THE COTTAGE. Having considered the situation and natural character of the country, I must now consider the artificial character by which Endsleigh is made habitable: for, without the aid of art, the most romantic or picturesque scenery in nature is a desert, and only fitted to the habitation of wild beasts. The first question that obviously occurred was, what style of house will best accord with this landscape? Here the good taste of the noble proprietor of Endsleigh was directed by what he saw. An irregular farm-house, little better than a cottage, backed by a hill and beautiful group of trees, presented an object so picturesque, that it was impossible to wish it removed and re-placed by any other style of building that architecture has hitherto invented, viz. a castle, or an abbey, or a palace, not one of which could have been so convenient and so applicable to the scenery as this cottage, or, rather, group of rural buildings. With respect to the manner in which the design has been executed, I shall only say, it is such as will do credit to the name of Wyatt, when time shall have harmonized the raw tints of new materials. The design and outline are so truly picturesque, that I must regret my inability to do them justice [see fig. 250].
