With respect to the colour of sashes and window-frames, I think they may be thus determined with propriety, first observing that, from the inside of the room, the landscape looks better through bars of a dark colour; but on the outside, in small cottages, they may be green, because it is a degree of ornament not incompatible with the circumstances of the persons supposed to inhabit them, and even in such small houses as may be deemed cottages, the same colour may be proper; but in proportion as it approaches to a mansion, it should not derive its decoration from so insignificant an expedient as colour, and, therefore, to a gentleman's house the outside of the sashes should be white, whether they be of mahogany, of oak, or of deal, because, externally, the glass is fastened by a substance which must be painted, and the modern sash-frames are so light, that, unless we see the bars, the houses appear at a distance unfinished, and as having no windows. In palaces, or houses of the highest description, the sash-frames should be gilt, as at HOLKHAM, WENTWORTH, &c. The effect of gold in such situations can hardly be imagined by those who have never observed it; and even at THORESBY, where the house is of red brick, the gilding of the sashes has wonderfully improved its importance.
