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said, easily persuaded me to fall in with his plan, and we were soon looking down on the Sheiling of old Launcelot Lee, the shepherd of Hetherhope.

It was hidden at the bottom of the high green hills on which we stood, by the shoulder of another that rose close behind it, and such was the undisturbed repose of the hour and the spot, that but for two or three cows lying near the door, and the smoke that curled lazily from the chimney, it might easily have been taken by an imaginative mind, for the shrine of the Genius of the Mountain Solitude.

"It's a stey brae this," said little Elshie Hymers, (for by this time I had learnt his name,) "Launsie maun hae something to do to win to the tap o't twice a day, I think. I wonder if he's in yet, or no. He's often unco late; but it's nae matter, yonder's Mabel milking the kye, and it's worth while gangin' a mile or twa out o' anes way onie day, were it but to look on her. Aye, Bess Preston, bonnie though she be, and rightly ca'd the Flower o' Beaumont, is no fit to haud the candle to her! There's Selby o' Philoger, Harry o' the Woodside, and young Preston, the Pethers' son o' Mow-haugh, fit to pu' ane anither's lugs out about her; but she's baith ower guid and ower bonnie for onie o' them, and what's far better, has sense eneuch to let them ken sae."

I had been prepared, from the impassioned manner in which little Elshie, in the fullness of his heart had spoken, of the fair Mabel as we descended the hill, to meet with something more than a pretty face; but the vision of female loveliness that now stood before me is as indescribable as the feeling then was overpowering.

The sleeves of her spare short gown were turned up above the elbow, and shewed an arm that might have served as a model for the chisel of an artist. Her clustering, hair, like the wing of the raven, was gathered up in ringlets from her brow, and heightened, by concealing, the hue of a cheek already too fair, whilst her unaffected simplicity added grace to a form whose symmetry I have never yet seen marrowed.

This was nearly forty years ago, and time has made sad work with me since then, but Mabel Lee stands as fair before me now, as that evening when she placed the porringer of rich milk and barley-cake on the table for me in the Mountain Sheiling. Up in yonder muirlands bare,

Where morning suns wi' mists forgather, Where breckens bield the hirsels lair,

And scaur and craig are fringed wi' heather.

Sae lown and cozie 'neath the height,

Just whaur the brae the path is speiling, Amang the hills, far out o' sight,

There sweetly stands the Mountain Sheiling:

Its wee kail-yard, wi' bourtree braw,
Its humble roof wi' heather happit,
And bank and brae around are a’
Wi' milk-white gowans thickly drappit.
A birk tree grows beside the well,
And close the burnie by is stealing;
The muircock fearless leaves the fell,
And cow'rs about the Mountain Sheiling.
Nae cauldrife warldly pride is there,
Nae upstart awkward kintra breeding,
But a's content wi' hamely fare,

And braw forby in hamespun cleeding.
There friendless want forgets a while
A heartless warld's unkindly dealing;
Thraws by his rags, and learns to smile
Amang them in the Mountain Sheiling.

But ah! its no' the welcome warm
That's met wi' there-nor flocks a feeding
Sae peacefu' round—thraws the charm,
It's no' the brae nor birken tree,
The warlock charm about the steading:

Nor yet the burnie by a-stealing,
But bonnie, modest, Mabel Lee,
That wons within the Mountain Sheiling.

Her wee bit waist, a matchless span,

Her tempting lips, than rubies rarer,
Her check the rose-bud newly blawn,

And fancy never formed a fairer.
Her step sae light, her e'en sae bright,

Her witching smile sae fu' o' feeling,
Love in her bosom out o' sight,

There nestles in the Mountain Sheiling.

I may be doomed beneath the line

To toil afar, or wander wearie
Where simmer suns but seldom shine,

And no' a friendly heart to cheer me;
And faithless fortune sair may storm;
But till my heart's bereft o' feeling,
I'll ne'er forget the angel form,

I met within the Mountain Sheiling.

