The palace is not handsome without, but it is spacious and commondious within, is prettyily situated, and, with the grounds annexed to it, is capable of being made an elegant seat. The College and Hospital are rude, mis-shapen piles, which, but that they have roofs, would be taken for brick kilns. There are no other public buildings but churches and courhouses in which no attempts are made at elegance. Indeed it would not be easy to execute such an attempt, as a workman could scarcely be found here capable of drawings an order. The genius of architecture seems to have shed its maledictions of this land.
Buildings are often erectd, bu individuals, or considerable expense.
To give these symmetry and taste would not increase their cost. It would only change the arrangmenmen of the materials, the form and combination of the members. This would often cost less than the burthen of barbarous ornaments with which these buildings are sometimes charged. Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia ed. The inhabitants of Europe, who dwell chiefly in houses of stone or brick, are surely as healthy as those of Virginia.