The English cottage style, or what we have denominated Rural Gothic, contains within itself all the most striking and peculiar elements of the beautiful and picturesque in its exterior, while it admits of the greatest possible variety of accommodation and convenience in internal arrangement. In its general composition, Rural Gothic really differs from the Tudor style more in that general simplicity which serves to distinguish a cottage or villa of moderate size from a mansion, than in any marked character of its own. The square-headed windows preserve the same form, and display the Gothic label and mullions, though the more expensive finish of decorative tracery is frequently omitted. Diagonal or latticed lights are also more commonly seen in the cottage style than in the mansion. The general form and arrangement of the building, though of course much reduced, is not unlike that of the latter edifice. The entrance porch is always preserved, and the bay-window jutting out from the best apartment, gives variety, and an agreeable expression of use and enjoyment, to almost every specimen of the old English cottage.