The following was sent with a subscription, and gratitude prevents our selfishly keeping, not only the money, but the verses to ourselves :

"DEAR SIR,

The money I send for a paper of news,

Is a thing we can't get the moment we choose,
Therefore, you may think I am pretty clever,
And though it be late, better later than never!
From your most obedient,

ARCHITECTURE FOR THE MERIDIAN OF CANADA.

BY WILLIAM HAY, ARCHITECT, TORONTO.

ARCHITECTURE, when considered simply as the art of encrusting a certain space required for our domestic convenience, presents the subject to our minds greatly divested of the complexity with which our preconceived ideas of style and proportion are apt to invest it. What is called style is merely the peculiar manner in which the people of certain countries adorned that form of building which their habits, and the circumstances of the locality rendered most convenient.

In the design of a building the convenient arrangement of the internal space ought always to be the object of primary importance. A well ordered interior will generally present some fea ture to give architectural expression to the exterior without the aid of meretricious ornament. A high-pitched roof, for example, which in this climate is necessary for the purpose of throwing off the snow and to deflect the rays of the summer sun, is an object of pictorial beauty from its boldness of outline. This is exemplified in some of the better class of Canadian log huts, the simple beauty of which is rarely excelled by structures of greater pretension. In the annexed example selected from a very common class, the outline is refreshingly varied by the leaning roof covering the low part of the building, the beauty of which is greatly enhanced in one's estimation by the knowledge of its being founded on principles of utility. One can see at a glance that it is the na

LOG HUT.

tural shell of a certain definite amount of accom modation, to which a more advanced stage of development might probably add some degree of architectural embellishment. The projecting ends of the logs, at the angles of the structure, present legitimate objects for carving and other decorations, and the ends of the rafters, if made to shew boldly out at the eaves, would enhance the effect. The projecting ends of the beams supporting the upper deck of the Chinese Junk, lately exhibited in London, were carved to represent monster's heads, highly enriched with colour and gilding.

As there appears, however, a general disposition to abandon the simple log hut without turning its capabilities to account, it is needless, perhaps, to speculate on the practicability of its further developement. Unquestionably, however, the finest architecture has sprung from as small beginnings as the rudest Canadian shanty. The original type of Grecian Architecture was the wooden shed, (see illustration in January number,) every feature of which is reproduced in a highly enriched form in the more matured specimens of the style.

The caverns in which the early inhabitants of Egypt and Palestine found shelter, were converted by slow degrees, into those wonderful temples which they cut into the face of the mountain, the surpassing grandeur of which fills the beholder with admiration and awe.

Though we can scarcely hope to see a distinct style of pure achitecture formed on the primitive log hut, something may be done to lead the taste of the Province into a direction which may tend to give a local character to our Canadian edifices. At present, it is true, there seems to be no preference for any specific style, but a disposition, more generous, perhaps, than wise, to give every known or conceivable class of building a trial. It requires no great knowledge of architecture to perceive that the kind of structures adapted to the habits and climate of the Chinese, would be out of place in a Canadian clearing; or the Parthenon of Athens, with its dead wall, its cumbrous columns of prescribed proportions, and its narrow dark interior, would be ill suited to the purposes of a Christian church or any public building requiring light and internal convenience. To construct windows in a Grecian temple is virtually to destroy its beauty. The priests, who alone were permitted to enter the narrow cell within the external colonade, required no other light than was afforded by the fires of the sacrifice and the scanty rays of sunshine which filtered through the small aperture in the roof. Equally incongruous would it be to surround our slim civilian dwellings with works of a defensive or military character, such as battlements on the roofs, which not only would oppose no effectual resistance to a warlike enemy, but cause an inconvenient lodgement of snow. The perpetrators of such anomalies never think of the practical absurdities of their creations, but are carried away with the dreamy notion that they are legitimately following out this, or that particular style.

