San Andreas independent., 1856-11-22
Vines for the Decoration of Cottages

Every person familiar with Downing's
work on country houses must have OBJ
served the perfect fitness or appropriate
ness Of every part of his ornamental de-
signs; there are no incongruous groupings
of objects beautiful when taken alone-no
solecisms in taste. With the hope Of in
teresting our readers, as well as impressing
them with more distinct knowledge of
the merits of cottage drapery, we furnish
a few extracts. The expression which a
building derives from the aid Of external
objects, and especially from trees, shrubs,
and vines, is thus pointed out =
at is upon these latter objects that the
true rurality of almost all simple cottages
depends; and nine-tenths of all the cottages
that have endeared themselves, through
their local and living beauty, to the hearts
of true poets and genuine lovers of nature,
have owed most of their charms rather to
this rurality-this wealth of bower, and
vine, and creeper, than to any carved or
sculptured gables, window heads, or other
features bestowed by the careful hand of
the architect.
"Take almost any of those exquisite
cottages in an English landscape, which
charm every beholder by a wonderful beauy,
found in no other land in the same perfec-
tion, and subject it to the dissecting knife
of the searcher after the secrets of that
beauty, and what does he find? That not
one of these cottages is faultless, in a
strictly architectural sense = nay, they
abound with all sorts of whimsical and pic
turesque violations of architectural rules
and proportions, and are often quite desti-
tute of grace of form or outline.
"But on the other hand, they are SO
bewitchingly rural Partly, to be sure,
by their thatched roofs, and latticed win
dows, and low stone walls, all of which
seem to grow out Of the ground, and to be
rather a production of nature than of art,
(proving incontestibly how genuine is the
love of rural life in those who build and
inhabit such cottages but mainly through
the beautiful vines and shrubs that en-
bower them, which, by partly concealine
and partly adorning their walls, give them
that expressive beauty of rural and home
feeling which makes them SO captivating
to every passer-by
This dropery Of cottages-the vines
that climb, or trail, or creep over them,
and around their porchcs and windows
deserves, then, something more than {
passing glance from all who would under
stand the secret of making simple coun
try house beautiful at little COST For i
must be remembered, also, that while chisel
ling ornaments in stone, OF carving them II
wood, soon makes figure in ones ac
count book, few roots of those vines
which will soon grow into forms of grace
full and perennial beauty, may be had for |
trihe, or will be gladly given by some frie1C
whose garden overfows with its wealth O
shrubs and climbers.
g But, though all vines are beautiful il
their appropriate places, they are not al
fitted for the decoration of rural cottages
Some are only at home, when trailing oyel
rocky precipices, others when climbing
high trees, and others, again, are SO deli
cate as to need the support of slender trel
lises in the flower garden.
GA vine fitted by nature for the draper,
of rural cottages, should unite fine foliage
which holds its verdure for long time
and is not often the prey Of insects, witt
a good massy habit of growth If it
flowers are also beautiful or fragrant, 9