right, in one of the very finest pieces of coloring now extant, a
landscape by Rubens (in the gallery at Munich, we think), the artist
seems to have sanctioned the barbarism, by introducing a brick edifice,
with white stone quoining. But the truth is that he selected the
subject, partly under the influence of domestic feelings, the place
being, as it is thought, his own habitation, and partly as a piece of
practice, presenting such excessive difficulties of color, as he, the
lord of color, who alone could overcome them, would peculiarly delight
in overcoming; and the harmony with which he has combined tints of the
most daring force, and sharpest apparent contrast, in the edgy building,
and opposed them to an uninteresting distance of excessive azure (simple
blue country, observe), is one of the chief wonders of the painting: so
that this masterpiece can no more furnish an apology for the continuance
of a practice which, though it gives some liveliness of character to the
warehouses of Amsterdam