Utility and reality are the fundamental princi ples of Architecture, and constitute the only true standard of taste. Mere fancy and the obsolete rules of the pagan schools of Greece and Rome,

[graphic]

have been too long the blind guides of modern edificiaries. To what depths of extravagance would not fancy lead if unchecked by some sober principles of utility? What real beauty can there be in exhibiting a relic of ancient Art useless and unreal in its application? The Architecture of Greece is unquestionably beautiful as fitted to the purposes for which it was adapted, but it cannot be cited as a universal model. What use have we for huge columns, unless we have a corresponding weight to uphold? We have not the ponderous stone roofs which those columns were intended to support. Ordinary walls are sufficient to sustain our light covering of tin or shingle. The rearing of a pillar, therefore, proportioned after

the enormous columns of the Parthenon but con

structed of jointed deal, to support a flimsy casing of wood is an unworthy sham, and bootless as unworthy, seeing that almost invariably it reveals its

own hollowness.

There are many who assert that the several denominations of Columns, known as the Five Orders, are intrinsically beautiful apart from any association with the structures to which they belong. The fallacy of this is transparent. The -tall masts of a stately ship, or a tapering maypole, are both graceful objects, but it would be difficult -to prove them possessed of intrinsic beauty. Rig the masts of the ship on the deck of a scow, and erect the maypole in a Quaker's kitchen garden, and by change of association the objects become Judicrously offensive. On the same principle if the slender column of the Corinthian Order was made to support the ponderous superstructure assigned to its more athletic relative, the Doric, any ordinary observer might discern an apparent want of stability, which destroying congruity, would at the same time prove fatal to beauty.

Nothing offends the eye more than the seeming insecurity given to a building, by concealing its actual support. The fashionable shop front, with its wall of glass, supporting in appearance several stories of substantial masonry, creates in -the mind a tremulous feeling of anxiety, which the known fact of the secret agency of some wirey pillar can scarcely dispel.

peep within the walls of such a building. It invariably happens that the front absorbs the surplus funds, and leaves the interior bleak and bare. The poor showman who paints his giants, to outward view, twice their natural size, has a palpable object in his innocent fraud. He who exagge rates his homestead to the public eye, and failing at the same time, to conceal its barrenness, is guilty of deceit, without the palliation of temptation.

The ancient people, whose architecture we draw upon for our modern fronts, thought of adorning their "marble halls " before their "outer courts." The external aspect of their edifices was only a slight indication of the grandeur and magnificence within. The term front had no place in their vocabulary. Every face of their buildings was entitled to that appellation, in the the modern acceptation of the term. To assume, therefore, the finery of such structures, without the reality, is like decking the jackdaw in the plumage of the peacock.

The Old English style of building is admirably adapted to the climate of Canada. Its high pitched roof, and weathered projections are just what are needed for protection against the snow and rain. It would be difficult to recognize an Old English character in the so-called Gothic, Elizabethan, or Tudor fabrics, as they appear in the Province. Instead of chastening the morbid taste for gewgaw finery which the severity of the style, properly understood, might have done, it seems to have presented a wider stage for the riot of fancy. We find huge piles of stone poised on slender gables, as if for the purpose of hanging clothes to dry. Pinnacles of tiny dimensions occupy every available place of the front-in positions, moreover, where an avalanche of snow from the roofs must peril their existence. Trefoils, quatrefoils, cinquefoils, and every other foil which the popular illustrations of ancient or modern Gothic supply, unite with the symbolic triplet window of the altar, in admitting light to the kitchen and pantries within.

The extrinsic decoration of an edifice requires There is a positive disregard of modesty in the considerable judgment and skill, and should not eshop-front principle of crowding all the ornament be attempted with slender funds. When the sto one point of a building, for the purpose of means are ample, those parts only of the erection catching the eye. A fine front, which exhibits a should be selected for this purpose that display dazzling display of enrichment, perhaps genuine peculiar ingenuity in construction, and where it sculptures, loses much of its grandeur, when, on is desirable to direct attention. Ornament should turning the corner, it is discovered to be but a never be pinned on to a building. Every species thin veneering of architecture tacked on to an of decoration should form an essential element in unsightly brick block. Any expectations of inter- the composition of the fabric. Sham and trick mal grandeur would be miserably blighted by al of every description should be avoided. Each

member of the building ought to exhibit a reason for its form and use.

