soil,
surface, and position, no one style of rural architecture is properly
adapted to the whole; and it is a gratifying incident to the indulgence
in a variety of taste, that we possess the opportunity which we desire
in its display to almost any extent in mode and effect. The Swiss chalet
may hang in the mountain pass; the pointed Gothic may shoot up among the
evergreens of the rugged hill-side; the Italian roof, with its
overlooking campanile, may command the wooded slope or the open plain;
or the quaint and shadowy style of the old English mansion, embosomed in
its vines and shrubbery, may nestle in the quiet, shaded valley, all
suited to their respective positions, and each in harmony with the
natural features by which it is surrounded. Nor does the effect which
such structures give to the landscape in an ornamental point of view,
require that they be more imposing in character than the necessities of
the occasion may demand. True economy demands a structure sufficiently
spacious to accommodate its occupants in the best manner, so far as
convenience and comfort are concerned in a dwelling; and its conformity
to just rules in architecture need not be additionally expensive or
troublesome. He who builds at all, if it be anything beyond a rude or
temporary shelter, may as easily and cheaply build in accordance with
correct rules of architecture, as against such rules; and it no more
requires an extravagance in cost or a wasteful occupation of room to
produce a given effect in a house suited to humble means, than in one of
profuse accommodation. Magnificence, or the attempt at magnificence in
building, is the great fault with Americans who aim to build out of the
common line; and the consequence of such attempt is too often a failure,
apparent, always, at a glance, and of course a perfect condemnation in
itself of the judgment as well as taste of him who undertakes it.

Holding our tenures as we do, with no privilege of entail to our
posterity, an eye to his own interest, or to that of his family who is
to succeed to his estate, should admonish the builder of a house to the
adoption of a plan which will, in case of the sale of the estate,
involve no serious loss. He should build such a house as will be no
detriment, in its expense, to the selling value of the land on which it
stands, and always fitted for the spot it occupies. Hence, an imitation
of the high, extended, castellated mansions of England, or the
Continent