The Russellville Democrat., 1892-03-10

tazns and the fragrance OK the
orange tree or the stately palace
windows Of Venice, from which q
Ginerva or Beatrice In the old
times have peered forth, in the soft,
pale moonlight, to catch glimpse
Of the gondolas Of their lovers.
From such d window Juliet stepped
out upon her balcony TO hold inn
passioned talk with her young
Romeo. From such a window, IN
the great medieval cities, DANES
and damsels have Witnessed many a
sumptuous procession Of knights
and men-at-arms, and burghers,
winding through hammered streets to
the blare Of trumpets, and in all
their pride Of pageantry. From
such window, for example, Ro-
mola may have regarded with visit
full eyes the long entrance OF
Charles VII. and his army into
Florence.
Then there is the delightful oriel
or bay window, which was so charm
ing feature of the old English
mansion. Partly screened off or
curtained from the hall or gallery
out of which it projected, and hung
with tapestry or silken stuffs, it
formed for whispering lovers the
pleasantest retreat imaginable, or
Phyllis sat there unobserved and
watched the road down which her
cavalier rode to the appointed tryst-
ing place. Do you remember the
library at Cheverel Manor--in ssMr.
Gilfil's Love Storyf" There "the
oriel window was over Swallowed
by great BEECH" and commanded
a view of the long terrace and
sunny gardens. This was in one
wing of the house. In the CORE
spending wing was another
oriel, where Catarina Sarti was sad
ly seated, when Capt. Wybrow
sought to explain himself, and, at
the same time, awakened Miss
Assher's jealous suspicious.
| OF course, in fiction, an antique
manor house is never without its
oriel. Your romancist could not
possibly dispense with SO happy a
continuance for secret meetings and
little conspiracies and delicious hid
ing places. And, in fact, the
Elizabethan or Jacobean architect
could no more do without it than
the novelist. Alas and alackaday !!
In these Victorian times it is repre-
scented only by that mean, common
place and purposelese substitute
the so-called "bay''--a scanty pro-
lection of two or three feet, filed
all around with square panes of
| glass, and as devoid of dignity as of
conveniency. What a contrast |
How it illustrates the distinction
between the social economy of the
two ages-the Eiizabethan
represented by the oriel !;
the Victorian, by the suburban
ebay" or "bow!n
Something must be said about the
cottage window, with its tiny panes
of glass arranged in lozenges, or
diamond-wise. One feels that it is,
somehow or other, in entire har-
mony with the matched roof and
deep caves, the rustic porch, and
the timbered walls. To insert a
rectangular, trinity -sashed piece of
pretentious plate-glass would, one
feels, convict one Of ignorance of
the fitness of things, the principles
of morality, and the problems of
life | have seen it done in
the transmutation of the cottage
proper into the cottage ornee but,
as in a translation of Heine into
English, the whole character of the
original is destroyed. You might
as well put your shepherd swain into
a dress-coat, or disguise the rustic
Celia in the fal-lals of fashion.
Miss Milford describes one of these
unholy developments: IA spruce
brick tenement, red, high, and mar
row, boasting, one above another,
three sash windows-the only sash
windows in the village-with rose
on one side and a clematis on the
other, tall and narrow like itself"
| No rght-minded man or woman
could live in such an anarchronism
no one who desires TO lead, as my
friend Mr.. Barry Pain would say,
ga richer, better life. The pre-
tentiousness is as intolerable as the
ugliness; but pretentiousness is al
ways ugly. No, let us stick to the
old rural window-the cottage win
dow with its tiny lozenge panes--
EMPOWERED among roses and honey
suckles, which, when the easement
is open, food the room with fra
GRANGE, and drop their petals ON the
deep recessed sill.
There are many other kinds Of
windows which might afford one
matter for comment if one had the
space as, for instance, the French
window, which opens out like a
door on your garden-lawn; or the
lighthouse window. against the
lighted panes of which the sea-birds
flap their wings in impotent anger,
or, it may be, in alarm; or the win
dow of the ancient monastic scrip
forum, through which the light fell
on the pale brow of the monastic
scribe as he adorned with gold and
colors the manuscript legend of
monk or martyr; or the sacred win
dows of the old village church, gray