The character of Canadian architecture is ostensibly wooden. Few strangers expect to find here stone buildings. Those who may have formed their ideas of timber houses from the fine specimens existing in a few of the ancient towns of England and the north of Europe, must be disappointed with the representatives of the class in this province. The frame house, as commonly constructed in this country, is an object of as little beauty or art as an ordinary packingcase. The continuous lines of weather-boarding are fatiguingly offensive to the eye, and give the building a slim straw-plait look, suggestive of premature dilapidation. There are many instances, however, where some degree of attention is directed to the external decoration of these buildings. Jaunty porticos of deal encrusted in sand to imitate stone, and similar deceptions effected with considerable skill, appear with unblushing effrontery beside the genuine verandah of emerald green. On such fabrics the whole talent of the builder appears to expend itself in the hopeless attempt to reconcile the antagonistic elements of wood and stone. This is often carried to the ridiculous extent of placing carved pinnacles of real stone on the summits of wooden gables. The principles which regulate the application of those materials are widely different. Timber being a more plastic material than stone, may be used in a variety of ways, but the latter ought always to be employed as it is found in its natural state, which is generally in horizontal strata. The height of a block of stone should never exceed its breadth. To set up stone posts after the manner of wood, or to square wooden blocks like stone, is opposed to the nature of each, and, therefore, in direct violation of the principles of art which is founded in

Dature.

The ingenuity expended on many of these buildings, if guided by a pure taste would completely revolutionize the character of the wooden structures of the Province. Unfortunately however, the frame house exists only in Canada as a transitionary step from the simple log hut to the more pretending brick or stone edifice. Still its temporary existence might be rendered more agreeable by a slight measure of artistic skill. If the framing, instead of being concealed, was made to appear boldly to view, the panelling composed of weather boarding arranged in varibus positions, diagonally, vertically, or horizontally, or even of brick and plaster, and decorated in a style congenial to the nature of the construction, this class of buildings would be creditable to the country.

[merged small][graphic][merged small][merged small]

be found in some of the ancient houses of Rouen, Caen, Beauvais, and Strasburg. That such a degree of talent should have been lavished upon edifices of this description is not surprising, when it is considered that the most ordinary workmen of those days were really artists, and had the power of largely influencing the character of the buildings upon which they operated.

Our modern handicraftsmen are perhaps equally ingenious, but too frequently lack the artistic skill of their ancient brethren. This is not to be wondered at, when it is considered that there is so little in the Province that could serve to educate the public taste. This want too is beginning to be felt in England, and in some measure remedied by the formation of public museums of ancient models, for the special benefit of artizans. It is to be hoped that similar institutions will, ere long, be extended to Canada, where their influence would, no doubt, be felt and appreciated. Something of the kind is much wanted to correct the depraved taste which is constantly fed by the inventors of such abominations as "marbleized iron," and "artificial stone."

A ROYAL CONCERT.

In looking over an old English journal the other day, we found an amusing anecdote of a social concert in the family of George III., the party composing a quintette, under the direction of the monarch himself, who, whilst he "sawed away at the bass-viol," had no idea that it was possible to surpass him in the sounds he produced. The princess of Wales presided with grace at the

And from my fingers flow
The powers of life, and like a sign,

Steal thee from thine hour of woe:
And brood on thee, but may not blend
With thine.

Sleep on! sleep on! I love thee not;
But when I think that he
Who made and makes my lot
As full of flowers as thine of weeds,

Might have been lost like thee;
And that a hand which was not mine,
Might then have chased his agony
As I another's-my heart bleeds
For thine.

