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much may be said in favour of a well-built timber house, when material is so abundant and so rapidly and handily employed. The mode of building is to cover a frame with rough boards externally, and then with clap-boards, as they are called, which are boards planed by machinery, one end worked down to a feather edge, and laid so as to allow the thick edge to lap well over the other. Another mode is to use upright planks placed against each other, and a batten over the joints. The frame is usually filled in with soft or place bricks, half a brick thick, or sometimes with coarse plaster, and the whole is lathed and plastered internally in the usual way. These houses are very warm and durable, and being rapidly and economically erected will long be used in a country which requires houses for an increase of population so speedy as to forbid delay in housing them. All the applications of mechanical art in use here in the embellishment of buildings find favour in America. Minton’s and other makers’ encaustic tiles have an enormous sale, and artists find ready employment in painting walls and ceilings. Paper as a wall hanging is much less frequently employed than with us ; in fact, a few years ago there was so strong an objection to its use that owners of houses used to forbid its application by tenants, even at their own expense. A peculiar mode of plaster finish, called “hard finish,” is commonly adopted, and consists of rendering the last coat in fine plaster and marble dust carefully floated. This dries with a very hard and almost polished surface, and, whether left a pure white or as a ground for painting, gives a perfectly smooth and clean face. Enamel white is often used for all the woodwork, and the surface is by this means brought up to a beautiful gloss and hardness. For bedrooms the above modes of wall and woodwork finish are well adapted; the rooms are easily kept sweet and clean, and as the sleeping-room has fewer large pieces of furniture than with us, the dressing tables, wardrobes, and washing stands being always provided in the dressing closets invariably attached, a better ventila tion is obtained. The plan of the sleeping floor of a good New York house is as nearly perfect as possible; and if, to what the builder has provided, an English housekeeper would add some of the snug fittings which our own habits require, the result would be absolute comfort. It will, I hope, by these remarks be seen that the American town-house is almost sui generis; it is not French, nor is it English, although possessing features common to both countries; and if the newly-acquircd wealth of the citizens leads to some vulgarity of display, I do not know that we can afford to say much in the waj r of censure in face of examples we can call to mind at home. The rural homes of America show a decidedly English parentage, and although externally often partaking of the most whimsical characteristics of ancient or modern European styles, internally the convenient arrangements and the sedulous attention to domestic requirements prove how' much the traditional home teachings of the mother country have been respected. Twenty years or more ago the country houses, springing up with almost miraculous rapidity throughout the length and breadth of the United States, afforded a most interesting study; Americans could not wait to theorise, but had to act; and the avidity with which any sensible idea was caught up, and the enormous success of any practical archi tectural book that offered directions what to build, rather than how, were marked proofs of the earnestness of the people in their search after good models and good advice. The late Mr. Downing had led the way by his graceful and eminently useful books on country residences and country practical life, and the ready ingenuity of the people found ample scope in fitting every possible comfort, and contriving every possible aid to domestic labour, to as picturesque and varied an exterior as their own taste or the skill of the builder could supply. Architects were not so numerous then as since, and a very large proportion of country houses was necessarily erected without their aid, although, to the credit of the Americans, it must bo said that every effort was made to obtain professional advice, and when obtained it was most scrupulously and confidingly adhered to. A memory of many years spent in professional pursuits in America justifies this conclusion, that the smaller type of county house, such as would correspond with our villa here, is in all its internal arrangements superior to a house of similar class with us. The exterior has features made requisite by the climate, which, when honestly carried out, give an American country dwelling a character of its own, and thus afford a means of contrast to ours which artistic skill readily may take advantage of—I allude to the necessity for providing protection by means of wide verandahs—deeply projecting roofs, and tho like, from the great heat of summer. The verandah was frequently made even more than a cover to a walk or terrace, or, as w r ith us, perhaps only to a window; it was carried often beyond the building, so as to form a pavilion or room out of doors, and became of such common occurrence as to receive a distinguish ing name, “ Ombra”—a term adopted by American architects, and originating, I believe, with myself—to designate this well recognised feature. Thus American country houses are gene rally provided with open porches, verandahs, ombra, and the like, w’hich project from the main lines of the building, and afford an opportunity for effective treatment in the hands of an architect. In stating that the smaller rural home can fairly claim on the average a superiority to our own internal arrangements of similar houses, I do so with deference to the natural feeling of confidence in the skilful planning of our own buildings, and I have, perhaps, but a limited acquaintance with such buildings here. Taking, however, those such as any one may see in suburban neighbourhoods—houses worth from six hundred to two thousand pounds, and contrasting them with houses of corresponding class in America, I find that the following points of superiority force themselves on my attention :— The American house will almost universally have a principal and a secondary staircase; the rooms will be more lofty; the kitchens and domestic offices larger; bath rooms, lavatories, and dressing-rooms will be more generously provided; store closets, dressing closets, wardrobes, much larger and more airy; more liberal provision of speaking tubes, lifts, dumb waiters, and the like, for the convenience of domestic service, and invariably larger and better-arranged sleeping-rooms, bath room, and similar comforts for servants. In all these points the Americans are particular; and with out claiming artistic superiority in the design, I do believe the planning of houses, such as men can most comfortably live in, received at the time I speak of more attention than we can safely say was the case here. Perhaps a simple explanation may be found in the fact that at that time the trade of a speculative builder, excepting in the large cities, was almost unknown ; each house was built for an individual want, and received individual attention; every man was more or less capable of saying what he looked for in his house, and the Americans (as I have more than once remarked) being very ingenious in all labour-saving appliances, the adaptation of the interior to ordinary domestic [life received much attention. I do not think at that time the services of an architect were so much called in for houses of moderate size as were books con sulted that gave illustrated designs; plans were carefully conned over and altered by the intending home-founder, and with these to show what the arrangements of the floors were wished to be, a builder generally supplied the rest. Downing’s books were in great demand, and others of somewhat similar character (which it would not do for me more particularly to allude to) showed by their rapid sale how eagerly information on country-house building was sought. Had Professor Kerr’s “ Gentleman’s House ” been published at that time, it would have found in the United States (unless unhappily republished by some 'cute speculator in American form) a circulation that would have delighted its author. One peculiarity occurs to me in the plan of nearly all these houses of moderate size;—the dining room was more nearly connected with the kitchen than with us,—always a serving room between, but never separated by a staircase or passage. The hot cakes, so important a part of an American breakfast or tea, were too carefully thought about to allow them to be chilled by passage across a hall or vestibule ! Looking over a number of plans now before me I find this feature always present, and notice that in the serving room or pantry was generally a hot closet, turning on a pivot, and allowing the dishes to be passed through from the kitchen without any odours of cooking finding their way into the room. I have a very grateful recollection of the comforts of these contrivances, and of the excellencies of an American country breakfast and tea—which latter was really a late dinner, without our own