. The century illustrated monthly magazine . ccordingas one colony differs from another in thecloseness of its grouping and the natural felic-ity of its site. At Lenox, for example, in the beautiful 208 AMERICAN COUNTRY DWELLINGS. Berkshire country, there are many summerhomes which are practically isolated — whichhave wide lands about them and are screenedinto privacy by the rise of the hills and thesweep of the forests. Deluded by these facts,some of them have taken upon themselves fartoo self-asserting, far too independently dig- one of extent as opposed to height, but also oneof breadth as
. The century illustrated monthly magazine . ccordingas one colony differs from another in thecloseness of its grouping and the natural felic-ity of its site. At Lenox, for example, in the beautiful 208 AMERICAN COUNTRY DWELLINGS. Berkshire country, there are many summerhomes which are practically isolated — whichhave wide lands about them and are screenedinto privacy by the rise of the hills and thesweep of the forests. Deluded by these facts,some of them have taken upon themselves fartoo self-asserting, far too independently dig- one of extent as opposed to height, but also oneof breadth as opposed to depth or to our for-mer rectangular pattern. The nature of thesite almost prescribed this; but an unintelli-gent designer either would not have venturedto choose such a site or would not have madea virtue of its necessities. (That is to say, an nified an air; forgetting that though their re- architectural necessity becomes a virtue when,lation to their neighbors is more a matter of as here, it is hidden from the eye by charm in. DRAWING-ROOM IN MR. WARD S HOUSE. imaginative than of ocular concern, it shouldnevertheless not have been ignored, not haveremained unexpressed. They are not contentto look just what they are — mere units,though outlying ones, in a summer colony ofmany such; and the discrepancy betweenlook and fact is, I think, distressing to manyan eye which perhaps does not clearly feelthe cause of its distress. For an example of a different kind, an ex-ample of a large and luxurious home in whichthe general expression is of just the propersort,— neither so rural as to be affected anduntruthful nor so ambitious as to be preten-tious and, again, untruthful,— I may point tothe house which Messrs. McKim, Mead &White have built for Mr. Ward. It is set onthe side of a hill, so that the front, which looksout on the steep wooded slopes above, has buttwo stories, while the rear, which looks downover the broad and beautiful valley, has a base-ment story in a
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectamerica, bookyear1882