Sleep, sleep, and with the slumber of
The dead and the unborn:
Forget thy life and woe;

Forget that thou must wake for ever;
Forget the world's dull scorn;
Forget lost health, and the divine
Feelings that die in youth's brief morn;
And forget me, for I can never
Be thine.

(From Diogenes.)

MATIC SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES.

London, Jan. 10, 1853.

£ s. d.

harp, the duke of Newcastle played the first violin, the duke of Devonshire the tenor, and the facetious Philip Dormer (somewhat celebrated in his day) discoursed on the flute. The story proceeds as follows:-It so happened that the king had his own notions of time and tune, and as his majesty performed for his own amusement only, and possibly with the idea of gaining some instruction, he never scrupled to go over a passage two or three times, or to take any liberties, or to make any blunders that seemed good to him, without consulting, or in any way warning, the rest of the orchestra; it was therefore necessary for every member of it, while giving his eyes to his own music to give his ears to the king's, and as rapidly as possible to follow the direction and eccentricities of the royal performer. On the present occasion it became evident, however, that the concerto was going wrong, but the most acute of these select amateurs could not imagine where they were in error. The royal bass-viol was proceeding on its course as sedately as the march of an elephant; the violin looked in vain backwards and forwards for several bars to see where he could glide in, but could discover nothing resembling what he had heard; the tenor, knowing there was a difficult passage just passed over, and ACCOUNT OF EXPENSES INCURRED IN THE DIPLObeing well aware of the royal practice with regard to such, boldly went back and repeated it; the harpsichord, believing the time had been altered from fast to slow, slackened its pace; and the flute, entertaining a different opinion, went away at double speed. Such a strange medley was never heard before; nevertheless, the king was seen leaning forward with his eyes fixed on the music, working away with the royal elbow, evidently too absorbed in his own performance to heed the confusion that distracted the audience, and inade the other musicians feel extremely uncomfortable. It was not etiquette to notice the king's mistakes, or the youthful maids of honor would have laughed outright. The duke of Newcastle, a studious courtier, knew not what to do; he played a few notes here and there, whispered to the duke of Devonshire, nudged Philip Dormer, whose blowing had become desperate; he glanced at the look of the princess without obtaining any clue to the cause of the inextricable disorder, but still he plied on, knowing that matters could not be worse than they were. The king, at last, brings up the party "all standing," as the sailors say, by finding himself suddenly and unexpectedly at the end of his symphony. The princess, who alone dared to speak, discovered that the king had turned over two leaves at once; the monarch, with the utmost composure, turned back to the part which had not been played, and without uttering a word set to work, rasping away, followed by the other musicians, who were well up at the finish, and were in at the drath with tolerable exactitude.

A LADY TO HER PATIENT.

SLEEP on! sleep on! forget thy pain:
My hand is on thy brow,

My spirit on thy brain;
My pity on thy heart, poor friend!

Cab-hire from the American Embassy
to Downing Street, to call on Lord
John Russell..

Glass of ale to driver, on his promising
to drive fast.

Glass and sandwich, for self.....

(Note. I had breakfasted early,
having got up at seven to pre-
pare despatches.)

Two cigars (Cubas) for self and Lord
John, while talking over the Fishery
Question...

026 00% 0 0 4

0 0 3

Stood bitter ale to Lord John, not
wishing America to appear shabby. 0 0 4
(Asked Lord John to dinner at the
Café de l'Europe, believing I
could thus make better terms
with him.)

Two dinners, at 3s. 6d..
Two bottles of sherry
Six goes of brandy-and-water, at 6d.
per go.
Cigars.
Waiter

....

.......

Treated Lord John to the play (half
price to boxes; would have gone to
pit, but thought it advisable to
maintain the dignity of the Union..
Expenses various, in visiting cyder-
cellers, Evans's Coal-hole, &c......
(I cannot give the details of this
item,not having been very exact
in my arithmetic after that third
glass of whiskey.)
Soda-water next morning...
Paid a Police-Magistrate..
Omnibus home to Embassy

An early settlement will oblige.

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