n. Again, when the ornament is not very elaborate,
yet enough to preserve the character, and the cottage is old, and not
very well kept (suppose in a Catholic canton), and a little rotten, the
effect is beautiful: the timber becomes weather-stained, and of a fine
warm brown, harmonizing delightfully with the gray stones on the roof,
and the dark green of surrounding pines. If it be fortunate enough to be
situated in some quiet glen, out of sight of the gigantic features of
the scene, and surrounded with cliffs to which it bears some proportion;
and if it be partially concealed, not intruding on the eye, but well
united with everything around, it becomes altogether perfect; humble,
beautiful, and interesting. Perhaps no cottage can then be found to
equal it; and none can be more finished in effect, graceful in detail,
and characteristic as a whole.

45. The ornaments employed in the decoration of the Swiss cottage do not
demand much attention; they are usually formed in a most simple manner,
by thin laths, which are carved into any fanciful form, or in which rows
of holes are cut, generally diamond shaped; and they are then nailed one
above another to give the carving depth. Pinnacles are never raised on
the roof, though carved spikes are occasionally suspended from it at
the angles. No ornamental work is ever employed to disguise the beams of
the projecting part of the roof, nor does any run along its edges. The
galleries, in the canton of Uri, are occasionally supported on arched
beams, as shown in Fig. 4, which have a very pleasing effect.

[Illustration: Swiss Chalet Balcony, 1842.]

46. Of the adaptation of the building to climate and character, little
can be said. When I called it "national," I meant only that it was quite
_sui generis_, and, therefore, being only found in Switzerland, might be
considered as a national building; though it has none of the mysterious
connection with the mind of its inhabitants which is evident in all
really fine edifices. But there is a reason for this; Switzerland has no
climate, properly speaking, but an assemblage of every climate, from
Italy to the Pole; the vine wild in its valleys, the ice eternal on its
crags. The Swiss themselves are what we might have expected in persons
dwelling in such a climate; they have no character. The sluggish nature
of the air of the valleys has a malignant operation on the mind; and
even the mountaineers, though generally shrewd and intellectual,