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. If the color is to be gray, we may use the gray
primitive limestone, which is not ragged on the edges, without preparing
the blocks too smoothly; or the more compact and pale-colored slate,
which is frequently done in Westmoreland; and execute the ornaments in
any very coarse dark marble. Greenstone is an excellent rock, and has a
fine surface, but it is unmanageable. The grayer granites may often be
used with good effect, as well as the coarse porphyries, when the gray
is to be particularly warm. An outward surface of a loose block may be
often turned to good account in turning an angle; as the colors which it
has contracted by its natural exposure will remain on it without
inducing damp. It is always to be remembered, that he who prefers
neatness to beauty, and who would have sharp angles and clean surfaces,
in preference to curved outlines and lichenous color, has no business to
live among hills.

255. Such, then, are the principal points to be kept in view in the
edifice itself. Of the mode of uniting it with the near features of
foliage and ground, it would be utterly useless to speak: it is a
question of infinite variety, and involving the whole theory of
composition, so that it would take up volumes to develop principles
sufficient to guide us to the result which the feeling of the practiced
eye would arrive at in a moment. The inequalities of the ground, the
character and color of those inequalities, the nature of the air, the
exposure, and the consequent fall of the light, the quantity and form of
near and distant foliage, all have their effect on the design, and
should have their influence on the designer, inducing, as they do, a
perfect change of circumstance in every locality. Only one general rule
can be given, and that we repeat. The house must _not_ be a noun
substantive, it must not stand by itself, it must be part and parcel of
a proportioned whole: it must not even be seen all at once; and he who
sees one end should fee