That the entrance lodge should correspond in style with the mansion, is a maxim insisted upon by all writers on Rural Architecture. Where the latter is built in a mixed style, there is more latitude allowed in the choice of forms for the lodge, which may be considered more as a thing by itself. But where the dwelling is a strictly architectural composition, the lodge should correspond in style, and bear evidence of emanating from the same mind. A variation of the same style may be adopted with pleasing effect, as a lodge in the form of the old English cottage for a castellated mansion, or a Doric lodge for a Corinthian villa; but never two distinct styles on the same place (a Gothic gate-house and a Grecian residence) without producing in minds imbued with correct principles a feeling of incongruity. A certain correspondence in size is also agreeable; where the dwelling of the proprietor is simply an ornamental cottage, the lodge, if introduced, should be more simple and unostentatious; and even where the house is magnificent, the lodge should rather be below the general air of the residence than above it, that the stranger who enters at a showy and striking lodge may not be disappointed in the want of correspondence between it and the remaining portions of the demesne.
