In riding through the suburbs of our northern cities and larger towns, the man of sixty years or so cannot fail to notice the remarkable change that has taken place within a few years in rural ornamentation, particularly in the styles of architecture and the color of dwellings of moderate size of which only it is now proposed to make a few observations. When it is said remarkable, the term will bear emphasis, especially in relation to painting. When the tasteful and discriminating Downing wrote, forty years or so ago, cottages and villas of any pretensions exhibited a degree of applied judgment in their construction which is far less often seen now; and their colors, instead of being patched, striped and gaudy (in true toyshop style), were few, soft and refined, which lent their harmony in a measure to the surrounding objects of nature. Now many dwellings, at a little distance, seem a mere conglomeration of many-sided and various-sized blocks, some shingled and others clap boarded, with not a few common conveniences ignored, and hardly two windows alike in size or glass - presenting among other designs, the quarter-moon, the half-moon and the full-moon; and added to these sensational novelties is a tawdry style of painting which one would conjecture was a combination of that of the chequer-board, the barber's-pole and the American flag ! Another new and fashionable feature in painting is red roofs.

In subordinate buildings they may be tolerated; but where there are many in a village, from an eminence they unpleasantly remind one of a brick-yard. Still, though art may suffer, the painter is happy.

Why it is the tendency of the present age or generation to adopt this grotesque style of building and this fantastic style of coloring, may not be easy to decide. One reason probably is, we have no fixed standard of beauty or taste in these matters, as some may suppose we have; and in the nature of things it cannot be otherwise; for rural art rests upon a few rather vaguely-defined principles (a kind of unwritten law), which by some builders are unrecognized, or degenerate with them into mere whims or fancies. Beauty is pleasing to the sense through the eye as music is through the ear, and it is not a subject of much reasoning, but is rather emotional, especially when we rise from the lower to the higher types. Evidently every sensible person would prefer a chastely-painted gothic cottage to a whitewashed hovel, though the details of the former might create a difference of opinion.

Then, generally speaking, taste - which we may define as the power of discerning beauty and of creating it - is much an individual consideration, and we are apt to think that ours is right, as we generally do our watches, to use an old phrase. In this respect it may be not much unlike the personal conscience of which Butler the poet says:

"'Tis the dark lantern of the spirit, Which none see by but those who carry't "

Then again, rural taste may be much influenced, if not radically changed, by some crude examples or trifling incident connected with men of wealth, knowledge or power. Repton, the great English landscaper, laments that some English nobleman or dignitary, with little intention or forethought, may make a certain style in rural art popular that has little or no merit in it. With the same idea in literature, Pope, in his "Essay on Criticism," writes:

"Great wits sometimes may gloriously offend, And rise to faults true critics dare not mend".

Whence fashions spring, however, it is fre quently difficult to determine, though it is well known where they rage.

The rapid changes in the color of houses to-day one would be apt to charge to the painters; but some money and a love of ostentation with owners will often do strange things. Men of means undoubtedly sometimes build, not for the purpose of presenting anything beautiful, but for the sheer love of eccentricity, and a few others will commend their productions as the expression of an original and refined taste. Thus it is that any incongruous style in landscaping, building and painting, may get a start on the road to popularity, and a portion of the public are led to " admire whate'er the maddest can admire".

Changes must come, however, but we cannot say " woe be to them by whom they come," for some may be commendable. And it is a somewhat curious fact which most persons must frequently confess to - while it should "dull the edge " of our criticism - that in what we term false or bad taste and are accustomed daily to observe, we first endure, then palliate, then accept.

West Medford, Mass.

[We commend this criticism to the good taste of the reader. We are sorry to say the toy-shop and barber's-pole styles are as frequent about Philadelphia as they are about Boston. - Ed. G. M].